Brooklyn Heights: The Greenhouse Village

Brooklyn Heights incorporated in February of nineteen oh three, carved out of parts of Brooklyn and Independence Townships southeast of Cleveland. The reason was familiar: taxpayers in School District Four wanted a school district of their own.

So they went their own way. Martin Ruetenik became the first mayor, and he and village clerk Hamilton Richardson almost immediately helped organize the Cleveland Growers Marketing Co. The bet paid off. Brooklyn Heights became one of the leading vegetable greenhouse communities in the entire country, with more than one hundred acres of growing space under glass. A small suburb born from a tax dispute ended up wearing its horticultural identity with genuine pride.