Ron Busch and Anita Nonneman opened the third version of their Cleveland jazz venue, the Bop Stop, with a lot of fanfare in early 2003. Unlike their previous locations at East 40th and Superior and on West 6th Street near Lakeside, they designed and built the facility at 2920 Detroit Road overlooking the Shoreway from the ground up as a state-of-the-art listening room.
The market for serious jazz wasn’t as strong as they anticipated. The club closed as a full-time venue just a couple of years later, although there were occasional concerts for a while after that. But for seven or eight years, the place has sat empty.
That venue will soon have a new mission. Busch and Nonneman have donated the facility intact with all its equipment, including sound and lighting systems, to the Cleveland Music Settlement, the music education nonprofit based in University Circle.
The organization will still maintain its east side base, using the Bop Stop as a “second campus.” It is still formulating its plans for the facility, which will allow it to expand its mission to the west side and give it its own dedicated performance space, something it does not have now.
http://www.themusicsettlement.org/news/2014/01/07/bop-stop-jazz-club-donated-to-the-music-settlement