Run 52: Run 52: North Fairmount

Saturday morning started with a storm and then fog. Later the day would feel, as Donnie aptly put it, “swampy.”

North Fairmount is sandwiched between East Westwood and South Fairmount. Our route started near the cool zigzag stairs on Beekman:

Nearby are these old church buildings, with interesting windows and roof lines:

The second photo makes me think of a rural mountain town. Parts of North Fairmount do elicit the feeling of being in the mountains—valleys between steep hills and narrow, wooded streets.

We found this fairy tale cottage on Seegar Avenue:

As usual, the woods made Donnie start dreaming about buying a plot of land and building a house at the end of a long driveway, Northern Michigan-style. As I’m typing this post, he is still badgering me about this. He even has a name picked out: “Don’s Point.”

At the heart of North Fairmount is St. Leo’s Church, which takes up nearly an entire triangle-shaped block. The church is known for having an international mission and for playing an important role in refugee resettlement.

Another neighborhood asset is St. Clair Heights Park on Iroquois Street. On the morning of our run, the park was packed with peewee football players and their football moms and dads.

An in depth Enquirer feature on North and South Fairmount describes the housing stock as “having been built on blue collar salaries.” The 52 Neighborhoods One Voice column mentions the similarities between the housing in North Fairmount and that of Columbia Tusculum:

The best part of our visit to North Fairmount was running into a Queen City Bike event at the East End Community Heritage School. The Community Heritage School is a charter school occupying space in the former North Fairmount Elementary School on Baltimore. We were excited to meet North Fairmount Community Council’s energetic president, Pamela Adams, who organized the event to promote bike safety and healthy lifestyles.