December 12, 201410 yr Could be the Frankfort Hotel. Nope, it's just a part of the facade of the May Company Building on Ontario.
December 15, 201410 yr okay, I know this ad/product isn't particularly historic, but Big Chuck is. Right? :drunk: http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
January 27, 201510 yr I've had some postcards from the 1950s and 1960s that have been kicking around my dresser drawers since I was kid. I ran into them again when I was looking for pictures I shot of Cleveland in the 1980s and 1990s. These are at much older and better. The Cleveland Hopkins Airport (the postcard is labeled on the back as such) is a George R. Klein News Co. postcard. The other three are Wilbur Evans Co. postcards. One has the Wilbur Evans Co. at 2120 South Taylor Road, Cleveland 18 Ohio (the steel mill shot) while the other two Evans postcards are listed at 4310 Mayfield Rd, Cleveland Ohio 44121. Not sure if any of that is important to anyone, but I'm sharing it just in case it is to someone, someday.... Anyway, here they are: Hopkins Airport and planes, site of N.A.S.A (likely in the 1960s since it doesn't say N.A.C.A.): Jones & Laughlin Steel Mill (seen from the Clark Avenue bridge -- likely photographed in the 1960s): In the late-1960s until the early 1980s, these were the Big Three skyscrapers downtown -- Terminal Tower, Federal Building and the Erieview Tower: Saving the best for last. I really wanted to ID the year this was taken. So... The first thing I noticed (of course!) was that only the Cleveland Union Terminal passenger rail tracks were visible across the Cuyahoga Viaduct and not the CTS Rapid (RTA Red Line) which didn't open until March 1955 on the east side and August 1955 on the west side. Likely, the tracks and ballast (gravel) is so freshly poured and not yet tamped around the ties that it appears bright-white. Another clue is the freshly demolished building on Public Square next to the Society For Savings building. That was built in 1898 as the Chamber of Commerce building and used after 1939 as the Cleveland College of Western Reserve University until the building was razed about 1955. So the aerial was apparently shot in early 1955 -- and it is in beautiful, living COLOR! "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
January 27, 201510 yr So here are the pictures I was actually looking for when I came across the postcards above. These are pictures I took while stopped in the middle of Harvard Road in the vicinity of I-271 in 1997. The Harvard-Interstate 271 interchange was just announced and would soon begin construction. The express lanes to fill the forested median of I-271 were nearly finished. The bridges over Harvard were finished in 1993 but wouldn't be fully in use until 1998 when the $155 million express lanes project was completed. The Harvard interchange didn't open until 2000. But I knew that once they were open, the rural setting would fill with sprawl quickly. So here's a few then-and-now pictures from 1997 (mine) vs 2011 (Streetview): SW Corner, Harvard and Richmond THEN SW Corner, Harvard and Richmond NOW +++++++ View westerly on Harvard Road, immediately east of I-271 THEN View westerly on Harvard Road, immediately east of I-271 NOW +++++++ View westerly on Harvard Road, immediately west of I-271 THEN View westerly on Harvard Road, immediately west of I-271 NOW "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
January 27, 201510 yr KJP, that last downtown postcard is great (so are the others). It also documents that the old Chamber of Commerce was one of the if not the first big losses to a surface parking lot in Downton. So basically Public Square hasn't been wholly surrounded by buildings since 1955. 60 years and counting...
January 27, 201510 yr KJP, that picture of the CLE's 3 tallest structures was taken around 1961-1962 I think. The reason being I do not see the "Peace Memorial" in the picture, and it was put up in 1964. Thanks for the look back.
January 27, 201510 yr KJP, that picture of the CLE's 3 tallest structures was taken around 1961-1962 I think. The reason being I do not see the "Peace Memorial" in the picture, and it was put up in 1964. Thanks for the look back. Wasn't Erieview Tower completed in 1964? "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
January 27, 201510 yr KJP, that picture of the CLE's 3 tallest structures was taken around 1961-1962 I think. The reason being I do not see the "Peace Memorial" in the picture, and it was put up in 1964. Thanks for the look back. Wasn't Erieview Tower completed in 1964? The resolution obviously isn't the best, but it does look like the Fountain of Eternal Life is indeed there. There appears to be an object in the middle of Mall A.
