Restaurants & Taverns

Gold Coast Tavern

Gold Coast Tavern was a bar at 1023 East 105th Street. Owned by Monie Wright and managed by Bob Ketner, the bar operated at least between 1944 and 1953 with a significant remodeling occurring in 1951. Wright, who arrived in Cleveland in 1928, had previously worked at Cedar Gardens starting in about 1940 and also managed bars at four other Green Book–listed venues: the Majestic Hotel, the Blue Grass Club, Mason’s Farm, and Carnegie Hotel. She also managed the bar for a time at the Hanna Grill downtown (across Prospect Avenue from the Hanna Building Annex). In 1955 she got married and moved to Detroit.

The Gold Coast Tavern was an early (and probably the first) business to use the nickname that African Americans gave to the East 105th Street corridor. The exact origin of the name is not clear, but by the postwar years as Glenville became an increasingly important Black neighborhood it was common to refer to the street (and sometimes to Glenville more broadly) as the Gold Coast, likely because it was viewed as a step up in social and economic stature.

Additional information coming soon.

Green Book Details

Gold Coast Tavern appears as “Gold Coast” at E. 105th St. in Cleveland in the 1946 Green Book, where it is erroneously listed under the category Restaurants.

Resources

  • Display Ad 11 — No Title. Call and Post. December 2, 1944.
  • Display Ad 23 — No Title. Call and Post. February 10, 1951.
  • “Monie Wright Moves to Detroit to Wed.” Call and Post. July 9, 1955.
  • “Plush Nite Club Hit by $2,700 Robbery.” Call and Post. July 26, 1952.
1023 E 105th St, Cleveland, OH

Tell us about Gold Coast Tavern

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