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Now that's density!  At the turn of the century, Cleveland's population density was 16,000+ people per square mile. And mid-rises were just starting to get built.

 

This is the Caxton Building (812 Huron) and Electric Building (700 Prospect) under construction, probably 1900-1901.  Note the rare view of some of the homes and residential buildings that were still in the area at the turn of the century. 

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"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

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This is For all of you railroad historians...don't mention it 

 

The 49th floor of Terminal Tower in August 1927

 

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"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

27 minutes ago, KJP said:

The 49th floor of Terminal Tower in August 1927

 

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My great grandfather was an Irish immigrant and a steel worker. He died on the construction of the Terminal Tower. Easy to see how

Some fairly high-res, 1930s photos that are new to me, at least.

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On 4/5/2022 at 1:13 PM, gruver said:

 

 

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Why is Jon Lovitz crossing the street in the bottom photo? I didn’t realize he was that old :)

Amazing pics, especially that Euclid Avenue image.

A shame that most of those Warehouse District buildings were replaced by parking lots.

In that first shot, it looks like this was Iron Curtain Bridge's predecessor.

 

If there ever were a neglected opportunity, it would be to somehow connect the Flats to Wendy Park/Whiskey Island with that bridge, and relocate all that industrial sh*t somewhere. Well, except for the trains.

 

Forget Burke and the associated headaches of redevelopment; connecting downtown directly to miles of Wendy Park/Whiskey Island/Edgewater would be epic. You need an army of drones to figure out how to get there otherwise.

On 4/7/2022 at 3:14 AM, jeremyck01 said:


Why is Jon Lovitz crossing the street in the bottom photo? I didn’t realize he was that old :)

 

He was time traveling to research an upcoming role... ...yeah, that's the ticket

  • 2 weeks later...

August 30, 1964, looking south on East 9th Street from the lakefront 

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"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

Nice photo! I'd say Cleveland has done a great job of filling in that space now. It may not seem like we are always playing catchup with development compared to the boom cities around the country but when you consider where we started from we are doing alright.

  • 2 weeks later...

These aren't really historic, but the subject matter is. You just don't see lunch hour crowds downtown anymore. These were in my Facebook memories for today. This one is from May 7, 2015 of Public Square at lunch time....

 

Public Square lunch crowd 050715.jpg

 

And this is Euclid at East 9th on May 7, 2013. I used to work at Tower City in 2016 and at the City Club Building in 2013. Now I work from home in Lakewood....

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"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

I miss seeing people on the streets downtown. To me, that is the one thing that separates cities. You can have all these other metrics that measure how a city is doing but simply having a vibrant street life is what does it for me. 

Nice juxtaposition 

 

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

  • 4 weeks later...

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Wow, blast from my past.

Here's a nice shot of the City of Cleveland III at something like full power (about 16 knots).

 

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Remember: It's the Year of the Snake

summer is just around the corner ...

 

world series of rock

june 14, 1975

the rolling stones

 

 

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The good old days. I don't miss the smog or World War II. But I do miss the trains.

 

 

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

^ Yikes!! 

 

We can wring our hands about how society seems to be on the wrong track today but one thing we have to admit is the air quality is much much better. Thank you EPA.

Nyah see, they had to maximize output for the war effort, see?

  • 2 weeks later...


Case Main:

 

 

On 6/15/2022 at 11:15 AM, cadmen said:

^ Yikes!! 

 

We can wring our hands about how society seems to be on the wrong track today but one thing we have to admit is the air quality is much much better. Thank you EPA.

 

On 6/15/2022 at 11:06 AM, KJP said:

The good old days. I don't miss the smog or World War II. But I do miss the trains.

 

 

 

OBVIOUSLY agree that we're better off without the smog and I'm grateful for that. 

 

But there's still something intrinsically beautiful to me about the Rust Belt smoke stacks

 

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

Lots of "planned but never happened" in this 1917 report of the railroads on Cleveland. Among the never happened were:

 

1. Group Plan Union Station at the north end of the malls

2. a stub-end railroad/transit/interurban station on Public Square

3. straightened river channel

4. Lorain-Huron high-level bridge

5. redesign old Superior Viaduct into a Detroit-St. Clair bridge

 

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"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

41 minutes ago, KJP said:

Lots of "planned but never happened" in this 1917 report of the railroads on Cleveland. Among the never happened were:

 

1. Group Plan Union Station at the north end of the malls

2. a stub-end railroad/transit/interurban station on Public Square

3. straightened river channel

4. Lorain-Huron high-level bridge

5. redesign old Superior Viaduct into a Detroit-St. Clair bridge

 

 

Were plans drawn up for the old Union Station, and could we use such plans as a starting point for a new Amtrak/multi-modal station across the tracks from the mall?

Years ago, I saw rendering for a beautiful Beaux Arts entrance to a Lorain-Huron bridge.  Have not been able to find it since....

On 6/30/2022 at 3:54 PM, Foraker said:

Were plans drawn up for the old Union Station, and could we use such plans as a starting point for a new Amtrak/multi-modal station across the tracks from the mall?

 

@Foraker Plans were not drawn up in great detail. The lakefront is very different today. Back then, the tracks were at the water's edge. And I doubt the track layouts would make sense for today's traffic flows. Here is the Group Plan of 1903 regarding the railroad station (14.9 MB PDF). Save it for future use. This link may not stay active forever...

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ckqalrxn0p1tdx5/Group_Plan_of_1903.pdf?dl=0

 

 

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

On 12/19/2021 at 10:56 PM, MuRrAy HiLL said:

 

My best guess is the J.B. Savage Printing Company (1395 East 3rd Street, Cleveland, OH) aka Wood St. 

