Cleveland is the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of, and largest city in,
Bradley County, Tennessee
Bradley County is a County (United States), county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 108,620, making it the thirteenth most populous county i ...
.
The population was 47,356 at the
2020 census.
It is the principal city of the
Cleveland metropolitan area, Tennessee (consisting of Bradley and neighboring
Polk County), which is included in the
Chattanooga–Cleveland–Dalton, TN–GA–AL Combined Statistical Area.
Cleveland is the seventeenth-largest city in Tennessee and has the fifth-largest industrial economy, having thirteen
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
manufacturers.
History
Early history
For thousands of years before European encounter, this area was occupied by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. Peoples of the
South Appalachian Mississippian culture, beginning about 900–1000 CE, established numerous villages along the river valleys and tributaries. In the more influential villages, they built a single, large earthen
platform mound
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. It typically refers to a flat-topped mound, whose sides may be pyramidal.
In Eastern North America
The indigenous peoples of North America built substru ...
, sometimes surmounted by a temple or elite residence, which was an expression of their religious and political system.
This area was later part of a large territory occupied by the
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
, an
Iroquoian-speaking people believed to have migrated south from the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
area, where other Iroquoian tribes arose. Their public architecture was known as the
townhouse
A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...
, a large structure designed for the community to gather together. In some cases, these were built on top of existing mounds; in others the townhouse would front on a broad plaza. Their territory encompassed areas of
Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina (often abbreviated as WNC) is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains; it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It contains the highest mountains in the Eastern United S ...
, western
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
, southeastern Tennessee, northeastern
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
, and northern
Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
.
The first Europeans to reach the area now occupied by Cleveland and Bradley County were most likely a 1540 expedition through the interior led by Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (; ; 1497 – 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, ...
. Based on their chronicles, they are believed to have camped along Candies Creek in the western part of present-day Cleveland on June 2, 1540. They encountered some chiefdoms of the Mississippian culture in other areas of South and North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. Some writers have suggested that the de Soto expedition was preceded by a party of Welshmen, but there is no supporting evidence and historians consider this unlikely.
During and after the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
, more European Americans entered this area seeking land. They came into increasing conflict with the Cherokee, who occupied this territory. The Cherokee had tolerated traders but resisted settlers who tried to take over their territory and competed for resources.
Because of being defeated in repeated attacks by Americans, in 1819 the Cherokee ceded the land directly north of present-day Bradley County (and north of the
Hiwassee River
The Hiwassee River is a
river in the states of
Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. It originates from a spring on the north slope of Rocky Mountain (Georgia), Rocky Mountain in Towns County, Georgia, Towns County in n ...
) to the U.S. government in the Calhoun Treaty. In 1821 the Cherokee Agency—the official liaison between the U.S. government and the Cherokee Nation—was moved to the south bank of the
Hiwassee River
The Hiwassee River is a
river in the states of
Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. It originates from a spring on the north slope of Rocky Mountain (Georgia), Rocky Mountain in Towns County, Georgia, Towns County in n ...
in present-day
Charleston, a few miles north of what is now Cleveland. The
Indian agent
In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.
Agents established in Nonintercourse Act of 1793
The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the Un ...
was
Colonel Return J. Meigs.
By the 1830s, white settlers had begun to move rapidly into this area in anticipation of a forced relocation of the Cherokee and other Southeast tribes. Congress had passed the
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States president Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, ...
in 1830, under President
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...
's direction.
In 1832, the Cherokee moved the seat of their government to the Red Clay Council Grounds in southern Bradley County. Some Cherokee had already moved to the West, where they were known as Old Settlers until reunification of the Nation. It operated there until the
Cherokee removal
The Cherokee removal (May 25, 18381839), part of the Indian removal, refers to the forced displacement of an estimated 15,500 Cherokees and 1,500 African-American slaves from the U.S. states of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama to ...
in 1838, part of the larger forced migration of Cherokee to
Indian Territory
Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...
(present-day
Oklahoma
Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
). This became known as the
Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...
. The former Cherokee seat is now preserved within
Red Clay State Park.
The removal was initiated by the
Treaty of New Echota
The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia, by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, the Treaty Party.
The treaty established terms ...
on December 29, 1835, although the majority of Cherokee leaders had not approved it. In the Spring of 1838, removal operations by the US military began. Headquarters for the removal were established at
Fort Cass in Charleston. In preparation, thousands of Cherokees were rounded up and held in internment camps located between Cleveland and Charleston. Two of the largest were at
Rattlesnake Springs.
Blythe Ferry, about northwest of Cleveland in
Meigs County, was also an important site during the Cherokee removal.
The legislative act on February 10, 1836, that created Bradley County, which was named for Colonel
Edward Bradley of
Shelby County, Tennessee
Shelby County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 929,744. It is the largest of the state's List of counties in Tennessee, 95 counties, both in terms of ...
, authorized the establishment of a county seat. It was to be named "Cleveland" after Colonel
Benjamin Cleveland, a commander at the
Battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolution.
["]
''Goodspeed's History of Bradley County, Tennessee''
, 1887. Transcribed for web content and maintained by TNGenWeb – Bradley County. Retrieved: December 30, 2007. The legislative body appointed to govern the county was required to meet in nearby
Chatata Valley until a site was chosen for the county seat.
