Our Location
St. Thomas Church is located in the City of Berea, a 6.5 square mile area, with a population of 19,000 and a median income of approximately $42,000. The city is 167 years old and traces its roots to one of the oldest settlements in the area. Local legend has it that the city was named by a flip of a coin in 1836 by John Baldwin, the sandstone miner who founded the Baldwin Institute, which eventually become Baldwin-Wallace College. The townspeople of 1836 wanted a biblical name for the city, so the coin flip determined that it would be “Berea” rather than “Tabor.”
In the 1820s, settlers discovered that the area that would become Berea was home to sandstone that was free from flaws or cracks. Baldwin developed a way to cut this sandstone into round grindstones to sharpen axes and knives. By the 1850s, the area was the capital of the grindstone business, and, at one time, supplied 80% of the world’s grindstones. From the middle of the 19th century through the middle of the 20th century, Berea sandstone was the standard in construction of large government buildings, bridges, and statues. By the 1930s, the sandstone industry was waning as newer technologies began creating different, more durable materials. The last Berea sandstone quarry was closed in 1946.
While the sandstone industry no longer exists, the quaint and unique flavor of Berea still remains. In addition to Baldwin-Wallace, a private liberal arts school affiliated with the Methodist Church, the city is also home to the Cleveland Browns and the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds. It has a distinct downtown area, including a historical Triangle, and it is situated conveniently near Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Berea is about a 20-minute drive from Cleveland and about 45 minutes from Akron. The Cleveland Metroparks, also known as the “the Emerald Necklace,” winds through Berea, providing immediate access to walking, biking, and horse paths in a peaceful, wooded setting.
Baldwin-Wallace, founded in 1845, sits on 100 tree-filled acres within the city of Berea and has about 3,000 full-time undergraduate students. The college also has about 1,500 night and weekend students, served by more than 600 employees. Other significant businesses in Berea are the Berea Children’s Home, the Tuthilll Corporation, and Noshok. Berea’s housing stock runs from smaller, post World War II housing up to $1 million homes. A recently annexed portion of the city will result in the construction of more than 600 new homes. The average home price is $185,000. Students in Berea are served by The Berea City School District, the third largest district in Cuyahoga County. The district also includes the neighboring cities of Brook Park and Middleburg Heights, with approximately 7,700 students. The district has received many local, state and national awards, including being named in the Top 100 in music education in the nation – the only school district in Ohio to earn that distinction for four years in a row.
Berea is part of the seven-county Greater Cleveland metropolitan area. The City of Cleveland is well known for its arts and cultural opportunities, from the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center. The superbly renovated Playhouse Square complex offers a variety of live theater performances, as do the Cleveland Playhouse, the Cleveland Opera, the Great Lakes Theater Festival, and a host of local community theaters. There are a number of colleges within the Greater Cleveland area, including Case Western Reserve University, John Carroll, Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), The University of Akron, Kent State University and Oberlin College. The Cleveland Indians, Browns, Cavaliers, and Crunch provide major league sports entertainment in baseball, football, basketball and soccer. The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital Systems are among the top hospitals in the country.
St. Thomas, Berea, is part of the Diocese of Ohio (www.dohio.org), established in 1817 and serving 105 parishes in northern Ohio. Trinity Cathedral, in downtown Cleveland, is the diocesan seat. The current Bishop is The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., Eleventh Bishop of Ohio, and his Assistant Bishops, the Rt. Rev. David C. Bowman and the Rt. Rev. Arthur B. Williams, Jr. The nearest Episcopal parishes to St. Thomas are in Parma, Westlake and Brunswick.