From Brooklyn Centre Wiki

Brooklyn Centre had, at one time, a deep ravine that cut through the land in an east/west orientation from approximately West 25th St. between Forestdale Avenue and Denison Avenue, down to Jennings Avenue.

The sides of this ravine were quite steep. Karl Sturtevant, son of Mary Stanton Fish who appears in the photo at the right, says that he would frequently go down into the ravine but the only way down was to slide on his butt. The depth of the ravine is unknown but an estimate of 30 feet can be made from the text that appeared under a photo of a bridge in Riverside Cemetery that gives it's height at 27'. Mr. Sturtevant also provided some other details about the ravine such as the fact that at one time it had been surrounded by fencing, presumably to either prevent access or to prevent accidents as it was a huge attraction for the children in the area.

The ravine was spring fed -- the spring being located on the hill behind Mr. Sturtevant's house (this house having once been occupied by his grandfather, John Stanton Fish, the son of the original settler Ebenezer Fish.)

At the bottom, in dry weather, there would only be a small slow moving stream. In wet weather, however, a pond would form of sufficient depth that a horse-drawn wagon (minus the horse, of course) that had been pushed in there from the edge by some naughty boys dissappeared from view. The pond also provided a source of ice for one of the local ice houses. One hopes they didn't use it for cooling their drinks!

In 1939, George Davis' article^[1] about the Brooklyn Centre area in the Cleveland Press mentions an Opera House:

Quoted Material

NOTES

1. ↑ Davis, George, Beautiful Brooklyn, February 28, 1939

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