By a one-vote majority on May 2, 1836, the commissioners chose "Taylor's Place," the home of Andrew Taylor, as the county seat, due largely to the site's excellent water sources. Taylor, who had married a Cherokee woman and constructed a log cabin on the site next to a
spring, had been given a
reservation at the site. A permanent settlement had been established there in 1835, and became a favored stopping place for travelers. The other proposed location for the city was a site a few miles to the east, owned by a wealthy Cherokee named Deer-In-The-Water.
Cleveland was formally established as the county seat by the state legislature on January 20, 1838. That year the city was reported to have a population of 400; it was home to two churches (one Presbyterian, the other Methodist), and a private school for boys, the Oak Grove Academy. The city was incorporated on February 4, 1842, and elections for mayor and aldermen were held shortly afterward on April 4 that year.
[William Snell, "Cleveland," ''An Encyclopedia of East Tennessee'' (Children's Museum of Oak Ridge, 1981), pp. 108–111.]
While the overwhelming majority of early inhabitants of Cleveland earned their living in agriculture, by 1850 the city also had a sizeable number of skilled craftsmen and professional people. On September 5, 1851, the railroad was completed through Cleveland. After copper mining began in the
Copper Basin in neighboring
Polk County in the 1840s, headquarters for mining operations were established in Cleveland by
Julius Eckhardt Raht, a German-born businessman and engineer. Copper was delivered from the basin to Cleveland by wagon, where it was loaded onto trains. The city's first bank, the Ocoee Bank, was established in 1854.
Civil War
While bitterly divided over the issue of
secession
Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...
on the eve of the Civil War, Cleveland, like Bradley County and most of East Tennessee, voted against Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession in June 1861. The results of the countywide vote were 1,382 to 507 in favor of remaining in the Union.
[ Bradley County was represented by Richard M. Edwards and J.G. Brown at the 1861 ]East Tennessee Convention
The East Tennessee Convention was an assembly of Southern Unionist delegates primarily from East Tennessee that met on three occasions during the Civil War. The convention most notably declared the secessionist actions taken by the Tennessee sta ...
in Greeneville, an unsuccessful attempt to allow East Tennessee to split from the state and remain part of the Union.
Cleveland and Bradley County were occupied by the Confederate Army from June 1861 until the fall of 1863. Despite this occupation, locals remained loyal to the Union, and placed a Union flag in the courthouse square in April 1861, where it remained until June 1862, when it was removed by Confederate forces from Mississippi. Confederate forces also seized control of the copper mines in the Ducktown basin and the rolling mill
In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simi ...
in Cleveland owned by Raht. Throughout the war both Union and Confederate troops would pass through Cleveland en route to other locations, which led to many brief skirmishes in the area. The most deadly event in Bradley County during the Civil War was a train wreck near the Black Fox community, a few miles south of Cleveland, that killed 270 Confederate soldiers.
Some significant Civil War locations in Bradley County include the Henegar House in Charleston, in which both Union and Confederate generals, including William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a General officer, general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), earning recognit ...
, used as brief headquarters; the Charleston Cumberland Presbyterian Church, also in Charleston, which was used by Confederate forces as a hospital; and the Blue Springs Encampments and Fortifications in southern Bradley County, where Union troops under the command of General Sherman camped on numerous occasions between October 1863 and the end of the war. Troops under the command of Sherman also reportedly camped in 1863 near Tasso
TASSO (Two Arm Spectrometer SOlenoid) was a particle detector at the PETRA particle accelerator at the German national laboratory DESY. The TASSO collaboration is best known for having discovered the gluon, the mediator of the strong interaction an ...
, a few miles northeast of Cleveland, on multiple occasions.
No large-scale battles took place in and around Cleveland, but the city was considered militarily important due to the railroads. On June 30, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
sent a telegram to General Henry W. Halleck, which read, "To take and hold the railroad at or east of Cleveland, Tennessee, I think is as fully as important as the taking and holding of Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, a city in the United States
* Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
." The railroad bridge over the Hiwassee River
The Hiwassee River is a
river in the states of
Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. It originates from a spring on the north slope of Rocky Mountain (Georgia), Rocky Mountain in Towns County, Georgia, Towns County in n ...
to the north was among those destroyed by the East Tennessee bridge-burning conspiracy in November 1861.
On November 25, 1863, during the Battle of Missionary Ridge
The Battle of Missionary Ridge, also known as the Battle of Chattanooga, was fought on November 25, 1863, as part of the Chattanooga campaign of the American Civil War. Following the Union Army, Union victory in the Battle of Lookout Mountain on ...
in Chattanooga, a group of 1,500 Union cavalrymen led by Col. Eli Long arrived in Cleveland. Over the next two days they destroyed twelve miles of railroad in the area, burned the railroad bridge over the Hiwassee a second time, and destroyed the copper rolling mill, which Confederate forces had been using to manufacture artillery shells, percussion caps, and other weaponry. This would prove to be a major blow to the entire Confederate army, as approximately 90% of their copper came from the Ducktown mines. The next day Long's troops were attacked by a group of about 500 Confederate cavalrymen led by Col. John H. Kelly, and quickly retreated to Chattanooga.
The defeat of Confederate forces in Chattanooga resulted in Union troops regaining control of Cleveland and Bradley County by January 1864, and they retained control for the remainder of the war. Within a few days of the Battle of Missionary Ridge and Long's raid, several Union units, including members of the 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment, arrived in Cleveland. Additional Union troops arrived in the area in the summer of 1864, and between May and October 1864 a Union artillery unit was stationed downtown, with headquarters established at the home of Julius Eckhardt Raht. During this time as many as 20,000 Union troops at a time camped in the fields surrounding the house in preparation for Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. Union troops also established two forts, Fort McPherson and Fort Sedgewick, located at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens and Fort Hill Cemetery, respectively, on the highest points of the ridge south of downtown. They successfully repelled an attempted raid by Confederate Gen. Joseph Wheeler
Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler (September 10, 1836 – January 25, 1906) was a military commander and politician of the Confederate States of America. He was a cavalry general in the Confederate States Army in the 1860s during the American Civil ...
on August 17, 1864.
