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Introduction
Essay on Transportation
Essay on Industry
Essay on Ethnicity
Essay on Preservation
List of Sites
Begin the Tour
Learn More
Credits

Introduction

The National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places in partnership with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor, Ohio Historic Preservation Office and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), proudly invite you to visit the Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor Travel Itinerary. The history of the human presence in this region stretches back to the Ice Age. The first Euro-American settlement in the Cuyahoga Valley came in 1786 when Moravian missionary John Heckewelder built a mission he called “Pilgerruh” along the river, but then abandoned it the following year. The Schoenbrunn Site, located today in New Philadelphia, is a reminder of the Moravian attempt to build utopian colonies in Ohio.

Canal building in the United States reached a feverish pace following the opening of New York’s 363-mile Erie Canal in 1825 at a cost of $10 million. In 1822, the governor appointed a commission to identify potential canal routes in Ohio. The Ohio Legislature authorized construction of the “Ohio and Erie Canal” (Cleveland to Portsmouth) and the “Miami Canal” (Cincinnati to Dayton) in 1825. From Cleveland, the Ohio and Erie Canal route proceeded south along the Cuyahoga River, over the Portage Summit (at the future site of Akron) to the Tuscarawas, west to the Licking, then to the Scioto at Columbus, and finally south to the Ohio River town of Portsmouth. The canal route totalled 308 miles, crossing 13 counties stretching from northeast to central and south central Ohio. The prosperity brought to localities can be seen today in the Canal Fulton Historic District, and the Hudson Historic District. the Clinton Ohio and Erie Canal Historic District,

Not only did the Ohio and Erie Canal tie the state to the rest of the nation, but it helped open the interior of Ohio to other markets in the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast. Later, as the railroad began to replace the canals in transporting goods, other communities, such as the Limbach Block Historic District, prospered. The Valley Railroad Historic District displays the importance of railroads linking Ohio's commerce. The city of Cleveland, designed in the late 1790s to resemble a New England town, as seen in the Cleveland Public Square, grew to a major transportation hub, and at one time was the sixth largest city in the country. The Lower Prospect--Huron Historic District reflects this era of wealth, and the East Fourth Street Historic District reflects the history of the urban living from the 1890s through the 1930s when cafes and theaters catered to Cleveland's population.

The Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor travel itinerary offers several ways to discover the places important in the region's history. Each highlighted place features a brief description of its historic significance, color photographs and public accessibility information. At the bottom of each page the visitor will find links to four essays: Transportation, Ethnicity, Industry and Preservation. These essays provide historic background, or "contexts," for the places included in the itinerary. In the Learn More section, the itinerary links to regional and local websites that provide visitors with further information regarding cultural events, special activities, and lodging and dining possibilities. The itinerary can be viewed online, or printed if you plan to visit the area in person.

The Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor Travel Itinerary is part of the Department of the Interior's strategy to promote public awareness of history and encourage visits to historic places throughout the Nation. The National Register of Historic Places partners with communities, regions and heritage areas throughout the United States to create online travel itineraries. Using places nominated by State, Federal and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the itineraries help potential visitors plan trips by highlighting the amazing diversity of this country's historic places and providing public accessibility information for each featured site. The Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor is the 41st National Register travel itinerary in this series. The National Register of Historic Places hopes you enjoy this virtual tour. If you have any comments or questions, please just click on the provided e-mail address, "comments or questions" located at the bottom of each page.

Transportation

The first transportation routes established in the Canalway were foot trails. The history of the human presence in this region stretches back to the Ice Age and continues to the present day. The first humans to enter this region of the country came as early as 12,000 to 10,000 B.C., and are known as “Paleo-Indians,” consisting of small hunting and foraging groups which roamed through the area following herds of mastodon and mammoth. During the Archaic Period (7000 to 800 B.C.), small nomadic groups grew in number and density and tool-making of cold-hammered copper became common. The “Archaic Indians” settled only seasonally in campsites in interfluvial rock shelters along bluff edges and the floodplain. Toward the end of this era, group territoriality and long distance trading systems began.The period A.D. 700 to 1200 is not well defined nor are there many extant sites other than winter hunting camps. From A.D. 1000 to 1350, summer agrarian villages along the edge of the forest revealed an increased density of semi-permanent habitation. The following 200 years saw organized fields ringing stockaded villages, but overall the region was not heavily settled.

The continent’s interior in the 17th and 18th centuries experienced an intense European rivalry over the lucrative fur trade. In 1744, the Iroquois confederacy recognized British hegemony over the territory north of the Ohio River. Tensions soon came to a head in 1754 as the French-Indian War began at Fort Necessity when a French-Canadian force, intent upon capturing the Ohio River valley for France, clashed with Virginian troops led by George Washington. Upon resolution of the conflict in 1763, French activity ended and the region belonged to Great Britain.

The Native American trails were part of a large regional trail network and the early European settlers established trails that linked the early communities. The Portage Trail, which linked the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, was a vital link in a American Indian trading route. The Portage Trail is now a road that passes by many historic places including the Simon Perkins Mansion and the Stan Hywet Gardens and the Stan Hywet Hall National Historic Landmark. Another noteworthy trail in the valley is the David Hudson Trail, which is the trek David Hudson and his party made from the Cuyahoga River at Boston Mills, through the wilderness, to the southwest corner of the township. This trek is credited with the founding of the town of Hudson.

With the advent of the American Revolutionary War and the peace treaty of 1783, Britain relinquished all of Ohio to the United States, but British activity did not cease until the conclusion of the War of 1812.American leaders knew that the key to developing the continent’s vast interior was in establishing a good transportation system. That meant a series of canals would be needed to link the Great Lakes with the nation’s river systems. As early as 1784, George Washington espoused a plan to boost the fur trade and interior communications by utilizing the Great Lakes. His plan included the Cuyahoga River. In 1788, Washington formally proposed canals linking the Cuyahoga, Big Beaver, and Muskingum rivers to allow easy intercourse from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River.Building and repairing roads in early Ohio was largely the responsibility of supervisors appointed by township trustees. According to the Act of 1809, every able-bodied man of 21 years or more had to give two days per year to work on public roads in his community. Riverview Road was established in 1811 and links four historic districts and two individual listings in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP). It should be noted that “establishment” in this context refers to a local judge designating the route as a public right-of-way. Regional road networks in northeast Ohio did not greatly impact the Canalway, due to its north-south orientation. From 1816 onward, major road building movements in the region were designed to connect Cleveland with Buffalo to the northeast, with Pittsburgh to the southeast and with Columbus to the southwest.

CANALS

When the Canal was constructed from Cleveland to Akron (1825-27), local roads led to this regional transportation link. Canals were the interstate highways of their time and created a transportation revolution in the early 19th century. The regional canals built in the early 19th century developed into an interconnected national network of waterways. Canals of the northeast and Midwest states linked the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The Ohio and Erie Canal linked the interior of Ohio to Cleveland, on Lake Erie, and from there to Buffalo and the Erie Canal in New York. The canal also linked to the Mississippi River System connecting Ohio to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. By connecting the Ohio frontier with New York and New Orleans, the Ohio and Erie Canal helped people and products flow across America, fueling westward espansion, a national market economy, and regional industrial might. Some sources suggest that the total canal mileage in Ohio exceeded that of any other state.