February 13, 201510 yr Euclid at Mayfield, SE Corner (aka The Triangle, Uptown), through the years..... 1965: 2000: 2014: "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 13, 201510 yr That's awesome! Do you have anymore? Check this collection: http://www.clevelandmemory.org/cceo/index.html "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 20, 201510 yr Detroit-Superior bridge (street deck) through the years.... c1926: c1930: 1938: 1952: c1960: Still looking for a 1970-era photo, showing what rush-hour traffic on the bridge was like before I-90 west completed through the west side in the mid-70s. Back then, radio traffic reports focused on traffic back-ups on Detroit Avenue, Lorain Avenue, Carnegie/Chester, etc. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 21, 201510 yr A few old pictures from the Haymarket District: The location of my great uncle's flat. Inside the Central Market. The Eagle Avenue Rolling Road. KJP posted a great summary of this street at some point. The old Central Viaduct. My great (great-great?) uncles. Brownell Jr. High School, where my uncle got his first library job as a page. He went on to be director of the Cleveland Public Library. “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
February 23, 201510 yr I. Leisy Brewey beer bottle found under the floorboards of my attic in Lakewood. From what I can tell it's been there since the house was built in 1907. Link to history of the brewery. http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=LBC1 Link to memorabilia: $$$$$$$ http://trayman.net/TrayDetail/factories/Leisy.htm
February 23, 201510 yr Nothing like opening up a wall etc on these old houses. Most house time capsules, hidden from us for the last 100 years!
February 23, 201510 yr Nothing like opening up a wall etc on these old houses. Most house time capsules, hidden from us for the last 100 years! In the early 1990s, my cousin remodeled the bathroom in his Washington DC townhouse. In the wall was a flat-top can of Valley Forge Ale, dated 1934. He offered it to me and asked me if I still collected beer cans. I hadn't since the 1970s, but I knew a valuable find when I saw one. So I accepted his offer and I still have the can. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 23, 201510 yr Nothing like opening up a wall etc on these old houses. Most house time capsules, hidden from us for the last 100 years! In the early 1990s, my cousin remodeled the bathroom in his Washington DC townhouse. In the wall was a flat-top can of Valley Forge Ale, dated 1934. He offered it to me and asked me if I still collected beer cans. I hadn't since the 1970s, but I knew a valuable find when I saw one. So I accepted his offer and I still have the can. We did my girlfriend's kitchen a while back and found all sorts of things that apparently the children of generations ago were dropping down through the openings in the attic two stories above. The best: empty condom boxes dating from the 1930's.
February 24, 201510 yr Well the box is better than used ones... I am still hoping to find a depression cash stash
February 24, 201510 yr Well the box is better than used ones... I am still hoping to find a depression cash stash Buy a house owned by a old-time mobster. Some good things can be found in the walls, like this house in Chicago.... http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-24/news/ct-met-family-secrets-search-20100324_1_family-secrets-trial-federal-agents-compartment "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 25, 201510 yr I came across a few old ACME News Pictures of the old "Angle" hillside north of Main Avenue on Cleveland's west side. Here's the first one. Quoted from the backside: Site of Cleveland's "Third Slum Elimination Project". Cleveland jumped into the lead in the nation's slum elimination program with the government's action in taking over a 22-acre west side tract for a $2,800,000 low cost housing project. This is the third slum elimination project approved by the government for Cleveland, and raises the U. S. Housing investment here to $9,000,000. The above air view shows the area to be beautified. Credit Line ACME 4/18/35
February 25, 201510 yr Quoted from the backside: U. S. Plans Third Slum Elimination Project in Cleveland. The... photo shows a row of homes located in the area to be affected. ACME 4/18/35
