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Woodmere Village became incorporated on November 18, 1944 and will celebrate our 75th anniversary in 2019.
Woodmere Village has a storied past. We overcame adversity, and we flourished. Our town grew from humble beginnings and now our businesses bustle.
Before WWII, Woodmere Village was an unincorporated wooded area a few miles east of Cleveland. Unregulated building regulations gave the area a reputation as a “poor man’s neighborhood” or a “Shanty Town.” Large estates, horse farms, and expensive subdivisions carefully skirted the dirt roads of Woodmere.
With just 266 residents in the 1940’s, we have now developed into a thriving business community, where over 850 residents now call home.
Before slavery ended, the area that would become Woodmere was a stop on the underground railroad. By 1944, as many as fourteen Black families were living in Woodmere and a number of others were building homes.
These early pioneering Black families faced adversity, unjust treatment, threats, and violence, with some residents’ homes being burnt to the ground. But it was their unwavering strength, courage and dignity that sustained and enabled them to forge on and eventually develop a tight-knit community, where neighbors know and support one another. Today Woodmere celebrates its diverse and close-knit neighborhood.
In 1965, Samuel S. Perry was elected Mayor of Woodmere, not only making him the city’s first Black Mayor, but one of the first in the entire country.
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