Ground was broken for the Ohio and Erie Canal on July 4, 1825. Exactly two years later the first section of the canal, between Cleveland and Akron, was opened to traffic. By 1832, the 309 miles of the Ohio and Erie Canal linked Lake Erie with the Ohio River and became a major catalyst for Ohio's economic growth. The canal opened the resource rich hinterlands of the young state and greatly spurred settlement and development in the area. Between 1825 and 1847, the State of Ohio constructed 813 miles of canals. The Ohio and Erie Canal’s first link opened on July 3, 1827, when a group led by Ohio Governor Allen Trimble left Portage Summit aboard State of Ohio. The 38-mile trip to Cleveland and Lake Erie saw a 395-foot drop in elevation as the boat wound her way through the Cuyahoga Valley’s 44 locks and three aqueducts. The canal trench itself was 40 feet wide at the top and 26 feet at the bottom. The entire canal was completed in 1832 at a cost of $5 million. The engineering miracle proved to be an economic wonder as well. Barges could now cross the state in eighty to ninety hours.

The northern section of the remaining canal is the Ohio and Erie Canal National Historic Landmark in CVNP and the Akron area includes the Cascade Lock Historic District. These inland waterways transported grain and coal to eastern ports and finished goods and settlers to the developing Northwest Territory. By the 1850s, the canals were declining and east-west transport and related economic development resulted from railroad expansion.

RAILROADS

To supply the growing industries of Cleveland with coal from south of Canton and West Virginia, the Valley Railway was chartered in 1871. The right-of-way was surveyed in 1872, the Cuyahoga Valley provided a route with easy grades and wide curves. Construction of the rail line began in 1878 and operations started between Cleveland and Canton in 1880. In 1882 the line was extended to Wheeling, West Virginia. In 1890 the Baltimore & Ohio acquired a controlling interest in the railroad to gain access to Cleveland.

Unlike other railroads, theValley Railway was never double-tracked for expanded traffic, and the right-of-way remains virtually unaltered.Guide Tourist & Traveler Over Valley Railway, 1880 promotes itself as “Containing a Complete Description of the Scenery and Objects of Interest Along the Road.” The descriptions of the valley in the book illuminate the landscape of the time. This book is available at the railway offices and CVNP visitor center bookstores. The right-of-way through the CVNP into Akron and continuing on to Canton is still maintained and used by the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Future plans include expansion north to Cleveland’s Terminal Tower.

Industry

The development of industry in the Canalway began with agriculture and was fueled by waterpower provided by the canal and rivers. Distilleries and later gristmills converted farm products into finished market goods. A local county history describes whiskey as “the universal beverage used just as it came dripping from the numerous little copper-stills that were operated throughout the forest settlements.” Milling became a trademark of the region’s economy, producing not only grain, but also lumber and woolen goods. Place names such as Boston Mills testify to this heritage as does the Wilson Mill located within the Ohio and Erie Canal NHL district. The Mustill Store in Akron’s Cascade Locks Historic District houses exhibits about the Schumacher Mills in Akron, manufacturer of Quaker Oats.

Stone quarrying and boat building were other canal-influenced industries in the area. At the height of Ohio’s canal era, between 1825 and 1875, Boston and Peninsula were centers for the boat building industry. Akron, along with these two communities, built hundreds of the boats used on the Ohio and Erie Canal. The 1836 Boston General Store in Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) features a canal boat building exhibit.

The predominant extractive industry in the northern part of the Canalway was stone quarrying; south of the continental divide in Akron it was coal mining. Quarrying was regarded as the main industry in Peninsula and at one time its four stone quarries employed 200 men. In addition to stone blocks, quarries produced high quality grindstones. The large stepped ledges of Deep Lock Quarry, located along Riverview Road and the Towpath Trail in Peninsula, testify to the importance of this industry.

The output of several coal mines in Summit and Stark counties played a significant role in the development of these areas and the evolution of Cleveland and Akron industries. Ohio and Erie Canal shipping records for the Port of Cleveland show an increase of one million tons shipped from 1837 to 1847. To facilitate coal shipments mine owners built the Messenger feeder canal in Clinton. This canal ran directly from the coal mines to the narrow area located between two locks that define the Ohio and Erie Canal Historic District in Clinton. Coal distributors in Cleveland advertised coal from “the celebrated mines of Clinton.” Today, the Towpath Trail and several wayside panels provide access to and interpretation of this district.

Cleveland’s Warehouse District evidences the city's late 19th-century industrial growth and the convergence of transportation options. The Ohio and Erie Canal traffic, steamship commerce on Lake Erie, and the role of Cleveland as a major Midwest railroad hub all contributed to its great commercial and industrial growth. This resulted in a concentration of warehouses, a historic district including 70 buildings and covering nearly 55 acres. This Victorian era commercial cityscape includes large warehouses for hardware distributors, marine suppliers, garment manufacturers and smaller wholesale and retail establishments for dry goods, grocers, tool suppliers, and ship handlers.

Along with the smokestacks and mills came company towns and entire planned neighborhoods. The Jaite Company town in CVNP consists of several catalogue houses across from a Cuyahoga River paper plant. Barberton is a city laid out in its entirety by O.C. Barber as a manufacturing district and home to his own Diamond Match Company. The Diamond Match Company, once covered two city blocks and produced well over a hundred million matches a day. Barber’s Anna Dean Farm was a large scale experimental farm on the outskirts of Barberton. Some of the original large brick and art stone farm buildings remain as the Anna Dean Farm Historic District.

Early 20th-century industrial development in the Canalway included Akron’s development as a world leader in rubber manufacturing. Charles Goodyear's invention of vulcanize rubber generated a vast new market with the mass production of bicycles and the horseless carriage in the 1890s. Rubber factories, including Goodyear -- named in honor of Charles Goodyear--soon sprawled across Summit County and by 1920 Akron’s 22 establishments producing rubber tires, tubes and other goods employed 77,000 workers – 85% of the city’s labor force. The National Historic Landmark Goodyear Airdock and the Ace Rubber and Swinehart rubber plants in the Cascade Locks Historic District evidence this industrial heritage. The wealth created by this industry is reflected in Goodyear founder and CEO Frank Seiberling’s majestic estate Stan Hywet Hall, a National Historic Landmark.

Ethnicity

Settlement of the Canalway is marked by a cultural divide that reflects the continental divide. In 1786, Connecticut ceded its land south of Lake Erie and north of the 41st parallel to the United States, and the Connecticut Western Reserve was formed. The Cuyahoga River Watershed area was known as Connecticut’s Western Reserve and is characterized by cultural landscapes and vernacular architecture associated with New England. Immigrants in this area were largely of English or Irish descent. South of Akron the watershed empties into the Ohio River. This area and much of central Ohio was settled by German immigrants from Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic region. In a history of Stark County the author estimates that “perhaps four-fifths” of the population was of German descent.

The “Trek of 1817" brought a wave of settlers to Northeast Ohio seeking to escape the increasingly harsh conditions of life in the northeastern states. The War of 1812 left a legacy of destruction in coastal New England, forcing many traders into bankruptcy. Severe frosts during the summer of 1816 followed by an exceptionally bitter winter destroyed many farmers and brought on famine in the area.

New England's cultural influence is evident in the area's vernacular architecture and town planning. An early New England Green or town common in the area is now the center of the City of Cleveland: Public Square. Smaller towns such as Hudson still have their historic district anchored by the village green. The area has outstanding examples of regional interpretations of vernacular Greek Revival architecture that reflect the New England cultural influence in northeastern Ohio. The Stephen Frazee House in Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a rare exception, being a Federal style building, which is associated with areas in the Mid-Atlantic, not the New England extended cultural hearth in Ohio. The Greek Revival Simon Perkins Mansion in Akron is a high style version of the style, while the regional Upright-and-Wing farmhouses, illustrated by a kitchen wing located in a perpendicular one-story eave oriented section, is in the Boston Mills, Village of Peninsula, and Hudson historic districts.

