Originally founded as Trinity Church in Old Brooklyn in 1816, Trinity remained a west side congregation until 1826, when church leaders decided to relocate to the east side of the Cuyahoga River near Public Square. At that time a number of families who attended Trinity chose not to follow the church eastward and instead held services informally before establishing their own church, St. John's Episcopal Church, in 1834. Founding members of St. John's included Ohio City pioneers Josiah Barber and George Lord Chapman, along with prominent architect Hezekiah Eldredge, who was responsible for overseeing the construction of the new church building. Under Eldredge's direction, construction commenced on July 2, 1836, with Bishop Charles McIlvaine laying the cornerstone on Church Avenue near West 26th Street.

It has been widely reported that St. John's served as a stop—it was dubbed "Station Hope"— on the Underground Railroad in the years leading up to the Civil War. According to these reports, slaves hid in the church's bell tower and watched for signals from the lake telling them that it was safe to embark on the final leg of their journey towards freedom. Leaving the church, runaways would venture to the lakeshore where they boarded steamships bound for Canada. However, some doubt is cast on these claims since they are not definitively documented and because on the national level the Episcopal Church was one of the few Protestant denominations that did not split between North and South over the issue of slavery. If the church did not take an abolitionist stance, it begs the question of who aided the fugitives. Perhaps it was founding member and longtime vestryman George Lord Chapman, who was friends with outspoken abolitionist John A. Foote along with fellow church founder and "colonizationist" Josiah Barber. Or it may have been Chapman's wife Eliza. Equally involved in the church, she was described as a woman whose "whole life had been one of active beneficence. For the poor, the sick, and needy, the orphan, the friendless her heart poured out its sympathy and love in words and works which made her beloved as falls to the lot of but few." While the church's official position regarding slavery may have been one of indifference, it does not seem likely that individuals such as the Chapmans would have been able to ignore moral issues of secular nature like slavery, a notion supported by the many reports of St. John's Underground Railroad involvement.

The Civil War years at St. John's were highlighted most notably by the marriage of prominent Cleveland politician Marcus Hanna to Charlotte Rhodes in 1864. Soon after the close of the Civil War, however, disaster struck St. John's, with fire consuming much of the church's wooden interior. Initially believed to be caused by the heater located in the basement, further investigation determined that an act of arson caused the blaze. The tragedy proved to be a blessing in many ways though, as it provided an opportunity to expand the church to accommodate an ever-increasing number of parishioners.

In 1871 longtime minister Lewis Burton resigned as rector of St. John's to lead the two missions that St. John's had spawned, All Saints and St. Mark's. Burton had held the position for twenty-four years prior to his departure, and the following year Marcus Hanna became a vestryman of the church, serving for thirty-one years until 1903, a span which included the appearance of President William McKinley as his guest on at least one occasion for services. Through the Great Depression and World War II, St. John's remained a pillar on the Near West Side, and then in 1953 a tornado devastated the church, causing significant damage to the east wall and roof. Around this time the Inner City Protestant Parish emerged as an interdenominational church, sharing the space in St. John's for a number of years before eventually being absorbed by the Episcopal congregation.

By the 1980s, the nearly 150-year-old building was showing signs of deterioration, and a $100,000 renovation project was required in order to keep it operational. At present however, St. John's is closed, with services last taking place there in December 2007. As the oldest and arguably most structurally unique religious edifice in the city of Cleveland, St. John's is not only a sight to behold but remains a place whose connection to the Underground Railroad, however ill-defined, continues to excite great public interest.

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Arriving in 1807, Cleveland pioneer Andrew Cozad settled in the area east of the city that is known today as University Circle, later establishing what proved to be a successful commercial brick-making business. He and his wife Sally had five children with one of their four sons, Justus, being born to them in 1833. As a young boy Justus was, by his own later admission, a difficult child but quickly realized his life's ambition of becoming a civil engineer and soon committed fully to educating himself. Before long he was employed in a railroading career earning a substantial salary for that time of $60 a month. Justus passed the majority of these earnings on to his father, who invested them into the construction of a house for Justus which he personally completed in 1852.

This house is reputed to have been involved with the Underground Railroad, and if this is in fact the case Justus Cozad could not have been a "conductor," having moved to Nebraska the year after its completion to pursue work in land surveying and not returning permanently to Cleveland until 1862. During those years Justus's brother-in-law's father Andrew Duty resided in the home and while there is no definitive evidence linking him to the aiding of fugitive slaves, certain clues suggest that he likely did. Duty contributed generously to and served as trustee of the Euclid Avenue Congregational Church throughout his life. Congregational churches were known to be largely abolitionist, and a number of Euclid Avenue's members had documented Underground Railroad involvement. Among them were immediate neighbors, the Fords, who owned land all along Euclid Avenue between Doan's Corners and Dugway Brook. Thus, while it may be impossible to confirm that Andrew Duty operated Justus Cozad's house as an Underground Railroad stop, at the very least it can be said that a strong connection exists between the house and the time, place, and people involved in those activities.

When Justus finally returned to Cleveland it was only a year before he moved again, this time to Indianapolis for work. He returned in 1871, completing the Italianate addition to the front of the house the following year. He also entered into the title abstract business but was eventually forced to sell many of his business interests along with his home after his brother Marcus defaulted on a substantial loan that he had extended to him. The house was soon purchased by Justus's daughter Olive and her husband Theodore Bates, however, and Justus moved into a home across East 115th  Street from them. It was here that he lived until his death in 1910, and nine years later both Olive and Theodore also passed away.

