December 10, 2025
BOTTLES BELOW, A BEACON ABOVE
What workers unearthed under the future Detox building tells a story that reaches back to bootleggers, beacons, and the beginnings of recovery in Cleveland.
There’s something almost poetic about dozens of Prohibition-era glass bottles discovered in the hard-packed earth beneath a rehab facility—of all places. At first glance, it feels like an amusing coincidence. But the bottles hint at the very reason Northeast Ohio’s oldest drug and alcohol treatment center set up shop in this neighborhood to begin with.
Just up the road from the Stella Maris campus stands St. Malachi Church. Founded in 1865 to serve Irish immigrants in Ohio City, it became known for its illuminated steeple, visible for miles. The iconic neon-green cross atop its tower even served as a beacon for Lake Erie freighters, sailors, and longshoreman around the Port of Cleveland.
Decades later, Father Otis Winchester and early members of the then-new organization Alcoholics Anonymous recognized the urgent need to house and support men seeking recovery from alcohol dependence. Across the street sat a small green house—once rumored to be a bootlegger’s den—which they purchased for that purpose.
Originally housing 11 men undergoing treatment and recovery, Stella Maris opened its doors in 1948. The name, Latin for “Star of the Sea,” felt fitting for a place on Lake Erie’s shore intended to guide people toward the safety of sobriety.
As the program gained notoriety, Stella Maris eventually outgrew the little house and underwent a series of expansions. During construction of what would become Central Intake and Detox*, workers unearthed a trove of bottles, some a century-old, buried beneath the site.
Fascinated by the findings, Director of Facilities Nick Costakis and then-CEO Daniel Lettenerger-Klein joined workers on the site, carefully collecting the bottles and pipes that remained in-tact.
“We were covered in mud most days,” Nick remembers. “We found the most bottles in clusters where the outhouses had been located. So imagine, ol’ Grandpa would steal away to the outhouse, sneak a few swigs, and toss the bottles.”
Nick took crates of the bottles home, painstakingly cleaning them and researching well-worn etchings to learn whatever he could.
Today, the bottles are displayed in administrative offices, and each year a precious few are auctioned at Stella Maris fundraisers—a small, tangible link to the community’s past and the mission that continues to guide its future.
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*The new Central Intake and Detox Building at Stella Maris opened in 2020.