Most of the Union troops stationed in Bradley County left in the summer of 1864 as part of the Atlanta campaign. From this point, Confederate sympathizers conducted guerrilla attacks against Unionist families in Cleveland and surrounding areas, continuing until after the war was over. Members of the Army of Tennessee
The Army of Tennessee was a Field army, field army of the Confederate States Army in the Western theater of the American Civil War, Western Theater of the American Civil War. Named for the Confederate States of America, Confederate state of Tenn ...
attempted to destroy a passing Union train near Tasso in the spring of 1864, which instead resulted in the destruction of a Confederate train. The Civil War resulted in much damage to Cleveland and Bradley County, and much of the area was left in ruins.
Reconstruction and industrial revolution
Despite the devastation of the Civil War, Cleveland recovered quickly and much more rapidly than many cities in the South. During the 1870s, Cleveland had a growth spurt, and became one of the first cities in Tennessee to begin to develop industry. Raht, who had fled to Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
during the Civil War, returned to Cleveland in 1866 and reopened the copper mines. By 1878 it produced a total of 24 million pounds of copper. Numerous factories were also established, including the Hardwick Stove Company in 1879, the Cleveland Woolen Mills in 1880, and the Cleveland Chair Company in 1884.
By 1890, this industrialization helped the city support nine physicians, twelve attorneys, eleven general stores, fourteen grocery stores, three drug stores, three hardware stores, six butcher shops, two hatmakers, two hotels, a shoe store, and seven saloons.
Reflecting industrial prosperity, the city's iconic Craigmiles Hall was constructed in 1878 as an opera house and meeting hall. It is regarded as the city's most famous landmark and is one of Tennessee's most photographed buildings. Behind Craigmiles Hall is a reconstructed bandstand, first built in 1920. The reconstruction was built in 2005 by the Allan Jones Foundation, based on the 1920 blueprints.
The city failed to renew its charter in 1879, with the result that it disincorporated on January 1, 1880. Residents worked to reincorporate the city, and on March 15, 1882, they voted overwhelmingly in favor of recharter. The first city elections under the new charter took place on May 20, 1882. Public amenities were developed in the late 19th century: A mule-drawn trolley system was founded in 1886, and the city received telephone service in 1888. In 1895 the city received electricity and public water. During this period, Cleveland's population more than doubled, from 1,812 in 1880 to 3,643 in 1900. Many of the buildings in today's downtown area, now designated as the Cleveland Commercial Historic District, as well as those in the nearby Ocoee Street and Centenary Avenue historic districts, were constructed between 1880 and 1915.
20th century
In 1911 the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a monument at the intersection of Ocoee, Broad, and 8th streets. This monument was reportedly the first of its kind in East Tennessee. In 1914, the Grand Army of the Republic
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (United States Navy, U.S. Navy), and the United States Marine Corps, Marines who served in the American Ci ...
placed a monument in honor of Union soldiers from Bradley County in Fort Hill Cemetery.
In 1918, the Church of God, a Christian denomination headquartered in Cleveland, established a Bible school that would develop as Lee University
Lee University is a Private university, private Church of God (Cleveland), Christian university in Cleveland, Tennessee. It was founded in 1918 as the Church of God Bible Training School with twelve students and one teacher, Nora I. Chambers. Th ...
. Cleveland's Chamber of Commerce was established in 1925. On March 21, 1931, the city's form of government was changed from mayor-aldermen to city commission.
Bob Jones College, a non-denominational Christian college, relocated to Cleveland in 1933 from Panama City, Florida
Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Route 98 in Florida, U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee, Florida, Tallahassee and Pensacola, Florida, Pe ...
, where it remained until 1947, when it moved to Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville ( ; ) is a city in Greenville County, South Carolina, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, sixth-most pop ...
. The Reverend Billy Graham
William Franklin Graham Jr. (; November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American Evangelism, evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister, and Civil rights movement, civil rights advocate, whose broadcasts and world tours featuring liv ...
attended Bob Jones College in Cleveland for one year beginning in 1936.
Following World War II, several major industries located to the area, and the city entered a period of rapid industrial and economic growth as part of the Post–World War II economic expansion
The post–World War II economic expansion, also known as the postwar economic boom or the Golden Age of Capitalism, was a broad period of worldwide economic expansion beginning with the aftermath of World War II and ending with the 1973–1975 r ...
. Major factories constructed in the city during this time included American Uniform Company in 1949, Peerless Woolen Mills in 1955, Mallory Battery in 1961, Olin Corporation
Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Acciden ...
near Charleston in 1962, and Bendix Corporation
Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company founded in 1924 and subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse since 2002.