The Irish wave of immigration to the Cuyahoga Valley was a result of canal construction. After the Napoleonic Wars peace settlements of 1815, Irish emigration intensified. Before the potato famine of 1846, more than a million Irish resettled in a foreign country. Many Irish immigrants who landed in New York City were recruited to work on New York State’s Erie Canal, completed in 1825. Upon completion of the Erie Canal, many of these Irish workers came to northeast Ohio to work and made up the bulk of the labor force on the northern segment of the Ohio and Erie Canal. In fact, the 1850 State of Ohio Census lists 22.4% of the state’s immigrants as coming from Ireland. The Irish Town Bend Archeological District in Cleveland’s Flats District reflects the settlement era working class status of this ethnic group. Many of the early German settlers in the southern region of the Canalway were motivated by religion. In 1772 Moravian missionary David Zeisberger led a group of 28 Delaware Indians to the Tuscarawas River Valley to establish Schoenbrunn – the first settlement in the Northwest Territory. This mission settlement grew to include 60 dwellings and more than 300 inhabitants. Today it is a reconstructed village that is managed by the Ohio Historical Society.

In 1817-18 an unusual social experiment took root in northern Tuscarawas County when a group of German Separatists seeking religious freedom led by Joseph M. Bimler settled on 5,500 acres. They endured extreme hardship and as a means of protecting the weak and helpless among them adopted a communal lifestyle early on. In addition to farming, the separatists took a contract to build a section of the Ohio and Erie Canal and operated gristmills, a woolen factory and two iron furnaces. The Zoar Village Historic District is a site currently managed by the Ohio Historical Society that contains significant examples of German log architecture, half timber framed buildings and the Zoar Hotel, which displays features of both Greek Revival and German Baroque Revival Styles.

Cleveland is the most ethnically diverse area in the Canalway and has several historic districts with strong Eastern European heritage. The Warszawa Historic District or “Little Warsaw” is located in the Slavic Village neighborhood and contains the High Victorian Gothic style St. Stanislaus
Catholic Church. The Broadway Avenue Historic District is known for its Czechoslovakian association and contains the Bohemian National Hall.

The most ethnically rich neighborhood in the city is the Tremont Historic District. Overlooking the industrial steel valley, Tremont includes 26 churches within one square mile. One of the most notable is the Russian Orthodox St. Theodosius church, with its 13 onion domes. The church was featured in the film “The Deer Hunter.” Ethnic groups represented in Tremont include Poles, Greeks, Syrians, Russian, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, and Lemkovenian. The Polish Workers Hall, the Lemko Social Hall and the densely developed streets lined with vernacular worker cottages intermixed with grand Victorian houses create a rich texture for this revitalizing urban neighborhood known for its restaurants and art galleries.

Preservation

Preservation efforts of the historic properties in Canalway, Ohio have been successful through a combination of programs offered by government and not-for profit organizations and strong private sector support for the properties. Along with the numerous historical societies in the area, preservation leaders, such as the Cleveland Restoration Society, and the technical assistance from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park staff have leveraged interest in developing the recreational and tourist potential of the Canalway into a strong local preservation ethic.

Since Congress created the Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor in 1996, the Ohio and Erie Canal Association (OECA) has acted as the management entity for the heritage area. The primary program of the association is its annual matching grant program. These grants have been used for several historic preservation projects, including bricks and mortar rehabilitation program development and interpretation.

Examples of bricks and mortar funded preservation work include several buildings that now house museum exhibits that interpret the heritage of the area. The Stick style 1887 Boston Township Hall in the Peninsula Historic District received a grant to assist with preservation work. The facility now houses a local history museum and an annex for the library. The Mustill House and Store in the Cascade Locks Historic District was rehabilitated by the grassroots Cascade Locks Park organization, in partnership with the City of Akron and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP), and now houses a visitor center with exhibits focusing on how the City of Akron was a child of the Ohio and Erie Canal. Another local community based not-for-profit organization, the Zoar Community Association, rehabilitated the 1886 Zoar Town Hall into an interpretive center that augments the Ohio Historical Society facilities in the village.

OECA grants have also been used to foster preservation related program development. The Cleveland Restoration Society received several grants to fund expansion of their nationally recognized Neighborhood Preservation Program into residential Cleveland National Register historic districts that were key aspects of the Canalway’s ethnic history. Private homeowners in Tremont, Ohio City and Slavic Village historic districts received below market rate loans to assist with exterior historic rehabilitation work. OECA grant funds also helped with several Main Street projects in Cleveland commercial neighborhood centers. They were also used to fund Downtown Ohio Inc. to assist small canal villages and towns explore Main Street development options.

Interpretive grants and technical assistance include the development of interior exhibits and interpretive materials in printed and other media. The Canal Fulton Main Street program has recently developed a walking tour brochure which also functions as a game board. This project, which includes a website and business recruitment packet, was developed in conjunction with the Ohio Historic Preservation Office’s Certified Local Government grant program and audio tours have been developed for the Zoar Historic District.

Technical assistance from the CVNP staff has been extensive. Projects include a comprehensive inventory of canal-related resources throughout the 110-mile -long Canalway, several National Register nominations, historic structure reports, planning documents and interpretive plans. Maintenance crews have completed rehabilitation and stabilization work on buildings in the Cascade Locks Historic District, and have constructed train shelters to assist with the expansion of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad into the cities of Akron and Canton.

As preservation work increases in the Canalway, the funds used for matching grant work and the technical assistance provided by the CVNP has leveraged a greater awareness of historic places in the Canalway and greater capacity for local stewardship. Increased local awareness and participation in the preservation of historic properties will create a better sense of local ownership – the key ingredient to long term preservation.

List of Sites

Begin the Tour

Cuyahoga County

Cleveland Warehouse District

The warehouse district was developed after the Civil War in an area that was originally a residential district lying between the town green and valley's river flats. Cleveland's great post-war commercial and industrial growth was influenced by many factors including the traffic of the Ohio and Erie Canal, steamship commerce on Lake Erie and development as the railroad crossroads between lines from New York to St. Louis and Baltimore to Chicago.

The historic district, a Victorian-era commercial cityscape, contains 70 buildings and covers nearly 55 acres. Large warehouses were used for hardware distributors, marine suppliers and garment manufacturers. Smaller wholesale and retail establishments housed dry goods, grocers, tool suppliers and ship handlers. Other buildings supplied office space for the iron, coal, railroad and shipping industries. The development of the warehouse district mirrors 19th-century advances in building technology. Beginning with masonry-bearing walls, warehouse building construction evolved into cast-iron column supports and then steel-frame construction. Cleveland 's development kept pace with Chicago, the leader in urban building technology.

The district's oldest building is the 1850 Hilliard and Hayes Dry Goods and Grocery, a seven-bay masonry building with a stepped parapet. The Perry-Payne (1889) Building, designed by Cudell and Richardson, demonstrates the use of exterior and interior cast iron posts. The Rockefeller Building (1903), designed by Know and Elliot, features a steel frame design in the manner of a Louis Sullivan skyscraper. The unusually artistic Bingham Warehouse was built in 1915 and designed by the prominent Cleveland architecture firm of Walker & Weeks. The last large building to be constructed in the district was the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen Building, built in 1921. The Warehouse district is today a lively neighborhood of restaurants as well as home to a variety of loft unit apartments, many of which possess views of the river flats and Lake Erie.

