Our History
A Tremont landmark, more than a century in the making.
The Lemko Hall Story
Dating to around 1910 at the corner of West 11th and Literary, Lemko Hall takes its name from the Lemkos — a Carpatho-Rusyn people who, by the 1930s, made Cleveland home to the largest Lemko community in the United States. For decades the hall was their gathering place for concerts, dances, and weddings.
In 1978, its ballroom became the wedding-reception hall in The Deer Hunter, filmed here with more than 200 neighbors as extras. Converted to condominiums in 1987, Lemko Hall endures as a Tremont landmark — and, with the Art Station, a canvas for its next chapter.
Through the Decades
Originally serving as a gathering place for the Lemko community, the hall hosted concerts, dances, weddings, and social banquets.
The building evolved with the neighborhood, serving as the Lemko Club and Tavern during Tremont's transitional years.
The distinctive brick flatiron form and its signature copper dome have made Lemko Hall a neighborhood landmark for over a century.
A Brief History of Tremont
Tremont is one of Cleveland's oldest neighborhoods, perched on the bluffs just across the Cuyahoga from downtown. Its name changed with the times — University Heights, then Lincoln Heights, and finally Tremont — but the street grid still traces the short-lived Cleveland University of 1851.
During the Civil War the high ground became Camp Cleveland, where some 15,000 Union troops trained between 1862 and 1865. Industry followed: iron and steel mills rose in the valley below, and waves of immigrants — Germans, Greeks, Poles, Ukrainians, Carpatho-Rusyns and Lemkos, Syrian and Lebanese families — filled the streets and built the churches whose domes and spires gave Tremont its signature skyline. After decades of mid-century decline, artists and restaurateurs sparked a revival; today Tremont is one of Cleveland's most walkable, creative neighborhoods.
Streets Named for a Lost University
When Cleveland University opened in 1851, the district was called University Heights. The school didn't last a decade, but its campus lives on in the street grid — Professor, Literary, College, and University. Lemko Hall stands right on Literary.
A Skyline of Domes and Spires
So many congregations settled here that Tremont became known as a neighborhood of churches. The most storied is St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral (1913), whose thirteen domes represent Christ and the twelve Apostles.
Film in Tremont
Tremont has a quiet film résumé. St. Theodosius and Lemko Hall's ballroom both appear in The Deer Hunter (1978) — the church and the reception. A few blocks up the same street, the house from A Christmas Story (1983) sits at 3159 West 11th.