 

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Here is a close up view.  SOURCE: https://en.phorio.com/file/865772455/

 

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Also interesting to note, Case School of Applied Science was on Rockwell from 1881-1885 before it was moved to University Circle. 

 

https://case.edu/its/archives/downtown/case.htm

 

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Just came across one more angle from an old book:

 

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This is likely from the first half of 1984 because I took a picture of Amtrak going across Whiskey Island in 1984 with the Sohio tower under construction in the background. It had two cranes and had topped out by July.

 

 

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

5 hours ago, KJP said:

This is likely from the first half of 1984 because I took a picture of Amtrak going across Whiskey Island in 1984 with the Sohio tower under construction in the background. It had two cranes and had topped out by July.

 

 

 

Commented on the OP that that would have been Kelly Steel Erectors.   I watched that building go up when I was finishing school and I remember it was them because my mom used to babysit the then owner.

2 minutes ago, E Rocc said:

 

Commented on the OP that that would have been Kelly Steel Erectors.   I watched that building go up when I was finishing school and I remember it was them because my mom used to babysit Michael, who was taking over for Garen the founder.

 

i wonder what these guys would think of the baseball team today?

 

the stone carvers

1931

 

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Before Cleveland Union Terminal, Terminal Tower, Tower City, etc....

 

 

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

  • 4 weeks later...
On 5/7/2022 at 3:09 PM, cadmen said:

I miss seeing people on the streets downtown. To me, that is the one thing that separates cities. You can have all these other metrics that measure how a city is doing but simply having a vibrant street life is what does it for me. 

And even adding residents doesn't do nearly what it did 15 years ago with regard to pedestrian street life.  People seem to stay in their homes, ordering everything, working from there, etc versus going out on the streets to catch buses or shop.  I can only imagine if downtown Cleveland's residential population in 2005 was at what it is today.  The scene on the streets would be vastly different.   

Universal Couchlock

On 8/10/2022 at 10:52 AM, Jenny said:

And even adding residents doesn't do nearly what it did 15 years ago with regard to pedestrian street life.  People seem to stay in their homes, ordering everything, working from there, etc versus going out on the streets to catch buses or shop.  I can only imagine if downtown Cleveland's residential population in 2005 was at what it is today.  The scene on the streets would be vastly different.   

 

I suspect one of the reasons people are more willing to live in downtown areas is the fact that in this day and age, they can turn off the extraneous interaction as they see fit.  To the point it's the best of both worlds, it's there when desired, easily escaped when not.    

There's a reason why the most expensive residences aren't exurban mansions, but condos/apartments in supertalls.    The latter are more convenient to activity, but also allow easy escape to plenty of space.   Some hate them being called "vertical sprawl", but that's precisely what they are.

Most of the people who stop me and insist on having random conversations have gray hair so it's most likely a generational thing. Younger people know that can be intrusive so they don't do that to each other.

1985 photo from the future site of Irishtown Bend Park by Thom Sheridan of where Merwin's Wharf and the Cleveland Rowing Society are now

 

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"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

On 8/13/2022 at 9:24 AM, E Rocc said:

 

I suspect one of the reasons people are more willing to live in downtown areas is the fact that in this day and age, they can turn off the extraneous interaction as they see fit.  To the point it's the best of both worlds, it's there when desired, easily escaped when not.    

There's a reason why the most expensive residences aren't exurban mansions, but condos/apartments in supertalls.    The latter are more convenient to activity, but also allow easy escape to plenty of space.   Some hate them being called "vertical sprawl", but that's precisely what they are.

 

 

no, they take up city center land that is already in use and so they are the exact opposite of anything sprawl.

 

urban setting city apt bldgs of any type are anti-sprawl.

On 8/13/2022 at 11:05 AM, GCrites80s said:

Most of the people who stop me and insist on having random conversations have gray hair so it's most likely a generational thing. Younger people know that can be intrusive so they don't do that to each other.

 

I haven't noticed that but come to think of it you're correct.   If it's something that's going away, good.   

 

 

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^ today’s view:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5019744,-81.6855264,3a,83.2y,252.87h,106.48t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s03MBXkSKuetGE_Y9Pdy4LQ!2e0

 

 

***
 

 

The Rise of Black Glenville

Home Share Your Story

 

GLENVILLE’S PAST

 

Founded in 1870 as a village, Glenville was home to many of Cleveland’s upper class residents who invested heavily into the area following WW1. They began building single and multi-family homes, and it quickly developed into a thriving neighborhood. 

 

more:

https://www.blackglenville.com/past

 

 

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Leading up to the 1970s, Glenville was called The Gold Coast because it was the second-largest business center outside of Downtown Cleveland. Photograph Collection, Cleveland Public Library

 

 

 

 

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People enjoyed the walkability of the neighborhood and that everything residents needed was in their neighborhood. Special Collections, Cleveland State University Library

 

Edited by mrnyc

 

 

🙌😮🤭😂🤦‍♂️

 

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On 8/17/2022 at 8:43 AM, E Rocc said:

 

I haven't noticed that but come to think of it you're correct.   If it's something that's going away, good.   

They're lonely.  Give 'em a break. 

Never heard of this before?

 

 

all about the cleveland clinic disaster may 15, 1923 --

123 died and many, many more injured blocks away.

-- basically the old xray film caught fire in the basement and poisoned everyone, plus explosions.

the good outcome is it changed how dangerous materials were handled nationwide and likely saved countless people.

 

 

 

 

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"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

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