The Cleveland Warehouse District is roughly bounded by Front and Superior aves., Railroad, Summit, 3rd and 10th sts. in Cleveland. Shops and restaurants in the district are open during normal business hours. Visit the neighborhood's website for further information.  

Old Stone Church

Built in 1853, for the First Presbyterian Society, the Old Stone Church displays semi-circular arches and massive sandstone walls. The church has been renovated twice, after two separate fires destroyed the interior of the church, leaving no choice but to gut the building. After the first fire in 1857, the original architects, Heard and Porter, were hired to rebuild the interior. In 1884 after the second fire, Charles Schweinforth redesigned the interior as close to the original as possible. The new interior contained many leaded glass windows, including "Beside the Still Water," the "Recording Angel" and the "Sower," all from the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The building currently contains barrel vault ceilings and carved wood columns. The east and west walls contain an arcade of rounded arches. The church originally had a 228-foot-high spire, which was weakened beyond repair in 1884, and then removed. The Old Stone Church is now the only remaining church designed by the Heard and Porter firm.

The Old Stone Church is located at 91 Public Sq., in Cleveland. It is open to the public 11:45am to 1:15pm, Monday-Thursday. For further information call 216-241-6145 or visit the church's website. The Old Stone Church has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Cleveland Public Square

Cleveland's Public Square is a remnant of 18th-century New England town planning that has become the center of a large metropolis. The square was laid out on one of the 10-acre original town lots of Cleveland's 1796 town plan, the year Moses Cleaveland and his Connecticut Land Company survey party arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. The Public Square and its monuments represent more than 200 years of Cleveland's civic life.

Presently, the square is divided into four quadrants by Superior Avenue and Ontario Street and contains walks that radiate out from its center. Originally spanning four and a half acres, the square has been reduced in size over the years so that each quadrant is now a little less than one acre. The northeast quadrant is the only one lacking some type of statue or monument. From 1852 to 1867, citizens closed the two streets that crossed the square seeking to block commercial development. In 1860, the Square became a site for public sculpture with the erection of a monument to the War of 1812 naval hero Admiral Perry, located in the center of the square. That statue was removed in 1892. The statue of Cleveland's reform Mayor, Tom L. Johnson, was unveiled in 1915 and was sculpted by Cleveland School of Art faculty member, Herman N. Matzen. J. C. Hamilton sculpted the 1888 statue of city founder, Moses Cleaveland, which is located on the southwest quadrant.

Completed in 1894, the Sailors and Soldiers Monument in the southeast quadrant dominates the square. The monument stands on a 100-square-foot sandstone base, reached by four flights of stairs, and is topped by a 125-foot tall granite shaft with a 15-foot high statue of Liberty on top. Cleveland architect-sculptor Levi T. Schofield was hired to design the monument, but did so with the assistance of local artisans and New York sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward. Schofield also consulted the military and incorporated their ideas, evident in the bronze sculptures on the four sides of the monument base representing the Cavalry, Infantry, Artillery and Naval branches of the armed services. Large bronze doors mark the entry to the monument, where relief panels illustrate Lincoln 's conference at City Point, women's aid, the Emancipation Proclamation and the War Governors of Ohio. Six thousand names of Cuyahoga County veterans are inscribed on marble slabs inside the memorial room. Typical of late Victorian popular art, the monument is an excellent example of the 19th-century artistic principle of an accumulation of realistic detail used to symbolize abstracts ideals.

The Cleveland Public Square is located in Downtown Cleveland, bisected by Superior Ave. and Ontario St. It is open to the public.

The May Company

The May Company, a landmark building on Cleveland's Public Square, is a characteristic example of the commercial style fostered by the Chicago School of architects. It is one of four Cleveland buildings designed by renowned architect and planner Daniel H. Burnham. Burnham's most prominent achievement was the pivotal 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, also known as the White City. Burnham's design for the fair--Beaux Arts Classical architecture in a grand and ordered civic space--launched the City Beautiful Movement. His design for the white glazed terra cotta May Company building expresses similar characteristics. Burnham was also responsible for Cleveland's Mall Plan, which still remains intact.

The Cleveland May Company was established in 1899 as a part of a national company founded in Denver, Colorado, a decade earlier. The May Company began operating at this location, on Euclid Avenue facing Public Square, in 1901 and underwent several expansions. The present building was constructed from 1913 to 1914. The façade contains nine bays of three part Chicago windows. A two-story addition was constructed from 1930 to 1931 without interrupting business at the department store. The addition was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, who also designed the Terminal Tower Complex. By 1931, the May Company was the largest department store in Ohio, containing a million square feet of interior space. The addition mimicked the proportions and detailing of the original top story, with a band of smaller rectangular windows, and details such as a series of acroteria, a scrolled pediment, and clock in the Renaissance Revival style were reused from the original roofline.  

The May Company is located at 158 Euclid Ave. at Cleveland's Public Square. It is currently vacant and not open to the public.

East Fourth Street Historic District

In 1936 the Cleveland Press newspaper called East Fourth Street "the liveliest, gayest block in Cleveland." A constellation of theaters, cafes, retail shops, music and art schools characterized this dense urban block, which remains the only intact early 20th-century solid block of buildings in downtown Cleveland.

Ranging in date from 1876 to 1935, these 13 buildings are a diverse representation of architectural styles, with a strong emphasis on the 20th-century commercial or Chicago style. Key buildings in the district include the Buckeye Building (1906), a massive five-story brick building with Romanesque stylistic elements and a rounded corner bay. The six-story Krause Building is articulated by brick lintels and piers and housed William Krause's theatrical costume business. The Windsor Buildings at Euclid are the oldest and most richly decorated with variously sized windows, a narrowly arcaded top story, broad relieving arches on the fourth story and contrasting brick and stone. A 1933 cast stone Art Deco building featuring a band of saw-tooth geometric ornament is located at 2038 East Fourth Street.

The buildings collectively define a narrow space that is dominated by pedestrian rather than vehicular traffic. The façade-mounted and overhanging signs add to the visual character of the street. Many of the windows on upper floors retain old painted graphics and advertisements of the tenants. Now a part of the Historic Gateway Redevelopment District, Cleveland's East Fourth Street Historic District is becoming part of the expanding urban living , entertainment and restaurant district.

The East Fourth Street Historic District extends along E. Fourth St. from Euclid Ave. to Prospect Ave., in Cleveland. Shops and restaurants in the district are open during normal business hours. Visit the Historic Gateway Neighborhood website for further information.

Lower Prospect--Huron Historic District 

The Lower Prospect--Huron Historic District illustrates Cleveland's rapid economic development as a transportation and industrial hub from 1890 to 1930, a period when Cleveland was the sixth largest city in the country. As Cleveland's economy boomed, downtown business outgrew the Public Square area creating a need for another district. "The New Center" for business developed at the intersection of Prospect, Erie and Huron.

The district's sense of place derives from its street plan. Three streets--Prospect Avenue, Huron Road and East 9th Street--intersect, creating a six-point star street plan, unusual vistas and irregular building plans. Buildings range in height from one story to 22 stories and the majority are architect designed. The Neoclassical style predominates and terra cotta is a dominant façade material used in numerous decorative cornices and portals.

