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 ...
. It runs northeasterly from
Public Square
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...
University Circle
University Circle is a district in the neighborhood of University on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio. One of America's densest concentrations of cultural attractions and performing arts venues, it includes such world-class institutions as the C ...
, the
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit American academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation established in 1921, it runs a 170-acre (69 ha) campus in Cleveland, ...
Maltz Performing Arts Center
Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at Temple–Tifereth Israel is a 1200-seat historic arts and religious venue on the campus of Case Western Reserve University located on the Hough, Cleveland, Hough and University Circle border at Sil ...
(formerly the Temple Tifereth Israel), Case Western Reserve University and
University Hospitals Case Medical Center
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH Cleveland Medical Center) is a large not-for-profit academic medical complex in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center is the main affiliate hospital of Cas ...
. The street runs through the suburbs of East Cleveland,
Euclid
Euclid (; grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of ...
U.S. Route 20
U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. S ...
and
U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to P ...
. The
HealthLine
Healthline Media, Inc. is an American website and provider of health information headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1999, relaunched in 2006, and established as a standalone entity in January 2016.
Accuracy
There ar ...
Louis Stokes Station at Windermere
Louis Stokes Station at Windermere is a rapid transit station on the RTA Red Line in East Cleveland, Ohio. It is located on the northwest side of Euclid Avenue ( U.S. Routes 6 and 20) between Bryn Mawr and Doan Roads. It is the eastern termin ...
in East Cleveland.
It received nationwide attention from the 1860s to the 1920s for its beauty and wealth, including a string of mansions that came to be known as Millionaires' Row. There are several theaters, banks, and churches along Euclid, as well as Cleveland's oldest extant building, the
Dunham Tavern
The Dunham Tavern, also known as the Dunham Tavern Museum, is the oldest building in Cleveland, Ohio, located at 6709 Euclid Avenue. Rufus and Jane Pratt Dunham built their first home on the site in 1824, and the existing taproom was built in ...
. A large reconstruction project, which brought the HealthLine to the street, was completed in 2008.
Millionaires' Row
In the second half of the 19th century and early in the 20th century, Euclid Avenue was internationally known.
Baedeker
Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karl Baedeker on July 1, 1827, is a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred to simply as " Baedekers" (a term sometimes used to refer to similar works fro ...
's Travel Guides called the
elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...
-lined avenue "The Showplace of America", and designated it as a must see for travelers from Europe. The concentration of wealth was unparalleled; the tax valuation of the mansions along "the Avenue" far exceeded the valuation of New York's Fifth Avenue in the late 19th century. Accounts at the time compared it to the
Avenue des Champs-Élysées
Avenue or Avenues may refer to:
Roads
* Avenue (landscape), traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees, in the shifted sense a tree line itself, or some of boulevards (also without trees)
* Avenue Road, Bangalore
* Avenue Road, Lon ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and the
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden (, "under the linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Running from the City Palace to Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the linden (lime in England and Ireland, not rela ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
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 ...
Ambrose Swasey
Ambrose Swasey (December 19, 1846 – June 15, 1937) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, manager, astronomer, and philanthropist. With Worcester R. Warner he co-founded the Warner & Swasey Company.
Life and work
Swasey ...
,
Amasa Stone
Amasa Stone, Jr. (April 27, 1818 – May 11, 1883) was an American industrialist who is best remembered for having created a regional railroad empire centered in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1860 to 1883. He gained fame in New England in the 184 ...
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
and Secretary of State under
William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
),
Jeptha Wade
Jeptha Homer Wade (August 11, 1811 – August 9, 1890) was an American industrialist, philanthropist, and one of the founding members of Western Union Telegraph. Wade was born in Romulus, New York, the youngest of nine children of Jeptha and Sara ...
(Cleveland benefactor and founder of
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...
Alfred Atmore Pope
Alfred Atmore Pope (July 4, 1842 – August 5, 1913) was an American industrialist and art collector. He was the father of Theodate Pope Riddle, a noted American architect.
Family background
Alfred Pope's ancestors came to the New World from Y ...