During various times in its existence, Bendix made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft ...
in 1964, as well as a Bowater paper mill in nearby Calhoun in 1954. Despite this massive growth in employment, many African American residents of Cleveland and Bradley County moved away as part of the Second Great Migration, and the number of blacks in Cleveland actually declined between 1940 and 1970, while the city's overall population nearly doubled during this time. During this time and afterwards, Cleveland became one of the largest manufacturing hubs in the Southeastern United States, and this economic expansion continued into the 21st century, with additional major factories locating to the area in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1966 the Church of God of Prophecy, based in Cleveland, established Tomlinson College north of town, which remained in operation until 1992, when it closed. That same year Cleveland High School was established and schools in Cleveland and Bradley County were integrated. Cleveland State Community College was established in 1967.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the city gained a national reputation for the crime of odometer fraud
Odometer fraud, also referred to as "busting miles" (United States) or "clocking" (UK, Ireland and Canada), is the illegal practice of rolling back odometers to make it appear that vehicles have lower mileage than they actually do. Odometer fraud ...
after 40 people in Bradley County, including multiple owners of car dealerships, were sent to federal prison for the crime. Cleveland was the subject of a November 1983 ''60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
'' episode about this crime. The city came to be known as the "Odometer Rollback Capital of the World" to some.
Beginning in the 1950s, the city began to gradually expand to the north as a result of most residential and industrial growth taking place there, but prior to 1987, the city limits of Cleveland did not extend west of Candies Creek Ridge.
In 1988, the city began annexing large numbers of adjacent neighborhoods and industrial areas north, northeast, and northwest of the city. These major annexations continued until the late 1990s, and led to the city's land area increasing in size from approximately 18 square miles in 1989 to about 29.5 square miles in 2000. As a result of this growth, the downtown business district is now geographically located in the southern part of the city.
Recent history
In 1993, Cleveland voters approved a referendum changing the city's form of government from a city commission to a council-manager government.
Cleveland officially adopted the nickname "The City with Spirit" in 2012. In 2018 voters approved a referendum allowing for package liquor stores to be located within the city. In 2020, the city completed construction of a public park at the site of Taylor Spring, where the first settlement that became Cleveland was founded.
Geography
Cleveland is located in southeast Tennessee in the center of Bradley County in the Great Appalachian Valley
The Great Appalachian Valley, also called The Great Valley or Great Valley Region, is one of the major landform features of eastern North America. It is a gigantic trough, including a chain of valley lowlands, and the central feature of the Appal ...
, situated among a series of low hills and ridges roughly west of the Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the United States, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern ...
and east of the Chickamauga Lake impoundment of the Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...
. The Hiwassee River
The Hiwassee River is a
river in the states of
Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. It originates from a spring on the north slope of Rocky Mountain (Georgia), Rocky Mountain in Towns County, Georgia, Towns County in n ...
, which flows down out of the mountains and forms the northern boundary of Bradley County, empties into the Tennessee a few miles northwest of Cleveland. According to the United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city had a total land area of in 2010.
The area's terrain is made up of parallel ridges, including Candies Creek Ridge (also called Clingan Ridge), Mouse Creek/Lead Mine Ridge, and Blue Springs Ridge, which are extensions of the Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...
(specifically part of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division. The physiographic province is divided into three se ...
) that run approximately north-northeast through the area.[ Mouse Creek and Blue Springs Ridge have significantly lower elevations within the city of Cleveland than elsewhere in Bradley County, which historically made the area easier to settle.][ Several ]stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...
s run in the valleys between the ridges including Candies Creek, located west of Clingan Ridge, and South Mouse Creek, between Mouse Creek and Lead Mine Ridge. Elevations in the city range from just under to nearly . The Tennessee Valley Divide
The Tennessee Valley Divide is the boundary of the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and its tributaries.
The Tennessee River drainage basin begins with its tributaries in southwestern Virginia and flows generally west to the confluence of t ...
, the boundary of the Tennessee Valley
The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to north Alabama and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North C ...
and Mobile River
The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georg ...
drainage basins, is located on the southern and eastern fringes of the city, and has prevented the city limits from expanding beyond this point in most locations.
Downtown Cleveland, which roughly coexists with the Cleveland Commercial Historic District, encompasses the business district
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit."
A business entity is not necessar ...
and consists of private businesses and government office buildings including the Bradley County Courthouse and Courthouse Annex, Cleveland Municipal Building, Cleveland Police and Fire department headquarters, and various other government buildings, primarily the offices of city and county departments. The surrounding residential areas, including the Stuart Heights, Ocoee Street, Centenary Avenue, and Annadale neighborhoods, are sometimes considered part of downtown Cleveland.[
Northern Cleveland has developed as the location for most of the city's retail shops and private interests.] In addition, it is a major residential division, made up of Burlington Heights, Fairview, and Sequoia Grove neighborhoods, and a few major industries. A large industrial area is also located in the northeastern part of the city. The western part of the city is almost entirely residential. Much of it is an extension of the city limits westward to encompass populous middle to upper-class neighborhoods including Hopewell Estates and Rolling Hills. East and South Cleveland consist of lower class residential and industrial areas. People living in East Cleveland tend to be less privileged.
Neighborhoods
Several neighborhoods and communities are located within the city. These include:
*Annadale
* Burlington Heights
*North Cleveland
*Windwood
* Fairview
*Sequoia Grove
* Hopewell (partial)
* Centenary Avenue
* Ocoee Street
*Brentwood Estates
*20th Street NE/Parker Street District
*Blythe Oldfield
*Blueberry Hill
*Rolling Hills
*Laurel Ridge
Climate
Since 1908, 28 tornadoes have been documented in the Cleveland area, seven of which struck on April 27, 2011. The deadliest was an EF4 tornado that killed over twenty people southwest of Cleveland.
Demographics
Cleveland is the principal city of the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...
that covers Bradley and Polk counties and had a combined population of 115,788 at the 2010 census.