Among the notable buildings within the seven-block district is the 1900 Beaux Arts style Rose Building, one of the oldest buildings in the district. The Rose Building was the largest building in the state at the time of its construction and contained its own electric plant. Other landmark buildings include the 1900 Caxton Building, built to house the city's printing and graphic arts trades. The intricate Sullivanesque organic cartouches and column capitals set off the building's buff colored masonry. The white glazed terra cotta Halle Brothers Co. Department Store was designed by New York City architect Henry Bacon in 1910. Bacon doubled the size of the building with a 1914 addition, and in 1947 Walker & Weeks designed another addition that continued the use of white terra cotta and the style of Bacon's original construction. The modernist Ohio Bell Telephone Co. Building was built in 1927 with Indiana Limestone and a set-back skyscraper design with strong vertical piers and recessed spandrels. Designed by noted architectural firm Hubbell & Benes; at 22 stories it was Cleveland's tallest building until the completion of Terminal Tower.

The Lower Prospect--Huron Historic District is located in Downtown Cleveland, centered around Prospect Ave., Huron Rd. and E. 9th St. Shops and restaurants in the district are open during normal business hours. Visit the Historic Gateway Neighborhood website for further information.

Playhouse Square Group

Cleveland's Playhouse Square Group is an unusual surviving cluster of post-World War I legitimate theaters and early motion picture playhouses. Of the five theaters, all housed in commercial buildings, four are connected by various stage doors and lobby passageways. Playhouse Square, built within a three year period, is a result of Joseph Laronge's efforts at turning upper Euclid Avenue into a district of shops and theaters. He later became known as the "father of the district," after partnering with syndicate theater owner Marcus Loew. Soon after the first two theaters in Playhouse Square were built--the Ohio and State Theatres--Laronge and Loew merged several companies to form Loew's Ohio Theatres. The Ohio and State were designed by noted theater architect Thomas Lamb, who considered the State to be one of his finest theaters. The Hanna Theatre, across the street in the Hanna Building, followed. The Allen Theatre in the Bulkey Building and the Palace Theatre in the B. F. Keith Building completed the group.

All the theaters were designed in Renaissance Revival styles and used primarily for business and entertainment. The exterior of the buildings contain rounded-arches, projected cornices and windows that have a wide frieze set in smooth stone. The grand interiors also carry out the Renaissance theme, but with some distinct variations. The State Theatre's Italian Renaissance style lobby features four 50-foot high murals depicting classical scenes, a paneled ceiling with hexagonal domes and eight Ionic columns that support projecting sections of a continuous entablature. The Ohio Theatre's interior features a central dome and hexagonal coffered ceiling with Tuscan pilaster and an elliptical proscenium arch. The Hanna Theater has a Pompeian influence with its travertine walls, frescoed paintings and Corinthian pilaster supporting incised architraves. The Allen Theatre's's interior also has a Pompeian influence, but is dominated by the lobby rotunda, said to be a replica of the Villa Madonna near Rome. It was one of the first theaters constructed with an attached garage, as well as one of the first theaters designed specifically for movies, without a stage. The Palace Theater was the most lavish of the theaters. Designed by noted Chicago architects Rapp and Rapp, the Palace has a Neo-classical three-story lobby, various colors of marble finishes, a wood-paneled French Empire powder room, black and gold Turkish smoking room, extensive backstage facilities for the leading vaudeville entertainers, and excellent acoustics.

Today, the interconnected historic theaters form the country's second largest performing arts center. Playhouse Square continues to offer Clevelander's a place of entertainment, hosting the Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Cleveland Opera, Dance Cleveland and the Ohio Ballet.

The theaters of the Playhouse Square Group are located at 2067 E. 14th St. and 1422, 1501, 1515, and 1621 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland. Free public tours are offered on the first weekend of most months. Tours meet at the State Theatre lobby and leave every 15-minutes from 10:00am to 11:30am. For further information on showtimes visit the website.

Dunham Tavern

Dunham Tavern was a stagecoach stop on the old Buffalo-Cleveland-Detroit post road and now is the oldest building standing on its original site in the city of Cleveland. The building is one of the few remaining places reflecting the early settlement of Cleveland and Euclid Avenue's original function as a frontier post road. The house was built by Rufus and Jane Pratt Dunham, who immigrated to Ohio from Massachusetts in 1819. They purchased a 13.75-acre farm, and constructed their home in several sections beginning in 1824. Capitalizing on their roadside location, Rufus also became a tavern keeper. The Dunham Tavern became a social and political center facilitating parties, turkey shoots and meetings of the Whig party. The Dunhams sold the establishment in 1853, but the house continued to function as a tavern until it was acquired in 1857 by a banker and became his residence.

The Dunham Tavern is a significant example of early wood frame mortise and tenon construction. The framework is of heavy hewn timbers connected with wooden pins and hand-wrought spikes. The first floor joists are also of hewn logs and the rooms are separated by partitions of chestnut planks under split lath and plaster. Influenced by the Federal style, the simple frame building is faced with clapboard and has a symmetrical façade dominated by 12 over 12 windows. A dentil row runs under the front eave of the low slope gable roof, which is pierced by two interior end chimney stacks. The entry in the central bay has four-pane sidelights flanked by Doric pilasters. A tap room was added to the side of the house with an eave orientation and front porch.

The tavern remained a private residence until the 1930s, when it served as studio space for WPA artists and printmakers. The Society of Collectors, organized in the early 1930s, became interested in the historic site and eventually took responsibility for it, opening the tavern as a museum in 1941. The museum is furnished with authentic 19th-century antiques that depict life in early Cleveland. In contrast to the cityscape that surrounds it, the museum and its gardens offer a glimpse of history and insight into the lifestyles of early Ohio settlers and travelers.

Dunham Tavern is located at 6709 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland. It is open from 1:00pm to 4:00pm on Wednesday and Sunday. There is a fee for admission. Call 216-431-1060 or visit the museum's website for further information. Dunham Tavern has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Franklin Boulevard--West Clinton Avenue Historic District

The buildings encompassed by the Franklin Boulevard--West Clinton Avenue Historic District is one of the best remaining examples of the wealth engendered by Cleveland's industrial and economic growth in the post-Civil War era. During the last third of the 19th century, Franklin Boulevard was the most prestigious residential address in Cleveland, and the houses of the district reflect the various American architectural styles popular during its development from the late 1870s to the late 1920s. The years immediately following the Civil War marked a period of rapid industrial expansion in Cleveland which brought about growth in population and the economy. The construction of the Superior Viaduct across the Cuyahoga River in 1878 provided easy accessibility to downtown Cleveland from points west and Franklin Boulevard and West Cleveland developed rapidly. An 1882 map indicates there was a streetcar line along Franklin with a connection to downtown. The neighborhood has close proximity to Franklin Circle -a park-like circle with six radiating streets forming the center of Ohio City/West Side. In the 19th century the circle was surrounded by residences.

The turn-of-the-century residential character of the district is emphasized by two-and-a-half-story building heights, setbacks that vary from zero to 20 feet and cast iron fences. The residential styles present include Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Neo-Classical and Craftsman. Numerous towers and belvederes provide views to nearby Lake Erie. Terraces and apartment buildings contribute to the architectural character of the district.

Prominent figures of the age lived in this district including U.S. Senator Marcus Hanna, Robert Wallace, founder of Globe Iron Works, which later became American Shipbuilding, and Colonel Thomas Axworthy, who owned a coal business, controlled many iron and coal vessels and had extensive investments in Lake Superior iron mines.

Toward the end of the 19th century, the area became more densely developed. Wealthy residents relocated to other parts of the city as a result. Many of the grand houses were later converted into multi-family units. Recent rehabilitation work has restored the grandeur of many of the houses in this district.