February 25, 201510 yr One of the oldest Irish slums in Cleveland, where many of those fleeing the Great Hunger of Ireland in the 1840s settled. Another part of the slum was previously eliminated by Bulkley Boulevard (today's West Shoreway) and Garrett Morgan water plant at the upper left of the excellent photo posted above. Thanks David! BTW, you might want to post these instead at http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,766.msg745786.html#new as this thread is for current development projects. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 25, 201510 yr Quoted from the backside: Looking Over Cleveland: Lakeview Terrace, where 600 families live in the shadow of the Main Avenue Bridge, overlooks lake front freight yards and docks. Here on the old "Angle" hillside leading to Whisky Island is a compact community complete with a shopping center, library, and playground. To the right, the bridge sweeps toward the stadium in the background. Hemming in the government project at the top and side is one of the city's busiest industrial sections. The open, grassy stretch at the bottom is the filtration plant. NY1-2 SD ACME 11/3/49
February 25, 201510 yr Quoted from the backside: Looking Over Cleveland: Lakeview Terrace, where 600 families live in the shadow of the Main Avenue Bridge, overlooks lake front freight yards and docks. Here on the old "Angle" hillside leading to Whisky Island is a compact community complete with a shopping center, library, and playground. To the right, the bridge sweeps toward the stadium in the background. Hemming in the government project at the top and side is one of the city's busiest industrial sections. The open, grassy stretch at the bottom is the filtration plant. NY1-2 SD ACME 11/3/49 In other words we replaced one slum with another, and a treatment plant. On what could have been the best urban neighborhood between NYC and Chicago.
February 25, 201510 yr In other words we replaced one slum with another, and a treatment plant. On what could have been the best urban neighborhood between NYC and Chicago. It became a slum starting in the 1950s and 60s. My co-worker's Greek mother lived there in the 1940s-50s and said it was very nice. Everyone pitched in to maintain the complex, plant flowers, clear snow, etc. They had a real sense of ownership. Then CMHA started contracting out everything and the sense of ownership went away. No one cared anymore. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 25, 201510 yr In other words we replaced one slum with another, and a treatment plant. On what could have been the best urban neighborhood between NYC and Chicago. It became a slum starting in the 1950s and 60s. My co-worker's Greek mother lived there in the 1940s-50s and said it was very nice. Everyone pitched in to maintain the complex, plant flowers, clear snow, etc. They had a real sense of ownership. Then CMHA started contracting out everything and the sense of ownership went away. No one cared anymore. The Soviet Bloc architecture just sucks the hope out of everyone.
February 25, 201510 yr I think it's important cities went through these phases of urban renewal midcentury even though it resulted in such great losses of urbanism and architecture (I think my architecture professors would kill me for saying that). It taught us how truly bad we are at reinventing how people live. It also taught us that the reason the old model was so prevalent was because it worked so well when adapted for new locations. It has unfortunately taken half a century to get to this point but for the most part cities and developers are starting to get back into the hang of building truly urban environments. Had we never gone through the (excessively) long exercise of urban renewal we may not have ever learned this and we wouldn't be presented such dramatic opportunities to reinvent cities like we are today. It's an interesting dichotomy. One one hand it's a huge shame we lost so much great architecture. On the other hand we are now offered large swaths of land and vacancies to apply the old models of urbanism to the 21st Century.
February 25, 201510 yr With today's method of producing construction drawings on CAD, I always find the original ink drawings on linen fascinating from the early 20th century. The level of time put in plus the size of the details is always great to look at. Richman Brothers 1915 LN Gross Co. 1917 https://www.instagram.com/cle_and_beyond/https://www.instagram.com/jbkaufer/
February 26, 201510 yr Stolen from a friend's Facebook page, this is the ladies' auxiliary drill team of the Polish Legion of American Veterans, Pulaski Post #38, Lorain, marching down Euclid Avenue - date unknown.
March 23, 201510 yr I loved Manners. I remember when they had a promotional tie-in with Ghoulardi http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
March 23, 201510 yr I loved Manners. I remember when they had a promotional tie-in with Ghoulardi Must be an old menu, they list suburban addresses as in Cleveland. At some point, during the 70s I think, sububanites would "correct" such. I forgot they had a restaurant by where the bar is, that wedge at the five point intersection in Bedford hosts a Burger King now.
