Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield Frazier isn’t known to sit still for too long. After growing a vineyard in Hough — Chateau Hough — he started focusing on another innovative idea: turning an old house into the world’s first biocellar, an old basement that is converted into a pit greenhouse where crops can be grown all year.
QUEST, a media outlet focused on innovations and ideas, recently highlighted Frazier’s efforts in a feature titled “From Squalor to Shiitakes: the World’s First Biocellar.” Read it here.
Cool Cleveland visited Mansfield recently to talk about the progress he’s making on The Vineyards and Biocellar at Chateau Hough, and the video interview can be seen here.
Now in its fourth year, Mansfield Frazier’s Vineyards at Chateau Hough are ready to make their second vintage and entering their wine in competitions.
But on the same vacant property in the middle of the storied Hough neighborhood of Cleveland sat a beautiful Victorian house, unfortunately abandoned and blighted beyond repair.
Cool Cleveland columnist Frazier and his crew of ex-offenders from a local halfway home work the vineyards and oversaw the demolition of the house– except for the foundation. Then they built a greenhouse on top, creating an urban biocellar for growing shittake mushrooms year round.
With the prospect of transforming thousands of similarly hopeless properties in Cleveland and around the country, Frazier’s vision and hard work repurposes abandoned buildings, retrains ex-cons, and revitalizes forgotten neighborhoods.
Cleveland, OH 44103