It's been 90 years since Jesse Owens brought home four gold medals from the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Owens spent much of his life, and early athletic career, on Cleveland's east side, but efforts are still underway to preserve his family home.
Owens moved with his family to Cleveland when he was nine. While they lived in several houses in the city, Owens, his wife and daughter lived in a duplex located at 2178 E. 100th St. for the two years leading up to the 1936 Olympic games.
Margaret Lann, director of preservation services and publication at the Cleveland Restoration Society, says the property represents more than Owens' athletic success
"It just shows that an average person can inspire others and achieve great things," she said "But it also can tell us the story of what an interesting person he was as a husband and a father and a brother and a son."
His victories in then Nazi-occupied Germany challenged the Nazi ideology claiming Aryan superiority, said former Cuyahoga Community College Associate Professor of Media and Journalism John Kerezy. But Owens continued to face the harsh realities of a segregated American society upon returning home.
"When he was on the road, sometimes he was forced to stay at a YMCA instead of in a hotel with his white teammates," Kerezy said. "There were restaurants that they would stop at and the restaurant might refuse to serve them all together or give them a to-go, doggy bag type thing at the back door. He told stories of discrimination over and over and again, and stories like that happened into his 1940s and even into somewhat of his 1950s."
The home is currently owned and maintained by John Cummings. He purchased the home as an investment property in 1996 before knowing its history. Now, he hopes to preserve and repurpose it to capture both Owens' legacy and the Fairfax neighborhood's history.
"A museum of sorts, maybe a combination of a bed and breakfast so it can be a self-supporting entity generating its own income," Cummings said. "Hopefully it could be a tourist attraction
The city of Cleveland designated the property as a historic landmark in 2024, and Cummings unveiled a new plaque marking the designation on the home at a press conference Thursday.
"Jesse Owens' story is the Cleveland story. It's a story of a young person who faced challenges, discovered his gift and went on to inspire the world through his talent, his courage and character," Cleveland Business Development Administrator Zack Reed said. "This home is more than a historic structure. It is a reminder that greatness can begin anywhere that — that our neighborhoods are filled with stories of determination, achievement and hope."
Even so, Cleveland Restoration Society is working to raise at least $12 thousand by 2027 for an Ohio Historical Marker, Lann said.
"The large bronze markers you see throughout the state," Lann said. "That can accommodate up to 250 words of text that are easily seen from the street and from the sidewalk, so it really would give the chance to tell more of the story. "
In the meantime, Cummings said he will continue working with the city, the restoration society and other partners to gain more recognition for Jesse Owens' former home in the years to come.