(iron industrialist and art collector), Charles E.J. Lang (automobile industrialist), Worthy S. Streator (railroad baron, coal mine developer, and founder of the city of
Streator, Illinois
Streator is a city in LaSalle and Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River approximately southwest of Chicago in the prairie and farm land of north-central Illinois. As of the 2020 censu ...
), Mary Corinne Quintrell (clubwoman), and Charles Lathrop Pack. Euclid Avenue's most infamous resident was con artist Cassie Chadwick, the wife of Leroy Chadwick, who was unaware that his wife was passing herself off to bankers as the illegitimate daughter of steel magnate
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
Samuel Mather
Samuel Livingston Mather (July 13, 1851 – October 18, 1931) was an American industrialist and philanthropist from Cleveland, Ohio. He co-founded Pickands Mather and Company, a shipping and iron mining company which dominated these two Great ...
's Mansion, built around 1910, "was among the last" to be built on Euclid Avenue. The Mather Mansion remains as part of Cleveland State University, but most of the homes were later demolished.
Growth of commercial district and decline of Millionaires' Row
Charles Lathrop Pack is credited with at least part of the development of Euclid Avenue, on which he lived from about 1888 to the early years of the 20th century, into a thriving business district. According to Eyle, "In 1913, an article about Charles reported that 'inside of ten years...the ne-story, commercial buildings that he had developed at the lower end of Euclid Avenuehave disappeared. In their stead are skyscrapers, great retail establishments, magnificent banks, and a hotel that cost $2,000,000. Much of the land is owned by Mr. Pack and is leased for long periods. He helped to organize the companies which erected the buildings. It is said that his rentals, out of which not a penny is subtracted for taxes or anything else, amount to $100,000 a year."
As Cleveland's commercial district began to push eastward along Euclid Avenue, families moved east towards University Circle. However, southeast of University Circle, the topography of the area rises sharply into what is referred to as "The Heights," and the development of
Cleveland Heights
Cleveland Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and one of Cleveland's historical streetcar suburbs. The city's population was 45,312 at the 2020 census. As of the 2010 census, Cleveland Heights was ranked the 8th largest ...
and
Shaker Heights
Shaker or Shakers may refer to:
Religious groups
* Shakers, a historically significant Christian sect
* Indian Shakers, a smaller Christian denomination
Objects and instruments
* Shaker (musical instrument), an indirect struck idiophone
* Cock ...
, along with more efficient means of travel, became more attractive than the increasingly commercialized Euclid Avenue.
By the 1920s, the former "Millionaires' Row" was in decline. During the Great Depression, many mansions were converted by their owners into rooming houses, which accelerated the decline. In the 1950s, Cleveland's Innerbelt Freeway cut through the Euclid Avenue neighborhood between downtown and the rail crossing at East 55th Street. By the 1960s, the street that once rivaled Fifth Avenue as the most expensive address in the United States was a two-mile (3 km) long slum of commercial buildings and substandard housing. In the late 1960s, Cleveland Cavaliers owner
Nick Mileti
Nick James Mileti (born April 22, 1931) is an American author, retired lawyer, former businessman, sports entrepreneur and former sports franchise owner who was, during the 1970s, the owner of the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Cavaliers, Clevelan ...
announced plans to move the basketball club from Euclid Avenue's
Cleveland Arena
Cleveland Arena was an arena in Cleveland, Ohio. It was built and privately financed by local businessman Albert C. Sutphin during the height of the Great Depression in 1937 as a playing site for Sutphin's AHL team, the Cleveland Barons. The aren ...
Eight houses from the era remain on Euclid, including the
Samuel Mather
Samuel Livingston Mather (July 13, 1851 – October 18, 1931) was an American industrialist and philanthropist from Cleveland, Ohio. He co-founded Pickands Mather and Company, a shipping and iron mining company which dominated these two Great ...
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
.
On August 5, 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue, the first traffic light installed in the United States.
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popular ...
indirectly acknowledged the street's fame. In the script, Captain Brackett sends a grass skirt to one "Amelia Fortuna, 325 Euclid Avenue, Shaker Heights, Cleveland, Ohio". Theaters on Euclid include the
Allen Theatre
The Allen Theatre is one of the theaters in Playhouse Square, the performing arts center on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It was originally designed as a silent movie theater by C. Howard Crane and opened its doors on April 1, 1921, ...
