Cuyahoga Valley is a neighborhood on the Central and South Side of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, located along the Cuyahoga River. Formerly known as Industrial Valley, the neighborhood was originally limited to only one section of the geographic Cuyahoga River Valley, but the city expanded it in 2012 to include the entire valley area. The present neighborhood includes

the Flats The Flats is a mixed-use industrial, recreational, entertainment, and residential area of the Cuyahoga Valley neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The name reflects its low-lying topography on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. History In 1 ...

and extends from the peninsula of Whiskey Island on

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

in the north to the borders of the suburbs of Newburgh Heights and Cuyahoga Heights in the south. To the east, it borders Downtown Cleveland and the neighborhoods of

Broadway–Slavic Village Broadway–Slavic Village is a neighborhood on the Southeast side of Cleveland, Ohio. One of the city's oldest neighborhoods, it originated as the township of Newburgh, first settled in 1799. Much of the area has historically served as home to ...

and Central. To the west, it borders the neighborhoods of Detroit–Shoreway, Ohio City, Tremont, and Brooklyn Centre.

History

Cuyahoga Valley emerged on what was once part of Cleveland Township, which the city annexed in 1850 and quickly developed into the heart of one of the nation's leading industrial centers. Several factors, including close proximity to

and the eastern bank of the Cuyahoga River being the terminus of the

Ohio & Erie Canal The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio River near Portsmouth. It also ...

, led to the rapid rise of Cuyahoga Valley's manufacturing output.Encyclopedia of Cleveland History:INDUSTRY
/ref> The iron industry (which would eventually grow into the steelmaking industry in the 20th century) rapidly grew during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

era, as coal from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and iron ore from the

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

region arrived at the centralized location along the river. By the 1870s, local industrial baron

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...

of the Standard Oil Company had built his oil refineries in Cuyahoga Valley. The Grasselli Chemical Company (now part of DuPont) soon followed Rockefeller, whose refineries used much of the sulfuric acid produced by Grasselli's plant. By 1901, local foundries of the Otis Iron & Steel Company and the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company merged with the newly established

US Steel United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...

. One of US Steel's subsidiaries, American Steel & Wire, made Cleveland the "wire capital" of the United States. The neighborhood also saw the arrivals of companies such as LTV Steel and

Republic Steel Republic Steel is an American steel manufacturer that was once the country's third largest steel producer. It was founded as the Republic Iron and Steel Company in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899. After rising to prominence during the early 20th Centu ...

. Production peaked in the 1950s when Cleveland ranked third nationwide in

steelmaking Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and carbon/or scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon (the most important impurity) are removed from the sourced iron, and alloy ...

and fourth in processed metal products. Until sea changes in nationwide manufacturing trends of the 1970s and 80s, Cuyahoga Valley remained at the heart of an industrial powerhouse. The recession of the early 80s witnessed LTV, Republic and US Steel all closing, relocating or merging operations, which led to massive unemployment numbers in the Cleveland area. Although still a prominent industry in the 21st century, steel plays a much smaller role in the neighborhood than it once did.

The Flats

The Cuyahoga Valley neighborhood also encompasses Cleveland's Flats. Historically home to much of the city's steel industry, today it is a mixed-use portion area. During the mid-1980s, the Flats grew to be an entertainment district. Music venues and clubs appeared on both the East Bank and West Bank, though, as evidenced by the decline of the East Bank in the late 90s, the other side of the river proved to be the more commercially viable development. A combination of factors, including compliance issues with city health and fire code and an elevated crime rate, coupled with the rise of the Warehouse District, proved to be the demise of much of the entertainment district. Private developers such as Scott Wolstein and the now-defunct Flats Oxbow Association have helped plan and redevelop the Flats through housing developments, which include new construction as well as renovated warehouse spaces, on both sides of the river.Scott Wolstein stepping down as executive chairman of Developers Diversified , cleveland.com
/ref>

References

{{coord, 41, 29, N, 81, 40, W, display=title Neighborhoods in Cleveland Economy of Cleveland Steel industry of the United States