March 23, 201510 yr I loved Manners. I remember when they had a promotional tie-in with Ghoulardi Must be an old menu, they list suburban addresses as in Cleveland. At some point, during the 70s I think, sububanites would "correct" such. I forgot they had a restaurant by where the bar is, that wedge at the five point intersection in Bedford hosts a Burger King now. interesting. I guess that was before big city dwellers were at war with suburbanites! lol Do you remember this place? I think they had locations in Lake Co. but not listed on the menu. I love the prices!! http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
March 23, 201510 yr This is pretty cool- from a current Cleve Scene slideshow: pre-war aerial photo of University Circle, before Chester was blasted through southern Hough: http://photos.clevescene.com/18-vintage-photos-of-university-circle/#13 (slide 13)
March 27, 201510 yr 35 great photo's of Cleveland from 1973 in this cleveland.com photo gallery from today. Cleveland in the 1970s: A gritty city survives turbulent times (photos) 1 / 35 Dark clouds of smoke obscure the day in Cleveland, 1973. National Archives John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer Print Email John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer By John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/03/cleveland_in_the_1970s_a_gritt.html#incart_gallery Edit: Article includes a couple of historic videos as well.
March 28, 201510 yr A friend of mine John Fahnert and his family rode the Pennsylvania RR's Pittsburgh-Cleveland Morning Steeler from Alliance to visit downtown Cleveland in 1955 when he was six years old. Considering the weather, it's a good thing they didn't try driving up Route 14 from their home in Sebring where his father John Sr. was a councilman and soon to become mayor. The Fahnerts took a Cleveland Transit System bus into downtown from the Pennsylvania RR's busiest station for Cleveland, at East 55th and Euclid. The PRR also had stations at the Civil War-era ex-Union Station at the north end of West 9th, at Woodland near East 79th, and at Harvard/Broadway. Less than a decade earlier, PRR ran 20 passenger trains a day in/out of Cleveland. By the end of 1955, following the opening of the Ohio Turnpike, there were only eight daily trains left. PRR killed off the last of its Cleveland trains by 1964, one of the earliest lines into Cleveland to do so. Except for the cars (note the Hudson!) and buses, this spot doesn't look too much different today. If you look hard enough at this cell phone picture of a print, you can see the sign on the Cleveland Trust Rotunda proclaiming how many deposits were made in the past year. Apparently the sting remains from bad memories of past "panics" leading to the worst bank-panic of all, the Great Depression, when people made runs on the banks to withdraw their money for fear of losing of everything. Apparently it would take more than two decades before President Roosevelt's New Deal and its Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. could erase the bad memories and ease the fears. Today, of course, this is the new downtown Heinen's grocery store. And it looks like Cleveland didn't plow the streets any better back then, either! However, a man cares enough to shovel the sidewalk curb. Perhaps he is an employee of Bond Clothing, which was behind my friend John as he pointed his Brownie camera eastward. Bond Clothing, started in the old Hickox Building on the NW corner of East 9th and Euclid, demolished that beautiful old building in the late 1940s and put in its place something straight from a sci-fi thriller of that age. It was the largest single building project downtown during a 24-year drought from 1934 when the Main Post Office was built above Cleveland Union Terminal until 1958 when the Illuminating Co. tower was built at 55 Public Square. But this was Cleveland in 1955 through the eyes of a 6-year-old kid from tiny Sebring, OH. Knowing John, it left quite an impression on him. He returns to Cleveland from his home in Hermitage, PA several times a month to enjoy dinner and a beer downtown, take in a Cavs game, gamble at the casino or shop at West Side Market. John is now 66 years old, but part of him is still 6 when he comes back to Cleveland.... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 28, 201510 yr 35 great photo's of Cleveland from 1973 in this cleveland.com photo gallery from today. Cleveland in the 1970s: A gritty city survives turbulent times (photos) 1 / 35 Dark clouds of smoke obscure the day in Cleveland, 1973. National Archives John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer Print Email John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer By John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/03/cleveland_in_the_1970s_a_gritt.html#incart_gallery Edit: Article includes a couple of historic videos as well. Wow, Cleveland in the 70s looked like an environmental disaster! I'm sure photos from Pittsburgh at this time would look similarly. On one hand, the loss of industry has stymied economic and population growth in the region, but it sure has resulted in a cleaner, prettier city.