In April 2006, parts of Euclid Avenue were closed to traffic for the filming of a scene from the film '' Spider-Man 3''. No major stars were on location, but the filming drew thousands of gawkers. Most of the filming involved explosions and destroyed cars, with hired extras walking the sidewalks. The sections of the street that were closed off were redressed to resemble a city street in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, complete with magazine stands and poster-covered walls.
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority completely refurbished the western section of Euclid Avenue as part of the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project, which opened fully in 2008. A bus rapid transit line, the
HealthLine
Healthline Media, Inc. is an American website and provider of health information headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1999, relaunched in 2006, and established as a standalone entity in January 2016.
Accuracy
There ar ...
, now runs from Public Square to the Stokes Rapid Transit station in East Cleveland, which is the eastern terminus of the Red Line rapid transit route. The refurbishing also entailed development – , more than $3.3 billion worth of completed or proposed urban renewal projects lined the street and surrounding area.
Route designations
Euclid Avenue, originally known as part of the Buffalo Stage Road, has carried various route designations throughout history:
* Prior to 1923 Euclid Avenue carried Inter-county Route 2 and Main Market Road VI in parts.
* In 1923, when Ohio introduced the modern numbering system, State Route 2 and State Route 15 were assigned to Euclid Avenue from Public Square in Cleveland to Mayfield Road in the University Circle neighborhood, and SR 2 was assigned to it from there to Willoughby.
* In 1926 SR 2 was rerouted onto Superior Avenue, leaving Euclid Avenue as only SR 15 from Public Square to Mayfield Road, and undesignated from there to Superior Avenue in East Cleveland.
* In 1927
U.S. Route 20
U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. S ...
replaced SR 2 in most places including along Euclid Avenue, and
U.S. Route 322
U.S. Route 322 (US 322) is a long, east–west United States Highway, traversing Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The road is a spur of U.S. Route 22 and one of the original highways from 1926. A portion of it at one time was concurrent with ...
replaced SR 15.
* In 1932
U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to P ...
was added to the US 20 portion from Superior Avenue eastward to Euclid.
* In 1936 U.S. Route 6 Alternate and U.S. Route 20 Alternate were created to run along the US 322 portion from Public Square to Mayfield Road then along the previously undesignated section from there to Superior Avenue.
* In 1950 US 322 was shifted north to run along Superior Avenue and Chester Avenue from Public Square to Euclid Avenue in University Circle. US 322 remains on Euclid Avenue from Chester Avenue to Mayfield Road.
* In 1967 US 20 was removed from Superior Avenue and US 6 and placed on Euclid Avenue from Public Square to Superior Avenue in East Cleveland, replacing Alt. US 6 and Alt. US 20.
Landmarks on Euclid
Public Square
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...
Cleveland Arcade
The Arcade in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, is a Victorian-era structure of two nine-story buildings, joined by a five-story arcade with a glass skylight spanning over 300 feet (91 m), along the four balconies.Guardian Bank Building 1890
Nine-Twelve District The Nine-Twelve District is a major area of downtown Cleveland, in the U.S. state of Ohio, that is the re-branding of the former Financial District of Cleveland. This re-branding has largely been championed by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. The na ...
Audacy
Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national um ...
WNCX
WNCX (98.5 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, featuring a classic rock format known as "98.5 WNCX". Owned by Audacy, Inc., WNCX serves Greater Cleveland and much of surr ...
The Drew Carey Show
''The Drew Carey Show'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 13, 1995 to September 8, 2004. Set in Cleveland, Ohio, the series revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalize ...
*The ideastream Idea Center (studios for PBS affiliate
WVIZ
WVIZ (channel 25) is a PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the mo ...
, NPR affiliate
WKSU
WKSU (89.7 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to serve Kent, Ohio, featuring a public radio format. Owned by Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media, WKSU's primary signal encompasses the Akro ...
, and classical music
WCLV
WCLV (90.3 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, carrying a combined fine art/ classical music and jazz format. Owned by Ideastream Public Media, the station serves both Greater Cleveland and No ...
