I've been trying to do a lot of "I've lived in Cleveland but never ______" this summer; not so much 'bucket list' stuff, just I've been here long enough so there's no excuse. Until a month or so ago, I'd never been to an Indians game and then when the One World Festival was announced for the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, I thought it'd be a great time to finally check them out. The Cultural Gardens are located near University Circle, primarily along a 1.5 mile stretch along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard (main north-south artery), with some gardens connecting adjacent roads (East Blvd., etc.) as they have a terraced layout. Until recently, MLK was viewed as the quickest way from I-90 along the Lake to University Circle - a recent streetscaping made it more accessible for people wanting to visit the gardens. I'm hoping to go back to the gardens we missed sometime soon, but for now, here's what I saw. For more info, visit http://www.culturalgardens.org/gardens.aspx

 

Obligatory skyline shot en route:

 

The Temple on East 105th, which has quite an interesting history:

 

One of the main features are the stone bridges along MLK - this happens to be my hands-down favorite:

 

 

 

 

This bridge isn't too shabby, either  :-)

 

We made it to our first garden, the Irish Cultural Garden - note the layout is a Celtic Cross. I'm of Irish-German descent so this was a treat.

 

 

Croatian Garden - one of the 'next time, we'll spend more time' spots:

 

Shakespearean Garden entrance:

 

One of several grand homes along East Boulevard:

 

Over to the Hebrew Garden:

 

 

 

Not easy to see here, but the layout is in the Star of David:

 

Next up is the Hungarian Garden:

 

 

 

 

German Garden - wrapped up my ancestry in one trip :-)

 

This is the largest statue in the Cultural Gardens:

 

 

More homes along East Boulevard:

 

A good friend sculpted a few of the pieces in the Lithuanian Garden:

 

 

 

 

One thing I really enjoyed about the festival was the occasional 'mash up' - see the Indian group? They're performing in the Greek Garden :-)

 

 

Over to the statue of Dante in the Italian Garden - I loved the Italian Garden but that may have had something to do with the bar serving Peroni on a hot summer day ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, the Slovak Garden which is undergoing renovation - to their credit, the people there were in full-on traditional costume and happy to share the new plans as well as their history in Cleveland:

 

 

 

That's hand embroidered folks:

 

This was a first for the Gardens to have a full blown 'festival' - hope they do it next year (and the year after):

 

Another half-mile, another beautiful bridge:

 

 

Another sculpture - this is in the Azerbaijan Garden:

 

 

Next up is the Serbian Garden:

 

 

 

 

 

Shrine to Nikolai Tesla in the Serbian Garden:

 

At this point, we had to head back:

 

The African-American Garden - for now, a rendering - in the future, who knows?

 

Next door, the Ukrainian Garden:

 

 

 

 

 

Sculpture at the Latvian Garden - the cutout is the silhouette of a traditional Latvian woman's garb:

 

 

Next door is the Estonian Garden:

 

 

 

 

Next up is the Finnish Garden:

 

 

 

 

And of course, next to Finland is the Indian Garden  :-)

 

 

 

 

Probably my second favorite bridge along the route:

 

But of course, nothing beats this beauty - hope you enjoyed!

 

 

OUTSTANDING pics MayDay!  What an asset we have with our Cultural Gardens- I like that the One World Festival brings attention to what we have here.   

Completely agree. These are one of the crown jewels of Cleveland and yet I never hear anyone talking about them (I'm guilty of this as well). Fabulous.

When my Dad came to the CLE in the early 50s, he had spent a year in NYC and a year in Paris.  He always said, nothing there compared to the beauty of the cultural gardens when he got here.

It looks like better days are ahead for the area.

 

Thanks for the post MayDay!

Beautiful gardens! I love how Cleveland celebrates the diverse cultures that call the region home.

Thanks everyone - I've added captions.

A clearly under-rated cultural asset. The city has done a great job in improving the whole park. I remember when the park and the various gardens were unkempt and vandalized.......like seriously. Great job in showing it all off Mayday!

One of the most unique attractions in this state, no doubt.  Is there a Chinese or any East Asian gardens?  I know there's an Asiatown so I'm presuming something of that sort is in there?