March 28, 201510 yr A friend of mine John Fahnert and his family rode the Pennsylvania RR's Pittsburgh-Cleveland Morning Steeler from Alliance to visit downtown Cleveland in 1955 when he was six years old. Considering the weather, it's a good thing they didn't try driving up Route 14 from their home in Sebring where his father John Sr. was a councilman and soon to become mayor. The Fahnerts took a Cleveland Transit System bus into downtown from the Pennsylvania RR's busiest station for Cleveland, at East 55th and Euclid. The PRR also had stations at the Civil War-era ex-Union Station at the north end of West 9th, at Woodland near East 79th, and at Harvard/Broadway. Less than a decade earlier, PRR ran 20 passenger trains a day in/out of Cleveland. By the end of 1955, following the opening of the Ohio Turnpike, there were only eight daily trains left. PRR killed off the last of its Cleveland trains by 1964, one of the earliest lines into Cleveland to do so. Except for the cars (note the Hudson!) and buses, this spot doesn't look too much different today. If you look hard enough at this cell phone picture of a print, you can see the sign on the Cleveland Trust Rotunda proclaiming how many deposits were made in the past year. Apparently the sting remains from bad memories of past "panics" leading to the worst bank-panic of all, the Great Depression, when people made runs on the banks to withdraw their money for fear of losing of everything. Apparently it would take more than two decades before President Roosevelt's New Deal and its Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. could erase the bad memories and ease the fears. Today, of course, this is the new downtown Heinen's grocery store. And it looks like Cleveland didn't plow the streets any better back then, either! However, a man cares enough to shovel the sidewalk curb. Perhaps he is an employee of Bond Clothing, which was behind my friend John as he pointed his Brownie camera eastward. Bond Clothing, started in the old Hickox Building on the NW corner of East 9th and Euclid, demolished that beautiful old building in the late 1940s and put in its place something straight from a sci-fi thriller of that age. It was the largest single building project downtown during a 24-year drought from 1934 when the Main Post Office was built above Cleveland Union Terminal until 1958 when the Illuminating Co. tower was built at 55 Public Square. But this was Cleveland in 1955 through the eyes of a 6-year-old kid from tiny Sebring, OH. Knowing John, it left quite an impression on him. He returns to Cleveland from his home in Hermitage, PA several times a month to enjoy dinner and a beer downtown, take in a Cavs game, gamble at the casino or shop at West Side Market. John is now 66 years old, but part of him is still 6 when he comes back to Cleveland.... I love those lamp posts. I never will understand why they were removed
March 28, 201510 yr Wow, Cleveland in the 70s looked like an environmental disaster! I'm sure photos from Pittsburgh at this time would look similarly. On one hand, the loss of industry has stymied economic and population growth in the region, but it sure has resulted in a cleaner, prettier city. I think most, if not all of these pictures were from an EPA photographic study on Cleveland pollution (including visual pollution of so many billboards, etc). And having lived through the 1970s in Cleveland, yes it was an environmental mess. The Cuyahoga River was always a rust-colored mess with an oily film on the water. I remember a news article about a boater on the Cuyahoga River who had a kitten on his boat. The kitten fell overboard and by the time they pulled it out, it had already died from the poisons (cats are good swimmers BTW). Along the river's banks wasn't much better. One of my friends wives went out drinking one night, and ended up parked next to the river near the window-less, roof-less abandoned Powerhouse on the Flats West Bank. They were drinking and talking and soon realized their car was surrounded by rats, some of which they said were the size of small dogs. The air was always hazy with smog and even moreso during hot, dry spells in the summer time. You could always tell which direction the wind was blowing, even living out in Highland Heights