2000 census
As of the census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 37,192 people, 15,037 households, and 9,518 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 16,431 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 89.00% White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 7.01% African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.23% Native American, 0.97% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 1.29% from other races, and 1.46% from two or more races. Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 2.87% of the population.
There were 15,037 households, out of which 28.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.6% were married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.7% were non-families. 30.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.90.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 21.9% under the age of 18, 15.4% from 18 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,098, and the median income for a family was $40,150. Males had a median income of $30,763 versus $21,480 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $18,316. About 11.3% of families and 16.1% of the population were below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 19.5% of those under age 18 and 14.3% of those age 65 or over.
2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 41,285 people, 16,107 households, and 10,063 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 17,841 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 87.10% White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 7.39% African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.40% Native American, 1.53% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, and 1.69% from two or more races. Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 7.52% of the population.
There were 16,107 households, out of which 27.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.0% were married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.5% were non-families. 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 26.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.97.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 21.83% under the age of 18, 63.35% ages 18 to 64, and 14.83% over the age of 65. The gender makeup was 52.4% female and 47.6% male. The median female age was 36.5 and the median male age was 32.9
The median income for a household in the city was $36,270, and the median income for a family was $47,104. The per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $21,576. About 15.0% of families and 21.1% of the population were below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 25.5% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over.
2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 47,356 people, 16,669 households, and 10,005 families residing in the city.
Religion
Cleveland is located in a region of the Southern United States known as the Bible Belt
The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States and the Midwestern state of Missouri (which also has significant Southern influence), where evangelical Protestantism exerts a strong social and cultural influence. The region has been de ...
. Numerous Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is a distinct Religion, religious body within Christianity that comprises all Church (congregation), church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadersh ...
s are represented in the city, including several Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...
groups for which Cleveland serves as the international headquarters. Denominations based in Cleveland include:
* Church of God and its affiliated school, Lee University
Lee University is a Private university, private Church of God (Cleveland), Christian university in Cleveland, Tennessee. It was founded in 1918 as the Church of God Bible Training School with twelve students and one teacher, Nora I. Chambers. Th ...
* Church of God of Prophecy
* The Church of God (Charleston, Tennessee)
* The Church of God for All Nations
* The Church of God (Jerusalem Acres)
* The Church of God under the leadership of Bishop James C. Nabors
There are approximately 200 Protestant churches, one Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
church, and one Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
church in Bradley County. An estimated 39.6 percent of residents have no religious affiliation.[
Several churches in Downtown Cleveland are of notable ]architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
, including the Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...
Broad Street United Methodist Church, the First Presbyterian Church on Ocoee Street, and St. Luke's Episcopal Church, which was built in the Gothic Revival style by architect Peter Williamson. All three are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
Cleveland is home to the famous Craigmiles Mausoleum, located at 320 Broad Street NW, behind St. Luke's Episcopal Church. The mausoleum contains the body of Nina Craigmiles, a seven-year-old who died on October 18, 1871, when a horse buggy in which she was riding was struck by a train. Her father, John Craigmiles, constructed the church and mausoleum in Nina's memory. He named the church St. Luke's because the girl died on St. Luke's Day. Shortly after Nina's body was placed inside the mausoleum, red stains appeared on the marble. Over the years the stained marble has been replaced, but the stains inevitably reappear. Craigmiles commissioned a statue of Nina, which was to be shipped from Europe. It was being transported via the RMS ''Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
'' and sank with the ship.
Economy
Cleveland is considered to be one of the largest industrial and manufacturing hubs in the state of Tennessee, with the number of manufacturers reportedly ranking fifth highest in the state.[ Goods produced include household ]cooking
Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...
equipment, foodstuff
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is in ...
, textile
Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...
s, furniture
Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...
, storage batteries
A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of Accumulator (energy), energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a ...
, pharmaceutical
Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...
s, industrial cleaning product
Cleaning agents or hard-surface cleaners are substances (usually liquids, powders, sprays, or granules) used to remove dirt, including dust, stains, foul odors, and clutter on surfaces. Purposes of cleaning agents include health, beauty, removing ...
s, photographic processing
Photographic processing or photographic development is the chemical means by which photographic film or paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. Photographic processing transforms the latent image i ...
, industrial and domestic chemical
A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...
s, and automotive parts. Top employers include Whirlpool
A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...
, Johnston Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
, Mars, Inc., Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...
, Duracell
Duracell Inc. is an American manufacturer of alkaline batteries, specialty cells, and rechargeables; it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway since 2016. The company has its origins in the 1920s, through the work of Samuel Ruben a ...
, Peyton's Southeastern, Arch Chemicals, Advanced Photographic Solutions, Renfro Foods, Flowers Bakery, Olin Corporation
Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Acciden ...
, Georgia Pacific, Rubbermaid, Exel, Inc., Jackson Furniture, Cleveland Chair Company, Eaton Corporation
Eaton Corporation plc is an American-Irish-domiciled multinational power management company, with a primary administrative center in Beachwood, Ohio. Eaton has more than 85,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175 countr ...
, Formulated Solutions, Lonza, Wacker, Mueller Company, and Polartec.[ In total, Cleveland contains more than 150 manufacturing firms and thirteen ]Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
Companies.
