Birdtown Historic District

Birdtown is a compact workers' neighborhood in the southeastern corner of Lakewood, Ohio, about four miles from downtown Cleveland. In 1892 the National Carbon Company bought farmland near its new factory, and its subsidiary, the Pleasant Hill Land Company, divided it into 424 lots on streets named for birds. Lots were sold to workers and others, with only a limited number of company-built houses. The neighborhood drew a mostly Eastern European workforce and kept a strong ethnic identity. Houses sit close together on narrow lots with shallow setbacks, and churches, a school and shops are mixed in among them. Many homes are brick homestead or temple-house types, often with polychromatic brickwork that is rare elsewhere in Lakewood. Folk Victorian, Queen Anne and a few bungalow examples also appear. Of 561 buildings, 370 contribute to the district's character. Birdtown is considered significant as an example of company-influenced industrial housing that avoided the tight control of towns like Pullman.