on the east side. If it was a west wind, you could smell the "rotten eggs" of burnt sulfur-laden coal coming from the steel mills. The pollution index during Cleveland's evening weather report on the local news was always a big thing. If the index was below 50, the air was clean. If it was 50-100, it was moderately clean. If it was 100-200, you shouldn't be exerting yourself outside, especially if you had asthma. And if it was above 200, it was unhealthy for everyone. I remember it being above 200 a few times during temperature inversions, and it was regularly above 100 during most summers. BTW, the first photo in the series was off the Clark Avenue bridge which was closed in 1980 and demolished in 1984 because the city couldn't afford to rebuild it. Besides, ODOT was building the new I-490 bridge anyway. Clark Avenue bridge was a long, elevated ramp down into the industrial Flats, then ramped up in the center high enough above the Cuyahoga River so lake freighters bringing iron ore down from Minnesota could clear it. That was an awesome bridge, as it went right through the heart of the steel mills which employed 50,0000 people back then. Clark Avenue bridge also had a streetcar line on it, linking Slavic Village, Tremont and the Stockyards district. Lastly, the level of incompetence and corruption of city officials back then makes today officials look like Rhodes Scholars and Mother Theresas. City officials missed deadlines for submitting grants for job-producing transportation and redevelopment projects, were fined by state or federal investigators for losing or misallocating funds, made no efforts to keep major employers from leaving town, refused to work with businesses unless they were bribed, interceded on behalf of mobsters to fire or reassign police for investigating mob-protected criminal activities, and upon completing terms of office took jobs with companies that had won city contracts because of that official. Today we complain when side streets aren't plowed within a few days of a snow storm. Back then, main streets wouldn't be plowed for days. Getting your garbage picked up on the correct day was also a rumor, so rats and other critters would descend on neighborhoods when trash wasn't picked up. In 1973, the city averaged one murder a day. In 1976, nine building permits were approved for the entire city. Even if you wanted one, the process was so daunting that few would put up with the building department. That same year, there were 21 car bombings in the city and another 15 elsewhere in the county, earning Cleveland the title "Bomb City USA" as two factions of the local Mafia battled it out when the John Scalish, boss of the Cleveland Mafia since the 1940s, died during surgery without having previously groomed a successor. See the movie "Kill The Irishman" sometime. It's sequence of events are factually accurate even if Danny Greene is portrayed as a sympathetic figure -- in reality he was a murderous psychopath. I used to write about that era and even ran a local website about the Cleveland mob years ago. I grew up in a neighborhood with lots of Irish, Italians, Greeks and Jews, many of whom were either in a mob-controlled business (like the Front Row Theater, Eastgate Coliseum, Reggie Homes, Rini-Rego's, etc) or worked directly for the mob (like the family directly across the street from our house where they had a printing press in their basement for printing parley cards!). But that was a different era. A dirty, lawless, corrupt era that was kind of fun, like going on a month-long bender but then waking up one day and realizing you don't have any money left, you feel like crap, and only the losers want to have anything to do with you. Since it always takes longer to build than it does to destroy, the 1970s (and really, the slide started before it and continued thereafter) will take Cleveland many decades to recover from that bender. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 29, 201510 yr Wow, that was a fascinating account of Cleveland in the 70s. My sister is going to be living in Cleveland this summer and I'm so excited to get up and explore the city. Also, a damn shame about the Clark Avenue bridge. It looked like a very cool structure surrounded by all the smokestacks and what not.