The Franklin Boulevard --West Clinton Avenue Historic District roughly includes the 5200- 7600 blocks of Franklin Blvd., and the 5800-7300 blocks of W. Clinton Ave., in Cleveland. The houses of the district are private residences, and are not open to the public.

Irishtown Bend Archeological District

In the second half of the 19th century, this river flats district was a distinctly Irish neighborhood. The wealth of historical data available for this neighborhood, including census records, tax archives, city directories, church records and archeological evidence, provides an unusual opportunity to develop a comprehensive picture of this community. First generation Irish-immigrant laborers lived here from the 1850s through the 1880s. Beginning in the 1820s, Irish immigrants moved to the Ohio City area and were initially employed digging the Ohio and Erie Canal. Malaria was common at the time, but drainage was improved during the 1830s as Cleveland evolved into a major lake shipping port. The 1830s and 1840s brought continued prosperity to the port of Cleveland, but communicable diseases such as cholera were widespread in the low-lying Flats. As a result, low cost land was available for housing the workers who walked to the jobs on the docks.

The number of Irish immigrants increased after the 1848 Irish potato famine, and many worked as unskilled laborers and dockworkers, and on the excavation of a new channel and mouth for the Cuyahoga River. In the 1850s, the area of Irishtown Bend was established and dominated by the winding Cuyahoga River with its swampy flood plain. Houses were primarily one or two stories and built of wood.

As the second generation of Irish families obtained better-paying work, and dock work was increasingly mechanized, the Irish began moving out of the Flats. By 1900, more than half of this area's residents were of Eastern European origin, although the Irish families still owned many of the properties. Irishtown Bend was gradually abandoned; by 1910, more than a third of the homes had been torn down. In 1952, only five of the original 80 buildings were left standing.

Between 1987 and 1989, the Department of Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History began excavations by performing test digs on three properties in the district. The histories of the three families: Connor, Connley and Quinn were determined through numerous sources, and the artifacts from the sites revealed the economic status of each family. The family that was best off financially had a piece of fine porcelain as well as a large set of dishes of the same pattern. They also ate chickens and drank more tea than their poorer neighbors. The poorest family's site yielded dishes of many different patterns (indicating they were purchased or gained one at-a-time rather than as a more expensive set) with many soup bowls, and cheap cuts of stew meat were predominant in their diet. Poor families did not eat their chickens - they sold the eggs that the chickens produced. The study also showed that debris piles associated with these Irish households suggest a lower rate of alcohol consumption than the average Cleveland household of the same period.

Today this area remains free of development and well preserved due to the area's soil type, shale bedrock and thick cover of vegetation. Although the buildings are no longer standing, and their remains covered over with demolition debris, substantial data can still be retrieved from the area illustrating life as it existed in the 19th century.

Irishtown Bend Archeological District is located along Riverbed Rd. and the west bank of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland. It is not open to the public, but can be seen from Riverbed Rd.

Ohio City Preservation District

The Ohio City Preservation District is comprised of 25 blocks on Cleveland's near West Side and includes Franklin Circle with six radiating streets. Ahaz Merchant laid out Ohio City in 1819, and it was initially settled by Irish and German immigrants who came to work on the construction of the Ohio Canal. The Ohio Canal was an important commercial and transportation link for the Erie Canal and many of the same Irish crews worked on both canals.

Ohio City became an incorporated municipality in 1836, just two days before the incorporation of Cleveland. After years of sometimes violent rivalry, Ohio City was annexed by Cleveland in 1854. Ohio City continued to prosper until the street railway began operation and much of the commerce was siphoned off to the east side of the Cuyahoga River adjacent to Public Square and current downtown Cleveland.

Many of the houses are mid-19th-century vernacular worker houses built close to the curb edge. Stylistic references include Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Eastlake and Queen Anne collectively comprising a built environment of mid-19th -century urban socio-economic diversity.

The landmark West Side Market anchors the district. The site of the 1912 yellow brick Beaux Arts market has contained a public market since 1856. Designed by notable Cleveland architects Hubbel and Beans, the market is distinguished by its 137-foot domed clock tower. Visitors experience the bustling activity of this center for fresh produce, meat, dairy products and prepared foods. An Open Air Market is held on Saturdays during the summer and hosts many cultural activities. The market has recently been restored to its c. 1950s interior.

In addition to the numerous examples of Federal, Greek Revival and Gothic Revival residences, larger and Victorian era houses are also found in the district. Notable buildings include St. Ignatius High School, the Carnegie West Branch Library and St. Patrick's Church. The high school, built in 1888 is a five-story Gothic style building with an ornate polychrome slate roof. The Carnegie West Branch Library (1910) has a robust Beaux Arts architectural style. The library is located in a central square across from St Patrick's Church. The church, made of limestone, features interior columns carved with shamrocks and ship's masts to remind them of their homeland.

The Ohio City Preservation District is roughly bounded by W. 26th, Clinton, W. 38th and Caroll Sts., in Cleveland. Residences are privately owned, and not open to the public. Public buildings are open during normal business hours. A walking tour of the district and further information is available at www.ohiocity.com.

Tremont Historic District

Located on an 80-foot high plateau immediately south of downtown Cleveland, the Tremont Historic District is a dense multi-ethnic urban neighborhood, noted for its 26 located churches within one square mile. At different times, the area was an educational center, a Civil War encampment, a wealthy residential area and an immigrant neighborhood anchored by churches and social halls and surrounded by the steel mills valley. Cleveland University was established here in 1851. The short lived university area later became home to Camp Cleveland during the Civil War, and later Lincoln Park, the heart of a growing residential neighborhood. The names of many of Tremont's streets--Professor, Literary and College--recall this early academic ambition. Houses from this time period are one-and-a-half-story brick cottages with gable fronts and prominent rod-iron ties. Situated above the industrial valley, Tremont became a fashionable neighborhood for the newly wealthy and several Italianate and Queen Anne style houses were constructed along with some of Tremont's many churches.

In the early 1900s, many Eastern and Southern European immigrant groups found work in Cleveland's factories, and tried to adapt from a rural village life to a dense urban industrial neighborhood. Lots became increasingly subdivided and the dense development took on an organic, chaotic form. Urban vernacular housing, neighborhood commercial centers, labor and ethnic social halls and churches with onion domes dominated the area. The church provided the physical, social and spiritual anchor and instituted many social reforms for the newcomers.

The numerous architectural styles of the district's churches include Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Arts and Crafts, Shingle and contemporary--and convey the ethnic heritage of the neighborhood's residents. The 1893 Pilgrim Congregational Church is a massive Romanesque building that anchors Lincoln Park. St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Church dominates the Tremont skyline with its 13 onion domes. The Lincoln Park Bathhouse and the Merrick House Community Center reflect the social reform movement and the Polish Labor Hall is associated with the socialist political movement. Tremont today is a diverse neighborhood with an artistic character exemplified by its urban gallery, bar and restaurant scene.

The Tremont Historic District is roughly bounded by 1-490, I-71, University Ct., W. 7th St., Starkweather, Brayton, Fruit and Auburn aves., in Cleveland. Residences are privately owned, and not open to the public. Public buildings are open during normal business hours. Further information is available at www.restoretremont.com.

The Jones Home for Children was founded by Carlos Jones in 1886 and remained an independent orphanage and foster-care home until 1996. Carlos Jones was born in New Jersey and came to Cleveland with his family in 1831. Coming from modest means, he first worked as a farm hand in Parma, but went on to become a successful and wealthy farm equipment manufacturer. He retired in 1880, invested in real estate and became Mayor of Brooklyn, Ohio. Jones and his second wife Mary were motivated to establish an orphanage by the untimely death of Jones' only son. Originally the orphanage was located in their cottage and could accommodate only nine children.