Cleveland is the location for the corporate headquarters of Life Care Centers of America, the largest privately held nursing facility company in the US, founded and owned by Forrest Preston. Check Into Cash Inc., the largest privately held payday loan
A payday loan (also called a payday advance, salary loan, payroll loan, small dollar loan, short term, or cash advance loan) is a short-term unsecured loan, often characterized by high interest rates. These loans are typically designed to cover ...
company in the US, was founded in Cleveland in 1993 by businessman Allan Jones. Hardwick Clothes, the oldest tailor-made clothing maker in America, was founded in 1880 and has been headquartered in Cleveland for its entire history. In addition to corporate businesses, Cleveland has a thriving retail sector, located mostly in the northern part of the city. Bradley Square Mall is a shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...
with more than 50 tenants.
Tourism
Tourism is a major part of Cleveland's income. Visitors come from all over the country. The Cherokee National Forest
The Cherokee National Forest is a United States National Forest located in the U.S. states of Tennessee and North Carolina that was created on June 14, 1920. The forest is maintained and managed by the United States Forest Service. It encompas ...
in Polk County supports many recreational outdoor activities. The Ocoee and Hiwassee rivers both flow through the forest. Thousands of people raft
A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...
these rivers annually. The Ocoee River was the site of the canoe slalom events for the 1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
in Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
. Red Clay State Park is a historical site just north of the Georgia state line. The Cherokee held council here after being driven out of Georgia. The Museum Center at Five Points is a history museum
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
and cultural center
A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run.
Africa
* ...
that features exhibits on the Ocoee Region and surrounding areas. The Ocoee Regional Nature Center is a state-certified arboretum
An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
. It houses over 100 types of trees, plants, flowers, and shrubs.
Arts and culture
The MainStreet Cleveland Halloween
Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
Block Party draws more than 20,000 people to the city every year. The event began in 1988 as a candy handout at the Cleveland Police Department and Centenary Avenue, and has grown to one of the largest events in Cleveland. It features live music, food stands, and a costume contest. In 2015 Cleveland's mayor, Tom Rowland, dubbed the city as the "Halloween capital of the world".
Cleveland is known for Tall Betsy, the official "Halloween goblin of Bradley County". For years, Tall Betsy's Halloween night appearance drew large crowds to Cleveland's Centenary Avenue. The growing crowds inspired MainStreet Cleveland to organize the Halloween Block Party around the event. Local businessman Allan Jones created the modern legend from tales of the Tall Betsy goblin that his grandmother told him as a child. The original legend dates to the 19th century, with print references in the ''Cleveland Daily Herald'' as early as 1892. In 1998, Tall Betsy retired after drawing a crowd of over 25,000 people. She returned in 2005 to celebrate her 25th anniversary.
The Cleveland Apple Festival, begun in 2002, is an annual family event held on the third weekend of October. This festival offers a juried art and craft show, live bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass has roots in African America ...
, food booths, pony and a hayride, entertainment, contests and children's activities. Unlike many festivals of its kind in the U.S., the Cleveland Apple Festival does not charge for children to participate in activities provided in the children's area. The festival is operated as a 501(c)(3)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...
public charity
Charity may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...
.
The city song is "The Diplomat", composed by John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa ( , ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era known primarily for American military March (music), marches. He is known as "The March King" or th ...
. It debuted as conducted by Sousa in a performance in 1906 at the Craigmiles Opera House. In November 2017, the city celebrated its 175th anniversary.
In 2024, the Tennessee state legislature named hot slaw the first official state food of Tennessee, and Cleveland the hot slaw capital of Tennessee.
Sports
Cleveland currently has no professional sports teams, but has had two minor league baseball
Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...
teams: the Cleveland Counts from 1911 to 1913 and the Cleveland Manufacturers from 1921 to 1922. Both of these teams were part of the Appalachian League
The Appalachian League is a Collegiate summer baseball, collegiate summer baseball league that operates in the Appalachian regions of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Designed for rising freshmen and sophomores using wooden ...
.
Cleveland High School has one of the most successful football programs in Tennessee. It has the second-longest winning streak in Tennessee high school football history, with 54 consecutive wins between 1993 and 1996. The Blue Raiders have also won state championships in 1968, 1993, 1994 and 1995.
The Cleveland High and Bradley Central wrestling teams traditionally dominate the state wrestling championships. Since 1994, the Bradley Central Bears have won a total of 27 state championships Traditional category and 14 state championships in the Dual category, winning a state championship every year in the Traditional category between 1993 and 2017. The Cleveland Blue Raiders, based at the state-of-the-art Jones Wrestling Center, have won a total of 26 traditional championships, most recently in 2020. The Cleveland Blue Raiders, based at the state-of-the-art Jones Wrestling Center, ">10/sup> have won a total of 29 traditional championships, most recently in 2023. The Blue Raiders have won state championships in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, 2023, and 2024.
In 2013, the Cleveland City Council presented a resolution honoring the Cleveland High School wrestling team, and declared February 25 as "Blue Raider Wrestling Day". The Blue Raiders were state champions for the second time in three years after winning the 2013 TSSAA Division I Traditional State Championships and the State Duals Finals. The team was runner-up in both the Duals and State Tournaments in 2012, after claiming the Traditional title in 2011.
Parks and recreation
Several public recreational parks are located within or near Cleveland. They are all maintained by the Cleveland Parks and Recreation department. They allow a variety of activities, and some organized sports teams compete at them. The Cleveland/Bradley County Greenway is an approximately 4.4 mile long greenway path which follows South Mouse Creek from downtown to neighborhoods in the northern part of the city. Other facilities include the Bradley County Park, Kenneth L. Tinsley Park, Greenway Park, Mosby Park, Deer Park, College Hill Recreation Center, Johnston Park, Leonard Fletcher Park, Taylor Spring Park, Cleveland Family YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
, and the South Cleveland Community Center.