Wow how did I miss this event?! Im disappointed I have to wait till next year to attend! This is a great event idea. I always thought we dont do enough to bring people to the gardens and show them what exists. Im glad things seem to be changing. Hopefully this is just the beginning of more events in the park.

One of the most unique attractions in this state, no doubt.  Is there a Chinese or any East Asian gardens?  I know there's an Asiatown so I'm presuming something of that sort is in there?

 

If I remember correctly, the Chinese garden is closer to the end of Rockefeller Park, near Univeristy Circle....and it maybe the most impressive garden

Thanks Mayday, this is a wonderful set of pics.  I always take out of towners through this area (or send them through if they ask what to do), and it is looking much better taken care of these days.  Your favorite bridge is also a fav of mine, and it looks like it has been fixed up.  There was a point when is was starting to look really dilapidated.  Also, when I lived in Shaker Square in the early 90's, I would drive this route to some friends house in Waterloo/ N Collinwood and they (as lifelong Clevelanders) warned me that people would roll tires down the hills onto MLK late at night to stop cars and rob them.  Don't know how much of that is true but I never saw anything of the sort.  Apparently, it also used to be very dark and street lights were added to be be only 10-20 feet apart to brighten it up and curb criminal activity.  http://tricvoice.medianewsonline.com/?p=209

 

As far as being just a thoroughfare for traffic from I90 to UC, it was actually calmed in the late 80's or early 90's..it used to be much worse.  The striping was changed around then to reduce it from 4 lanes to 2 (maybe this coincided with the added lighting fix up?).  That's why you see the wide shoulders and the weird double, double yellow line.  It might be a nice idea to just shut it down completely to autos during this fest...or even do that one Sunday a month during the Spring to Fall to get more people down there on bikes and walking.

One of the most unique attractions in this state, no doubt.  Is there a Chinese or any East Asian gardens?  I know there's an Asiatown so I'm presuming something of that sort is in there?

 

Yes the Chinese garden is very impressive - I have photos of it, but not from this event. It's at the southernmost point in Rockefeller Park and our start/end point was further north. Ah well, just another reason to go back. I should also mention that they have a citizenship ceremony at the One World Festival - I didn't attend, but if you ever get the chance to go to a citizenship ceremony - do it. Makes you realize that we have a lot to be grateful for in the USA. :)

One of the most unique attractions in this state, no doubt.  Is there a Chinese or any East Asian gardens?  I know there's an Asiatown so I'm presuming something of that sort is in there?

 

If I remember correctly, the Chinese garden is closer to the end of Rockefeller Park, near Univeristy Circle....and it maybe the most impressive garden

nonsense! the Finnish garden is the most impressive :-P (okay, guilty as charged. But no bust of Sibelius? Too obvious?) Seriously these are really beautiful. Wasn't there a thread a while ago about how rundown this area was? It looks great now.

Thanks, Mayday, this was awesome!  I'm a sucker for formal landscape elements so have always loved all the stonework, stairways, and sculpture in these gardens. I really, really hope this event become an annual affair.  Seems like a great way to introduce a ton of people to the gardens (without any fear of adjacent neighborhoods) and also a great way to motivate the various nationality groups to keep investing in the gardens every year.  They are looking great!

If you would like to see a map and other information about the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, see:

 

http://www.culturalgardens.org/

 

Wonderful set, MayDay! Of course, now that you've done this photo essay, these secret gardens won't be such a secret anymore... ;)

 

 

 

Ironically, when you showed the photograph of Shakespeare's Garden, I thought of this fave of mine from the 90s......

 

nice thread - i love the latvian cutout sculpture and the gardens look in better shape than ever.

 

and metrocity thats such a great idea to close it off to cars one weekend a month for biking and pedestrians.

 

Thanks MayDay - I was out of town this weekend and missed this awesome event. Your photos helped me feel like I was there! 

 

This area is full of such strong emotion for me - I have Ukrainian, Russian and Hungarian roots reaching deep in Cleveland...

 

Looks great, i so wanted to go to this.

Thanks for posting