Hough, Cleveland
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Hough (pronounced ) is a
neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
situated on the East Side of
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, Ohio. Roughly two square miles, the neighborhood is bounded to Superior and Euclid Avenue between East 55th and East 105th streets. Placed between
Downtown Cleveland Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The economic and cultural center of the city and the Cleveland metropolitan area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square, Cleveland, Publi ...
and
University Circle University Circle is a district in the neighborhood of University on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is home to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance Hall (home to the Cleveland Orchestra), the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland ...
, Hough borders Fairfax and Cedar–Central to the South and Glenville and St. Clair–Superior to the North. The neighborhood became a target for revitalization during the mid-20th century, after the 1966 Hough Riots.


History


Early history

Hough is one of Cleveland's oldest neighborhoods, named after Oliver and Eliza Hough, who first settled in the area in 1799. The neighborhood was incorporated into the city of Cleveland in 1873. At the start of the twentieth century, Hough was a community for primarily affluent white residents. Prominent local families, such as the Severances and the Boltons, lived in Hough at this time, rivaling Millionaire's Row on Euclid Avenue. Business sprung up around this period, including the
Warner & Swasey Company The Warner & Swasey Company was an American manufacturer of machine tools, Measuring instrument, instruments, and special machinery. It operated as an independent business firm, based in Cleveland, from its founding in 1880 until its acquisiti ...
in 1881. Other commercial institutions included the Doan's Corner Shopping District on East 105th and Hough Bakery (later Hough Bakeries Inc.) near East 87th Street on Hough Avenue. After the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, this population dwindled, leaving an ethnic European working-class majority. Hough then lost prominent institutions within the community, including
University School University School, commonly referred to as US, is an all-boys, private, Junior Kindergarten–12 school with two campus locations in the Greater Cleveland area of Ohio. The campus located in Shaker Heights serves junior kindergarten through ...
and League Park, the latter of which being the original home of the
Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...
. University School moved out to
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 * Cockta ...
, and the Indians slowly moved out to
Cleveland Municipal Stadium Cleveland Stadium, commonly known as Municipal Stadium, Lakefront Stadium or Cleveland Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the early multi-purpose stadiums, built to accommodate both baseball and foot ...
in Downtown.
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 an ...
exacerbated Hough's neighborhood deterioration, including a lack of dwelling space amidst population growth, conversion of single-family homes into multi-family homes, and a decrease in home ownership. During
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, the area between Lexington and Hough Avenues between East 73rd and East 79th Streets was known as "Little Hollywood" for the large number of
brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...
s and
speakeasies A speakeasy, also called a beer flat or blind pig or blind tiger, was an illicit establishment that sold alcoholic beverages. The term may also refer to a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. In the United State ...
located there.


Transition to an African American community

By 1960, multiple factors ultimately coalesced into Hough becoming a poor, majority African American community. The Second Great Migration and slum clearance in Cedar-Central created a mass influx of black people into Hough. This was exacerbated by other city planning projects aimed with clearing blight, including freeway construction through communities like Central and Downtown Cleveland. From 1957 to 1962, the city's University-Euclid urban renewal project demolished houses in Eastern Hough without creating enough new homes to compensate. A lack of a properly enforced housing code led Hough to become extremely overcrowded, as landlords continued to create multi-family housing out of large single-family homes.
Blockbusting Blockbusting was a business practice in the United States in which real estate agents and building developers convinced residents in a particular area to sell their property at below-market prices. This was achieved by fearmongering the homeowne ...
as a result of the increase in African Americans led to panic selling and
white flight The white flight, also known as white exodus, is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the Racism ...
to the suburbs. The massive population boom weighed on the school system, leading to the city to not only create two half day groups to attend schools but also to introduce
busing Desegregation busing (also known as integrated busing, forced busing, or simply busing) was an attempt to diversify the racial make-up of schools in the United States by transporting students to more distant schools with less diverse student pop ...
to white neighborhoods like Murray Hill. The latter was a controversial practice that led to racial violence against Black students from Hough and Glenville. In 1966, just months before the Hough Riots, the ''
Cleveland Press The ''Cleveland Press'' was a daily American newspaper published in Cleveland, Ohio from November 2, 1878, through June 17, 1982. From 1928 to 1966, the paper's editor was Louis B. Seltzer. Known for many years as one of the country's most in ...
'' described Hough as a “powder keg,” citing racial tensions akin to the Watts Uprising in
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during the previous summer. The neighborhood received national attention as a flashpoint of racial tension, when protest occurred for five days, or from July 18 to July 23.


Revitalization efforts


Stokes administration

The Hough Area Development Corporation (HADC) was founded by civil rights activist Reverend Deforest Brown in the wake of the 1966 uprising, using Cleveland: NOW! money from Carl Stokes' administration to fund housing and jobs in Hough. This included
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
Plaza, which was a mixed-use building that included housing and retail. The HADC additionally provided opportunities for a broader coalition of black business in the community, including job training. Both the HADC and the
black nationalist Black nationalism is a nationalist movement which seeks representation for Black people as a distinct national identity, especially in racialized, colonial and postcolonial societies. Its earliest proponents saw it as a way to advocate for ...
group Operation Black Unity successfully created black-owned
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
franchises through a 1969 boycott. Although the franchises bought by the HADC failed to make enough money by the mid-1970s, the effort was highly influential on inner-city McDonald's and black ownership in said communities. Stokes additionally worked with another black nationalist group called Cleveland Pride in 1968 to plant sod as a symbolic means of making the neighborhood more attractive and hospitable.


21st century

Hough has seen an increase of redevelopment, although it remains among the city's poorest neighborhoods. This includes the 2014 preservation of League Park, a $6.3 million effort that renovated the original diamond into an
AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for pitch (sports field), playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a pile (textile), short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Si ...
field and turned its ticket office into a Baseball Heritage Museum. Today, Hough forms part of the city's 7th Ward and is represented by Councilwoman Stephanie Howse.


Notable landmarks

Hough is home to some historical places, which include: * Crawford-Tilden Apartments on East 84th Street and Crawford, on the southwest corner. Built in 1908, the apartments are in 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 ...
and are a Cleveland Designated Landmark. *
League Park League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of Dunham Street (now known as East 66th Street) and Lexington Avenue in the Hough, Cleveland, Hough neighborhood. It was buil ...
on East 66th Street and Lexington Avenue, the original ballpark of the Cleveland Spiders/Indians and the
Negro League The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...
's Cleveland Buckeyes. While much of the stadium was demolished in the 1950s, the diamond is now a part of a public park. * The East 89th Street Historic District is a small residential sect between Chester and Hough Avenue and is home to
colonial revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...
housing indicative of the affluent residents that lived in Hough at the turn of the century. * The Charles F. Schweinfurth Residence close to the corner of Chester and East 75th Street was the home of the prominent Cleveland architect. Originally built for a member of the
Vanderbilt family The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanth ...
, the structure resembles a castle. After Schweinfurth's death, the house became a funeral home from 1930 to 1970, where it was then bought out and preserved in a larger 1970s attempt to revitalize the area.


References


External links

*
Audio of a 2016 panel discussion about the history of Hough
{{Coord, 41.512334, N, 81.635213, W, display=title Neighborhoods in Cleveland Populated places established in 1799