March 29, 201510 yr Did the Clark Avenue bridge connect Clark to Pershing at one point? Thanks edale. And yes, tradition7, Clark became Pershing on the east side. Nearly all west-side streets changed names when they crossed the river to the east side -- a holdover from a 200-year-old east-west rivalry! (Detroit-Superior, Lorain-Carnegie, Denison-Harvard, Clark-Pershing, etc). An old postcard... Lots of old pictures of the Clark Avenue bridge: http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/Clark%20Avenue%20Bridge%20%28Cleveland,%20Ohio%29/field/subjec/mode/exact/conn/and/cosuppress/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 30, 201510 yr Wow, Cleveland in the 70s looked like an environmental disaster! I'm sure photos from Pittsburgh at this time would look similarly. On one hand, the loss of industry has stymied economic and population growth in the region, but it sure has resulted in a cleaner, prettier city. I think most, if not all of these pictures were from an EPA photographic study on Cleveland pollution (including visual pollution of so many billboards, etc). And having lived through the 1970s in Cleveland, yes it was an environmental mess. The Cuyahoga River was always a rust-colored mess with an oily film on the water. I remember a news article about a boater on the Cuyahoga River who had a kitten on his boat. The kitten fell overboard and by the time they pulled it out, it had already died from the poisons (cats are good swimmers BTW). Along the river's banks wasn't much better. One of my friends wives went out drinking one night, and ended up parked next to the river near the window-less, roof-less abandoned Powerhouse on the Flats West Bank. They were drinking and talking and soon realized their car was surrounded by rats, some of which they said were the size of small dogs. The air was always hazy with smog and even moreso during hot, dry spells in the summer time. You could always tell which direction the wind was blowing, even living out in Highland Heights on the east side. If it was a west wind, you could smell the "rotten eggs" of burnt sulfur-laden coal coming from the steel mills. The pollution index during Cleveland's evening weather report on the local news was always a big thing. If the index was below 50, the air was clean. If it was 50-100, it was moderately clean. If it was 100-200, you shouldn't be exerting yourself outside, especially if you had asthma. And if it was above 200, it was unhealthy for everyone. I remember it being above 200 a few times during temperature inversions, and it was regularly above 100 during most summers. BTW, the first photo in the series was off the Clark Avenue bridge which was closed in 1980 and demolished in 1984 because the city couldn't afford to rebuild it. Besides, ODOT was building the new I-490 bridge anyway. Clark Avenue bridge was a long, elevated ramp down into the industrial Flats, then ramped up in the center high enough above the Cuyahoga River so lake freighters bringing iron ore down from Minnesota could clear it. That was an awesome bridge, as it went right through the heart of the steel mills which employed 50,0000 people back then. Clark Avenue bridge also had a streetcar line on it, linking Slavic Village, Tremont and the Stockyards district. Lastly, the level of incompetence and corruption of city officials back then makes today officials look like Rhodes Scholars and Mother Theresas. City officials missed deadlines for submitting grants for job-producing transportation and redevelopment projects, were fined by state or federal investigators for losing or misallocating funds, made no efforts to keep major employers from leaving town, refused to work with businesses unless they were bribed, interceded on behalf of mobsters to fire or reassign police for investigating mob-protected criminal activities, and upon completing terms of office took jobs with companies that had won city contracts because of that official. Today we complain when side streets aren't plowed within a few days of a snow storm. Back then, main streets wouldn't be plowed for days. Getting your garbage picked up on the correct day was also a rumor, so rats and other critters would descend on neighborhoods when trash wasn't picked up. In 1973, the city averaged one murder a day. In 1976, nine building permits were approved for the entire city. Even if you wanted one, the process was so daunting that few would put up with the building department. That same year, there were 21 car bombings in the city and another 15 elsewhere in the county, earning Cleveland the title "Bomb City USA" as two factions of the local Mafia battled it out when the John Scalish, boss of the Cleveland Mafia since the 1940s, died during surgery without having previously groomed a successor. See the movie "Kill The Irishman" sometime. It's sequence of events are factually accurate even if Danny Greene is portrayed as a sympathetic figure -- in reality he was a murderous psychopath. I used to write about that era and even ran a local website about the Cleveland mob years ago. I grew up in a neighborhood with lots of Irish, Italians, Greeks and Jews, many of whom were either in a mob-controlled business (like the Front Row Theater, Eastgate Coliseum, Reggie Homes, Rini-Rego's, etc) or worked directly for the mob (like the family directly across the street from our house where they had a printing press in their basement for printing parley cards!). But that was a different era. A dirty, lawless, corrupt era that was kind of fun, like going on a month-long bender but then waking up one day and realizing you don't have any money left, you feel like crap, and only the losers want to have anything to do with you. Since it always takes longer to build than it does to destroy, the 1970s (and really, the slide started before it and continued thereafter) will take Cleveland many decades to recover from that bender. Yep, that's a great depiction. But guess what? That's a big reason why "second wave sprawl" happened in the Cleveland area. There were other factors as well, and indeed busing was the last straw for a lot of folks. And yes, the flight from the city made it easier for the incompetent and corrupt to carry on. But it's not chicken and egg: the bad conditions preceded the exodus.
Create an account or sign in to comment