Jones Home for Children

In 1903 the Jones Home completed construction of a three-story brick dormitory designed by Sidney R. Badgley. The building is an architecturally significant example of early 20th-century institutional architecture. Badgley was a noted Cleveland architect who designed several churches in the area, most notably the Pilgrim Congregational Church in the Tremont Historic District. The dormitory was completed for a cost of $25,000 and is noted for its Georgian Revival style design with its distinctive polychromatic materials, gambrel roof and cupola. The brick façade is 100 feet long and the front slope of the gambrel roof is pierced by pedimented dormers. The façade is framed by quoins at the corners and contains varied window treatments, with arches on the first story and keystone lintels on the second story. A dominant projecting central bay with a single-story entry porch is capped by a large pediment and dentillated cornice that tie the composition together.

Fifty years after the Jones Home was founded it still adhered to its founders' policies. Only healthy white Protestant children were admitted. They were to be free of unfavorable hereditary traits and were only placed with rural families. Each child was given a Bible when they left the home. In the later half of the 20th century, the religious and racial restrictions were dropped and the home strengthened its counseling and casework. Although no longer an orphanage, the Jones Home (now known as Applewood Center) still provides services as a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed children.

The Jones Home for Children is located at 3518 W. 25th St. in Cleveland. It is not open to the public. For information on the programs of the treatment facility, visit Applewood Center 's website.

Brooklyn Centre Historic District

Located on the near southwest side of Cleveland, on high ground north of Big Creek Valley, Brooklyn Centre reflects the urbanization of America. The neighborhood's street patterns and buildings illustrate the area's transition from rural hamlet to suburban center to inner city neighborhood. The Upper Flats creates the eastern edge of the district while I-71defines the northern edge. Big Creek Valley and Brookside Park provide the western border.

Brooklyn was settled in 1812 along an American Indian trail that broke off of the Lake Trail and followed the current alignment of Pearl Road until reaching the ridge edge of the prehistoric Lake Whittelsey. The Township of Brooklyn was established in 1818. By 1830, Brooklyn Centre was a small trading post for the largely rural township and by a generation later, it had grown into a hamlet with merchandising, manufacturing, trade and a residential area for Cleveland business people and industrialists. The semi-rural feel of the community attracted residential development. After the Civil War, Brooklyn became a self sufficient village with its own school system, fire department and constable. In 1894, the village was annexed by the City of Cleveland, after which the neighborhood developed rapidly, spurred by new civic improvements such as paved streets with utility lines, and the extension of police and fire protection into Brooklyn Centre.

By 1906 the streets were all laid out and most of the houses were constructed by 1915. The houses are predominately situated on large one-half-acre lots. Archwood Avenue is a particularly good example of the type of broad streets found in this district that have large houses with spacious lots. The variety of architectural styles in Brooklyn Centre include Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Bungalow. These residences are comparable to the best surviving examples in Cleveland, although Brooklyn Centre is a more intact neighborhood than others around the city. In addition to the houses of the neighborhood, the district includes several churches and institutional buildings. Pearl Road is the historic commercial center of the neighborhood, although only a few historic commercial buildings remain.

Brooklyn Centre Historic District is roughly bounded by 1-71, Pearl Rd. and Big Creek Valley, in Cleveland. Residences are privately owned, and not open to the public. Public buildings are open during normal business hours. Further information is available at the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation website at www.oldbrooklyn.com.

Broadway Avenue Historic District

The Broadway Avenue Historic District has historically been the commercial center of Cleveland's Czech community. With approximately 90,000 residents, Cleveland's Czech community is now second in size only to Chicago's. Eastern and Southern Europeans immigrated to the industrial cities of the Great Lakes and Eastern Seaboard of the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Cleveland, ethnic groups gathered around neighborhood churches, social clubs and local industry.

The 43 buildings in this commercial district were constructed between 1888 and 1930. Streetcar lines along Broadway provided a constant flow of passengers that allowed this commercial center to flourish. The core of the district is characterized by masonry commercial buildings that are two and three stories in height. Architectural features such as round arch window heads, stone trim, keystones and columns are found on the red brick, yellow brick and stone facades.

The ethnic heritage of the neighborhood is evident in the name blocks in the buildings' cornice lines, such as Zverina, Bartunek and Benesch. Our Lady of Lourdes Church, built in 1891, was the city's largest Bohemian parish and is the most visible landmark in the Czech community. The church is a high Victorian Gothic building designed by Emile Ulrich and Bernard F. Van Develde. Other ethnic buildings include the Hurby Music Conservatory and the Czech Catholic Union national headquarters.

A socially and culturally important building in the neighborhood is the Bohemian National Hall, individually listed in the National Register. Built in 1897, it was the first hall in Cleveland owned by a nationality group. Fundraising was organized by the local editor of the Czech newspaper Morning Star. Thomas G. Masaryk, founder and first president of Czechoslovakia spoke in the hall in 1907 and 1918. The building served as a meeting place and in 1911 classrooms were added for the purpose of teaching Bohemian. For the past 25 years, the hall has been home to Sokol Greater Cleveland, a Czech organization that emphasizes family activity and physical fitness.

The Broadway Avenue Historic District is roughly bounded by Broadway and Hamlet aves. and E. 55th St., in Cleveland. Public buildings are open during normal business hours. For further information specifically on Bohemian National Hall, visit Sokol Greater Cleveland on the web or call (216) 883-0675.

Warszawa Neighborhood District

Warszawa was the primary neighborhood of Cleveland’s large Polish community, named after the Polish capital. German cultural pressures in Prussian Poland and poverty and repression in Russian Poland created a wave of Polish migration. Beginning in the 1870s, America, and specifically Cleveland, became a destination for many Poles because of the relatively safe and inexpensive ocean transport and the need for workers in Cleveland's rapidly growing industries.

Amasa Stone, owner of the Newburgh Rolling Mills, was one individual who recruited workers from Poland beginning in 1876. Thousands responded and moved to Cleveland. By the early 1900s Cleveland’s Polish population exceeded 35,000, one of the largest of the many immigrant groups to settle in Cleveland. Travel brokers in the city's Polish neighborhoods made all necessary transportation arrangements for Poles to connect with relatives already in Cleveland. The Kniola Travel Bureau at 3690 East 65th Street was operated by Warszawa grocer Michael Kniola. Immigration after World War I slowed greatly, because of quotas imposed by the Federal government.

The Warszawa district contains a mixture of Queen Anne style two-story residences and a variety of late 19th-century and early 20th-century commercial buildings. As a whole, the buildings reflect that the immigrant community, rather than importing Old World architctural styles, adapted to the physical environments of American buildings, creating a typical turn-of-the-century American residential commercial street. The St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church is considered to be the center of the Polish community. The congregation was formed in 1873 and in 1881 the congregation acquired a former potato patch for the location of their new church. By 1885 the congregation had grown to 600 and the cornerstone for the church was laid in 1886. When the church was completed in 1891 St. Stanislaus it was one of the largest Victorian Gothic churchs in the United States. A school building, designed by Brother Leonard Darscheid, was constructed in 1907. An award winning restoration of the church was completed in 1998 and guided tours are available for groups. The church is open to the public during regular office hours.

The Warszawa Neighborhood District includes four blocks of E. 65th St. between Fleet and Baxter aves., and one block of Forman Ave. east of 65th St., in Cleveland. Residences are privately owned, and not open to the public. Public buildings are open during normal business hours. A schedule of services at St. Stanislaus Church is available on its website or call 216-341-9091 for tours.

