Stella Maris Expanding Services to Tremont, Creating All-Gender Inpatient Facility

Stella Maris on Cleveland’s West side calls itself the city’s oldest addiction recovery facility, and now it’s expanding its services in Tremont. 

Within the next 12 to 18 months, Stella Maris plans to convert the former St. John Cantius convent at 2270 Professor Ave., a designated City of Cleveland historic landmark, to 32 residential treatment beds.

“Former convents make great treatment centers, because of the way they are set up,” said Daniel Lettenberger-Klein, CEO of Stella Maris. Stella Maris currently has seventeen beds for individuals who identify as female at the former convent on the campus of St. Malachi, and another twenty in the Mission House at St. Patrick’s on Bridge Ave. in Ohio City. 

According to its website, “Stella Maris is one of two stand-alone medical detox centers in Cleveland, and the only site where you can move through an entire continuum of care on one campus block.” Services include withdrawal management, inpatient residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, recovery management, and supportive housing.

What will make the program in Tremont unique is a “citizenry-based model, propelling people into a civically minded recovery” by engaging them with the community, said Lettenberger-Klein. “If we want to address true stigma, and create normalcy over suffering and mental health issues, addiction, and welcome people back into functional healthy living, they must feel a part of everybody, not just one little community. And so, we want to use Tremont as the launching pad for them to understand civic engagement, and understand how to become not just productive members of the recovery community, but productive, impactful members of every community.”

The Stella Maris Coffee Shop, in the lower level of the Gallagher Center at 1302 Winslow Ave. in the Flats, describes itself as the place  “where recovery meets community.” Barista Theodore Dowdell entered treatment over six years ago. “I started volunteering when I was ten months sober,” he said. “I stayed volunteering here during the pandemic, running groups, and now I am an employee here. This is my first job in twenty years. From 22 to 42 I was on disability. I had nothing on my resume and nobody expects somebody who looks like a middle-aged person to just be starting out doing barista stuff. This allowed me to relaunch into society normally. It’s how I stay close to what works, which is staying sober. I followed all of the suggestions.”

Stella Maris sees about 4,000 clients a year. Most are there for about 5 months and 95% of them are at or below the federal poverty line. About 95% of staff are in recovery themselves.  

In 2020, Stella Maris opened a new 13,000-square-foot detox, central intake, and cafeteria on their campus in the Flats. With the need for recovery from addiction being so great, Stella Maris was approached by the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County to expand capacity because they are the only facility in the region with every level of care. 

The coffee shop is open to the public daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.. Attached is an auditorium where recovery meetings are held every day of the week. “If you ever need space for a 120-seat auditorium, it’s everybody’s space, so come on in,” said Lettenberger-Klein.

From Old Angle to Stella Maris

Stella Maris was founded by the Rev. Otis S. Winchester, who graduated from St. Mary Seminary on Ansel Road on Cleveland’s east side in 1944. His first job brought him to St. Malachi Parish, in Cleveland’s Old Angle Neighborhood on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River. The area, populated by many Irish Catholics living in small, wood-frame houses, along with the newly constructed Lakeview Terrace public housing project, had a school, but no church. The original St. Malachi, completed in 1871 on Washington Ave., burned to the ground the night before Christmas Eve in 1943. The current St. Malachi, facing W. 25th St., was dedicated in 1947. The iconic illuminated neon green cross atop its steeple is a replica of the original, which was used as a beacon by Lake Erie freighters and sailors, guiding them to the Port of Cleveland. Stella Maris, Latin for “Star of the Sea,” continues to guide people to safety today. 

“Otey,” as Rev. Winchester was called by many, witnessed the ravages of alcoholism in the Old Angle area, at a time when very little was known about addiction. A chance encounter between a New York stockbroker and Akron surgeon, just years earlier, had begun to lay the groundwork for Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in Akron. In 1946, Otey and a Jewish member of AA started the “Old Angle Group ” in the basement of St. Malachi School. It wasn’t long before they discovered people needed a place they could go to “dry out.”  

A little green house across the street, once a bootlegger’s den during the Prohibition era, was acquired for those purposes, and Stella Maris was born. Its founders included a meat salesman, stationary engineer, a tug boatman, an ironworker, and a furniture dealer, all of whom had been restored to society from the grips of alcoholism. For decades, the home remained self-supporting through the salvage and resale of clothing, furniture, appliances, bundled paper, and other items at three retail shops throughout the city. 

Stella Maris eventually outgrew the house, and a new red brick building was constructed next door and dedicated in 1954 as Stella Maris Hospital. In the early days, patients experiencing withdrawal symptoms were weaned off alcohol with shots of eggnog with bourbon in it and Vitamin B12 shots, until they were stabilized. The house was the last one standing on the street when it was demolished and replaced by a two-car garage to service the resale operations. The garage has since been replaced by the Gallagher Center, with the coffee shop on the lower level. 

The new Tremont location will be the area’s first all-gender inpatient residential treatment program, with non-binary beds in partnership with the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. This is different from Stella Maris’ other facilities, which are separated by gender. 

“It couldn’t have been a better experience,” said Lettenberger-Klein, about working with nonprofit Tremont West Development Corporation and the neighborhood’s block clubs in seeking a needed zoning variance and approval. “Nobody expressed displeasure with us being there. The only concern they had was for the clients because of the bars. People were worried about our clients; they weren’t worried about themselves. How rare is it that a community says how can we keep you safe, rather than how does this impact our safety?” 

“We are excited to welcome Stella Maris as a neighbor,” said Julie Dahlhausen, interim executive director of Tremont West. “Their work demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity and accessibility in tackling substance abuse in and around our community.”

The Gallagher Outpatient Center on the main campus of Stella Maris.

This story was also published in The Land, a local news startup that reports on Cleveland’s neighborhoods. Through in-depth solutions journalism, we help to foster accountability, inform the community, and inspire people to take action.