Government
The city of Cleveland operates under a council/manager form of government with an elected mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
and seven council
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
members. Five are elected from single-member district
A single-member district or constituency is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders.
In some countries, such as Australia and India ...
s, and two are elected at-large
At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...
, as is the mayor. The city council chooses a fellow council member to serve as vice mayor
The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor and assistant mayor) is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many local governments.
Duties and functions
Many elected deputy mayors are members of the loca ...
.[ The city council hires a professional ]city manager
A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city in the council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are referred to as the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief administ ...
to carry out daily operations. The mayor is Kevin Brooks, who has held that position since September 2018, and the vice mayor is at-large councilman Avery Johnson. The city manager is Joe Fivas, who has held that position since June 2016. Elections are nonpartisan and take place in August of every even year, along with the state primary.
Most of Cleveland is in the 4th congressional district of Tennessee for the U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
, represented by Republican Scott DesJarlais
Scott Eugene DesJarlais ( ; born February 21, 1964) is an American politician and physician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2011. The district stretches across East and Middle Tennessee. He is a member of the Republican Party.
E ...
. A small amount of the city, including East Cleveland and northeast Cleveland, are in the 3rd congressional district, represented by Republican Chuck Fleischmann
Charles Joseph Fleischmann ( ; born October 11, 1962) is an American attorney and politician who has been the U.S. representative for since 2011. The district is based in Chattanooga and includes a large part of East Tennessee, including Oak ...
. Most of Cleveland is part of District 24 of the Tennessee House of Representatives
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.
Constitutional requirements
According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...
, represented by Mark Hall. A small part of the city is in District 22, represented by Republican Dan Howell. Most of Cleveland is part of District 9
''District 9'' is a 2009 science fiction action film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It is a co-production of New Zealand ...
for the Tennessee Senate
The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee , Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.
The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any ...
, represented by Republican Mike Bell. A small portion of the city is in District 10, represented by Republican Todd Gardenhire.
Cleveland and Bradley County have historically been majority-Republican since the Civil War, as has most of East Tennessee
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...
. Through much of the 20th century, Middle and West Tennessee were majority Democrat, which Democrats were made up of conservative whites. As a whole, Tennessee was considered part of the Solid South
The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the aftermath of the Co ...
. Both areas had been slave societies, and West Tennessee was dominated by large cotton plantations, whereas East Tennessee was based in yeoman farmers and little slaveholding. Since the Republican Party's founding, only two Democratic presidential candidates have won Bradley County; Southerner Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
in 1912
This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15.
In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...
and Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
in 1936
Events January–February
* January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House.
* January 28 – Death and state funer ...
, during the Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
.
Education
Cleveland High School, Bradley Central High School and Walker Valley High School are the three public high school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
s in Bradley County. Cleveland Middle, Ocoee Middle and Lake Forest are the three middle school
Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...
s. Cleveland City Schools is a school system for students living within the city limits. Several elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
s serve students within different sub-district divisions. Some schools maintained by Bradley County Schools are also in the city. Tennessee Christian Preparatory School is a Christian college preparatory school located in Cleveland.
The city is also home to Cleveland State Community College, a unit of the Tennessee Board of Regents, as well as Lee University
Lee University is a Private university, private Church of God (Cleveland), Christian university in Cleveland, Tennessee. It was founded in 1918 as the Church of God Bible Training School with twelve students and one teacher, Nora I. Chambers. Th ...
, the second-largest private, four-year university in the state.
Public schools
High schools
* Cleveland High School
* Bradley Central High School
*Walker Valley High School
Walker Valley High School (WVHS) is a public high school in the Bradley County Schools system located in the northern part of Bradley County, Tennessee near Charleston. The school serves about 1,600 students in grades 9–12.
The school's mas ...
*Teen Learning Center
Private schools
* Tennessee Christian Preparatory School
*Cleveland Christian School
*Candies Creek Academy
*Bowman Hills Adventist School
*Shenandoah Baptist Academy
*United Christian Academy
*Vanguard Christian Academy
Higher education
* Cleveland State Community College
*Lee University
Lee University is a Private university, private Church of God (Cleveland), Christian university in Cleveland, Tennessee. It was founded in 1918 as the Church of God Bible Training School with twelve students and one teacher, Nora I. Chambers. Th ...
* Pentecostal Theological Seminary
* Church of God School of Ministry
Media
Newspapers
The '' Cleveland Daily Banner'' is the town's newspaper. The paper was first published in 1854. Additionally, the ''Chattanooga Times Free Press
The ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's majo ...
'', a paper based in Chattanooga, also serves as a primary source of news for Bradley County residents.
Radio
Several radio station
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
s located within Chattanooga and neighboring cities serve Cleveland, along with others licensed to Cleveland, which are listed below:
Television
Cleveland is served by several TV stations licensed both in the city and neighboring cities. Stations licensed in Cleveland include:
Infrastructure
Transportation
Air
Hardwick Field, also known as Cleveland Municipal Airport, was the principal airport from 1955 to 2013. Cleveland Regional Jetport, located approximately two miles east of Hardwick Field opened on January 25, 2013, replacing Hardwick Field. It consists of a runway.
Rail
Cleveland is served by the Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...
, which forks in the city and provides logistics for industries.