)
*Wyndham Hotel
*
U.S. Bank Centre
U.S. Bank Center, formerly U.S. Bank Centre, is a 44-story skyscraper in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. The building opened as Pacific First Centre and was constructed from 1987 to 1989. At , it is currently the eighth-tallest buildin ...
* GE Chandelier, world's largest outdoor chandelier
Hanna Theatre
The Hanna Theatre is a theater at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is one of the original five venues built in the district, opening on March 28, 1921. The Hanna Theatre reopened in 2008 as the new home of Great La ...
*
Allen Theatre
The Allen Theatre is one of the theaters in Playhouse Square, the performing arts center on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It was originally designed as a silent movie theater by C. Howard Crane and opened its doors on April 1, 1921, ...
Keith Building
The Keith Building is a skyscraper in downtown Cleveland, Ohio's Playhouse Square theater district. The Keith is 272 feet tall and 21 stories, and houses the Palace Theater, a former flagship theater of the Keith vaudeville circuit. Retrieved on ...
East 17th-East 24th St.
*
Innerbelt An innerbelt or outerbelt is a ring road or collection of roadways which is or implies that it is inner or outer ring road in relation to another ring road. Use of these terms is most common and near-exclusive to routes in the United States, mostly ...
*
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs
The Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs (Levin) is an accredited college of urban studies, public administration, urban planning, environmental studies, and nonprofit management at Cleveland State University located in Cleveland, Ohi ...
*
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
Cleveland State University College of Law is the law school of Cleveland State University, a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. The school traces its origins to Cleveland Law School (founded in 1897), which merged in 1946 with the John ...
*Washkewicz College of Engineering
*
Fenn Tower
Fenn Tower is a 22-story skyscraper in Cleveland, Ohio. It is owned by Cleveland State University. It was built for the National Town and Country Club, but was only used for one event before closing. It was originally known as the National Town an ...
*CSU School of Communication
*CSU Student Center
*CSU Main Library/ Rhodes Tower
*Main Classrooms
*CSU Science Building
East 30th St.
*
WEWS-TV
WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by ...
*Cuyahoga Board of Elections
*Applied Industrial Technologies
*Karpinski Engineering
University Hospitals of Cleveland
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH Cleveland Medical Center) is a large not-for-profit academic medical complex in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center is the main affiliate hospital of Cas ...
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit American academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation established in 1921, it runs a 170-acre (69 ha) campus in Cleveland, ...
Campus
*
University Circle
University Circle is a district in the neighborhood of University on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio. One of America's densest concentrations of cultural attractions and performing arts venues, it includes such world-class institutions as the C ...
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
East Cleveland, Ohio
East Cleveland is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and is the first suburb encountered when travelling east from Cleveland. The population was 13,792 at the 2020 census. East Cleveland is bounded by the city of Cleveland to its nor ...
*
Euclid, Ohio
Euclid is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is an inner ring suburb of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 49,692.
History
The City of Euclid was originally a part of Euclid Township, first m ...
*
Wickliffe, Ohio
Wickliffe is a city in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 12,750 at the 2010 census.
A post office called Wickliffe has been in operation since 1843. The city was named after Charles A. Wickliffe, 11th United States Postmaster ...
**
Telshe Yeshiva
Telshe Yeshiva (also spelled ''Telz'') is a yeshiva in Wickliffe, Ohio, formerly located in Telšiai, Lithuania. During World War II the yeshiva began relocating to Wickliffe, Ohio, in the United States and is now known as the Rabbinical College ...
*Center For Pastoral Leadership (Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Seminaries)
See also
*
History of Cleveland
The written history of Cleveland began with the city's founding by General Moses Cleaveland of the Connecticut Land Company on July 22, 1796. Its central location on the southern shore of Lake Erie and the mouth of the Cuyahoga River allowed it ...
*Eyle, Alexandra. 1992. ''Charles Lathrop Pack: Timberman, Forest Conservationist, and Pioneer in Forest Education''. Syracuse, NY: ESF College Foundation, Inc., and College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Distributed by Syracuse University Press. Available books *Wilson, Ella G. 1932. ''Famous Old Euclid Ave.'' Cleveland.
Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of M ...
The Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of Ma ...