History

The original settlement known as Nine Mile Creek was established in 1812 when David Carter started a tannery and gristmill near Euclid Avenue, where Nine Mile Creek crossed.

In 1850, Judge Jacob Collamer was appointed postmaster of the district by President Zachary Taylor. The office took his name as the Collamer Post Office. It was inconvenient to call the community Euclid, being so near the township of the same name, so the district became unofficially identified as Collamer.

Collamer was just a section of the Township of East Cleveland that stretched from Lakeview on the west and Ivanhoe on the east. Bisected by Euclid Ave., Noble, Taylor, and Lee roads to the south, and Doan, Shaw, and Collamer to the north intersected Collamer..

Some of the earliest churches in the Western Reserve were established in Collamer. The area was often referred to as Saints' Row because of the large number of ministers who resided there.

With a population of 1,000 inhabitants, Collamer showed in addition to churches, one academy, four stores, one post office, one doctor, two meat markets, one cider mill, on shoe shop, and one tannery.

By 1860, streetcar lines operated between Cleveland and Collamer via St. Clair Ave. The central axis of the village was Collamer Street (East 152nd Street).

The Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad was chartered on March 7, 1850, to build from Cleveland west to Toledo finally forming the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad in 1853 to open a continuous line from Buffalo to Chicago in 1853. Citizens of Cleveland quickly observed the beauty of the locations at the foot of the ridge, and purchases were made, especially around Collamer.

The building of repair shops and roundhouses began in 1873 and finished in 1875. In the latter year, a post office was also established.