Into the late 1960s the Southern Railway operated daily passenger trains through Cleveland station: the '' Birmingham Special'' (New York - Birmingham), ''Pelican
Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before ...
'' (New York - New Orleans) and '' Tennessean'' (Washington - Memphis). The last train serving the station was an unnamed remnant of the ''Birmingham Special'' on August 11, 1970.
Roads
The center of Cleveland is at the intersection of U.S. Route 11 and U.S. Route 64. U.S. 11 connects the area with Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
to the south and Athens
Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
to the north. The U.S. 11 Bypass (Keith Street) serves as a bypass route for US 11 around downtown, passing approximately west of the central business district
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit."
A business entity is not necessar ...
. U.S. Route 64 connects Cleveland with Murphy, North Carolina, to the east and the Chattanooga area to the southwest. State Route 60 (25th Street) connects Cleveland with Dayton
Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
to the northwest and Dalton, Georgia
Dalton is a city and the county seat of Whitfield County, Georgia, Whitfield County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. It is also the principal city of the Dalton metropolitan area, Dalton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encomp ...
, to the southeast, where the road becomes State Route 71. State Route 74 connects the city to Chatsworth, Georgia
Chatsworth is a city in and the county seat of Murray County, Georgia, Murray County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. It is part of the Dalton, Georgia, Dalton metropolitan area, Georgia, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its populati ...
to the south. APD-40
APD-40 or APD 40 is a road composed of the U.S. Route 64 Bypass (US 64 Byp.) and a section of Tennessee State Route 60, State Route 60 (SR 60) which forms a partial beltway around the business district of Cleveland, Tennessee. The ro ...
, made up of the U.S. 64 Bypass and a section of S.R. 60, is part of the Appalachian Development Highway System
The Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS) is a series of highway corridors in the Appalachia region of the eastern United States. The routes are designed as local and regional routes for improving economic development in the historica ...
from where it takes its name, and serves as a beltway
A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...
around the business district. Parts of this beltway are controlled access
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
. Paul Huff Parkway serves as a major thoroughfare on the northern end of the city. Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
passes through western Cleveland, connecting the area with Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...
to the north and Chattanooga to the south. I-75 has three exits in the city.
=Principal highways
=
* Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
* US 11
*
US 64
*
US 64 Bypass
*
US 11 Bypass
*
US 74
*
SR 60
*
SR 74
* Paul Huff Parkway
=Other major roadways
=
*Mouse Creek Road
*Stuart Road
*Peerless Road
*Georgetown Road
*
*Freewill Road
*20th Street NE
*17th Street NW
*Michigan Avenue Road
*Benton Pike
*Blue Springs Road
*McGrady Drive
Public transportation
The Cleveland Urban Area Transit System (CUATS) is a bus service operated by the Southeast Tennessee Human Resource Agency (SETHRA) that operates within the city limits of Cleveland and select parts of Bradley County. The city operates on five fixed routes.[ A ]Greyhound
The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a dog breed, breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets.
Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-c ...
bus station is located on Paul Huff Parkway just off of I-75 exit 27.
Public safety
The Cleveland Fire Department is an all-paid professional department. It currently consists of more than 90 highly trained personnel and 6 stations, and serves an estimated 67,000 people. The current chief is Robert Gaylor. The Cleveland Police department currently has more than 90 Certified Police Officers, two Codes Enforcement Officers and 11 full-time civilian employees, along with one part-time civilian employee, 13 School Crossing Guards and eight Animal Control employees. They also maintain a Volunteer Program consisting of a 15-member Public Service Unit and a nine-member Chaplain Unit. The Chief of Police is Mark Gibson.
Healthcare
Cleveland's two hospitals are Bradley Memorial Hospital and Cleveland Community Hospital. Since 2015, both have been operated by Tennova Healthcare. Bradley Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center is a nursing home
A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of older people, senior citizens, or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as care homes, skilled nursing facilities (SNF), or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms ...
that serves the county. Bradley County Emergency Medical Services is an emergency medical service
Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to ...
(EMS) agency of the county government established in 1972 and consists of three stations, eleven ambulances, and six ancillary vehicles, along with more than 60 full-time employees and more than 25 part-time employees.
Utilities
Cleveland Utilities is a corporate agency owned by the city which provides electric, water, and sewage services to residents of Cleveland and surrounding areas. Cleveland Utilities receives water from the Hiwassee and Tennessee Rivers and a spring in Waterville just southeast of the city, and purchases electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...
, which is delivered via two subtransmission substations in the city. Wastewater is pumped to a treatment facility on the Hiwassee River in northern Bradley County. Natural gas
Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...
is provided by Chattanooga Gas, a subsidiary of Southern Company
Southern Company is an American gas and electric utility holding company based in the Southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices located in Birmingham, Alabama. As of 2021 it is the second largest ut ...
. Other local providers include the Hiwassee Utilities Commission, Ocoee Utility District, and Volunteer Electric Cooperative.[
]
Public works
The Public Works Department performs the most varied actions of all the city departments. It has approximately 51 employees. The department is responsible for the city's fleet operation, sign maintenance and design, and street markings. The current director is Tommy Myers.
Notable people
Sister cities
* Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since 1865 and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its political, economic, industr ...
, Cambodia
See also
* List of cities in Tennessee
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Bradley County, Tennessee
Notes
References
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External links
City of Cleveland official website
Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce official website
*
{{authority control
Cities in Tennessee
Cities in Bradley County, Tennessee
County seats in Tennessee
Cleveland metropolitan area, Tennessee
Populated places established in 1835
1835 establishments in Tennessee