After the passing of Olive and Theodore the house was divided into apartments and managed by Bates & Springer Inc., catering to the thriving academic and medical communities of the area for the next sixty-five years. Gaining historic landmark status in 1974, the residence continued to operate as a rooming house until it was purchased by University Hospitals in 1985. After its acquisition by UH, the house sat vacant and neglected for the better part of twenty years before University Hospitals decided to donate the property to University Circle Inc. (UCI) in 2006. Thereafter, the organization Restore Cleveland Hope worked with UCI to transform the Cozad-Bates House into a teaching center that celebrates Cleveland's Underground Railroad history.

Today the house seems rather out of place amongst the towering medical buildings, large parking structures, and high-rise apartment buildings that surround it. However, if you look at the historical circumstances that surround the house it becomes clear why it is located and still standing in the heart of Cleveland's cultural center.

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This historic tavern was far more than a resting place for weary travelers. It held the title as the first tavern in Ohio. Additionally, it was the heart of antebellum and Civil War era merriment and suspicion. Originally built as two separate log cabins in 1798 long before Ohio was admitted as a state, it served as an inn first known as the Webster House, then New England House, before becoming known simply as the "Old Tavern." It is now named after the community wherein it resides, Unionville, though many locals know it as the "Old Tavern."

Strategically located along the County Line Road and the Cleveland-Buffalo Road, today's Route 84, Unionville Tavern benefited from frequent traffic. By 1818, as the Cleveland-Buffalo Road became a major thoroughfare and the tavern was designated as a stagecoach and mailstop on the Warren-Cleveland mail route, the log cabins were expanded into the two-story saltbox style inn. A covered carriage entrance and ballroom were added as well. The tavern enjoyed a steady stream of patrons that included travelers, revelers, and runaway slaves. Many travelers would stop here to rest as they made their way down the Cleveland-Buffalo Road or County Line Road in their covered wagons.

By the mid-nineteenth century, Unionville Tavern was an active Underground Railroad Station. While lavish dances dominated the scene in the second floor parlor, the first floor was a hideout for fugitive slaves on their way to freedom. After leaving the safe house at the tavern, the slaves would be taken to the Ellensburgh docks to cross Lake Erie into Canada. It was rumored that a series of tunnels used by escaped slaves led from the tavern's basement under the Cleveland-Buffalo Road to the local Unionville cemetery. In August of 1843, the tavern witnessed a spectacle, infamously known as the "County Line Road Incident." When Lewis and Milton Clarke, two fugitive slave brothers, spoke at an antislavery rally, Milton was captured and beaten. Local abolitionists and anti-slavery proponents fought successfully to free him. They then vowed that no runaway slave would ever be captured and returned to captivity in Lake County. Years later, when Harriet Beecher Stowe lodged at the Unionville Tavern on her way to Buffalo, she heard the Clarke brothers' story of the "County Line Road Incident." Many believe that the character George Harris in her famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was based on Milton Clarke.

Unionville Tavern remained a functioning inn until the early-twentieth century. After a decade-long close, the tavern was restored and reopened in 1926. Sixty years later a pub was added, and the tavern functioned primarily as a restaurant and bar. Another landmark occurred in 1973 when the tavern was included in the National Register of Historic Places. Yet by 2003, the tavern was auctioned for $280,000, and in 2006 Unionville Tavern closed to the public. In 2011 after years of disrepair, the Madison Historical Society began a "Save the Tavern Campaign" to protect and preserve the historic building. The campaign evolved into the Unionville Tavern Preservation Society, which now cares for the former inn and keeps its reputation alive. The tavern is no longer open to the public, but those interested can still see the building and its historical markers.

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In March 1850, just months months before passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, thirty members of Cleveland's Old Stone Church left their congregation to form what would later become Plymouth Church. The debate over slavery -- illegal in Ohio, but still a major source of conflict -- led to this split. It was not that Pastor Samuel Aiken of Old Stone Church was pro-slavery, but his moderate anti-slavery views proved to be intolerable to the church's abolitionist parishioners. In one instance, Aiken was said to have hidden behind a pillar as a posse captured a fugitive slave taking sanctuary in his church. Several of Plymouth's founders were believed to be involved in Cleveland's stations on the Underground Railroad.

The new church became known as Plymouth in 1852 at the suggestion of nationally-known abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, whose New York City church had the same name. An early statement of the church's principles declared slavery "a sin against God and a crime against man" and "utterly opposed to the law of God." It also opposed "fellowship" with "slave-holders, the abettors of slavery or slave-holding churches." A time capsule buried in 1852 in the cornerstone of Plymouth's new church at Euclid Avenue and East 9th Street contained not only common items such as a Bible and the city directory, but also a copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and the minutes of the Christian Anti-Slavery Convention's 1851 meetings.

The Van Sweringen Company donated land in Shaker Heights to Plymouth Church in 1916. The church first worshipped at its current site in a small chapel carted over from Lakewood. While a new church was being built, Plymouth held services in the auditorium of the new Shaker Heights High School. The present church at 14114 Drexmore Road opened in 1923. Architect Charles Schneider, who also designed Shaker City Hall and the city's Fernway, Ludlow, Lomond, and Malvern Schools, designed a brick Georgian Colonial church with an 800-seat sanctuary. Its brick exterior, high steeple, and classical facade are meant to resemble the architecture of old New England, while its park-like setting conforms to both the heritage of the New England village green and Shaker Heights's "garden suburb" layout. The building officially became a Shaker Heights Landmark on November 22, 1976.

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