Stephen Frazee House

The Stephen Frazee House is one of the two earliest brick houses in Ohio’s lower Cuyahoga Valley, its construction coinciding with the building of the Ohio and Erie Canal adjacent to the house. Stephen and Mehitable Frazee were more than early Ohio settlers, they were frontiersmen. They purchased this land in 1806, bounded on the west by the Cuyahoga River. In 1825 construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal along the Cuyahoga River began to change area settlers' lives. With this water transportation route, farmers had access to eastern markets and they prospered. Steven Frazee became more affluent almost immediately, suing the state of Ohio for flooding and damage to his corn and grasslands from the construction of the canal.

The Frazee House is a vernacular interpretation of the Federal style. Unlike most examples of this architectural style in the extended New England cultural region of northern Ohio, the house's gable ends do not face the street. This eave-orientation of the house is a typical characteristic of Federal architecture in central and southern Ohio, which was dominated by settlers from the Mid-Atlantic or Upland South areas. This difference in building orientation is more likely a reflection of cultural tradition than personal preference. Although Stephen Frazee settled in the Connecticut Western Reserve part of Ohio, he came from Pennsylvania, a state associated with Mid-Atlantic culture.

The significance of the house extends beyond the brick walls and Federal style characteristics. The house is an element of a larger picture: an early 19th-century Western Reserve landscape. Looking through the front windows of the 1826 house, visitors can see the 1831 River Road (now Canal Road) next to the 1825 Ohio and Erie Canal and Towpath. Beyond the canal are Stephen Frazee's fields, skirted by trees lining the river that 190 years ago served as the frontier of a young and growing Nation. The vista from the house provides a visual connection between the house site, Canal Road, the Ohio and Erie Canal and the farm fields beyond, illustrating dominant land use patterns associated with early Western Reserve settlement.

The Stephen Frazee House is located at 7733 Canal Rd. within Cuyahoga Valley National Park, in Cleveland. It is open weekends only, May 1 through Oct. 31, from 10:00am to 5:00pm; closed the rest of the year. For further information visit the park’s website or call 216-524-1497. The Stephen Frazee House has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Ohio and Erie Canal

The Ohio and Erie Canal was completed in 1834 between Cleveland and Portsmouth, Ohio. This 308-mile-long canal was the final link in an inland waterway connecting the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River System. The Canal allowed goods to travel from Ohio down the Mississippi to the Gulf of of Mexico and from Cleveland on Lake Erie to Buffalo and from there to the east coast. A continuation of the Erie Canal, the Ohio and Erie Canal was funded, designed and constructed by New York financiers, engineers and the Irish immigrant labor gangs. This water route was a significant part of the American System, the interstate transportation infrastructure needed to establish a national economic system for the young Nation.

The canal laid the foundation for Ohio’s industrial, commercial and political development. It provided an economical way to transport goods that promoted specialization, economies of scale and the growth of profitable commerce. In addition to revenue from tolls, leases of waterpower and the rental of canal land, Ohio also gained innumerable advantages. The value of land and products in the state increased and thousands of new inhabitants settled in Ohio along the canal area. The prosperity in Ohio led to the development of small towns and cities along the waterway. Ohio City, Clinton, Canal Fulton, Navarre and Bolivar were canal villages. Cities such as Cleveland, Akron and Massillon also thrived; they became nationwide leaders in shipping and production of wheat, grains, iron and steel. Merchants from Buffalo increased their purchases from Cleveland's wheat market from 1,000 bushels annually to more than 250,000 within one year of the canal opening.

The canal was in active operation from its completion until just before the Civil War. By 1863 competition from the railroads was intense and the canal fell into disuse. In 1904 the locks were repaired and the canal was used mainly for pleasure boating. When a flood occurred in 1913 the canal was damaged too extensively for repair and so the canal era was brought to an end. Many of the original locks remain, as do mills, houses associated with the canal and an aqueduct. A 20-mile stretch of the canal towpath is used for hiking and biking, with exhibits along the path identifying natural and cultural points of interest and explaining the function of the canal structures.

The designated section of the Ohio and Erie Canal, a National Historic Landmark encompasses 24.5 acres along the canal and State Rt. 631 in Valley View township. The canal is administered by Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Ohio and Erie Canal has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. Use the search box for properties associated with the Ohio Erie Canal.

The Ohio and Erie Canal is the subject of an online-lesson plan produced by Teaching with Historic Places, a National Park Service program that offers classroom-ready lesson plans on properties listed in the National Register. To learn more, visit the Teaching with Historic Places home page.

Jaite Mill Historic District

Located along the Cuyahoga River, the Jaite Mill Historic District is a significant example of an early 20th-century company town. A technological development—the electric overhead crane—changed manufacturing operations at this time. Industrial operations became horizontally oriented, rather than the traditional vertically oriented water or steam belt and drum systems, thus manufacturing operations required more land. Increasing numbers of unskilled immigrants arrived in cities looking for employment. Urban areas became increasingly densely built and populated. Housing for immigrants was often crowded and poorly built, resulting in public health problems.

In order for manufacturing to deal effectively with these conditions, factories needed to have enough land in an area with transportation access, near adequate housing for workers. Ideal locations for industrial expansion had plenty of land, were accessible by train and not too far from the services available in urban areas. The only thing that these remote locations did not have was adequate housing.

The Jaite Paper Mill was built in 1905 adjacent to the Ohio and Erie Canal and a branch of the B&O Railroad. The following year, Charles Jaite built five two-family dwellings for his employees. Employees rented these for $7 a month, or approximately 23 percent of a worker’s monthly salary. In 1917, four additional houses were built. A company store and boarding house, worker showers, stable, freight depot, boarding platform and a water tower were also constructed. Many of the early immigrants were recent immigrants from Poland—adding a new facet to the English, Irish and German ethnic character of the Cuyahoga Valley.

Unlike many other company towns, Jaite did not evolve into a larger community and has not been subjected to redevelopment pressures. Three of the original two-family dwellings were destroyed by fire in 1967, as was the mill in 1992. Located in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Jaite Company surviving buildings have been rehabilitated as administrative headquarters for the park.

The Jaite Mill Historic District is located at Riverview and Vaughan rds., south east of Brecksville. The buildings are not open to the public, but serve as facilities for Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Jaite Paper Mill has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Summit County

Boston Mills Historic District

Located in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Village of Boston Mills reflects the early 19th-century canal era and the early 20th-century industrial era. With the opening of the Ohio and Erie Canal from Cleveland to Akron in 1827, the settlement along the Cuyahoga River began to grow. By 1842, Boston Mills had a population of approximately 300. A water powered mill, a large warehouse, two stores and a hotel were some of the businesses in the village. Canal boat building was also an important industry with several dry docks in this inland port. Although the canal is not watered through the village now, one of the system’s locks is still extant and several Greek Revival frame buildings date from the early 19th century. The Upwright and Wing house type reflects the extended New England settlement culture. This style is exemplified by the main gable-front two-story section containing a parlor and bedchambers, while the kitchen is located in a perpendicular one-story eave oriented section. The 1836 Boston Company Store, with its Federal and Greek Revival influences, now serves as a Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor center and canal boat building museum.

Although the village stagnated with the end of canal packet, or passenger boat era, the arrival of the Valley Railway in 1880 and the Cleveland—Akron Bag Company in 1900 began a new period of growth. Connecting the industries of Cleveland with the coal fields in the south, the Valley Railway provided raw resources and access to markets for industrial operations. The Cleveland—Akron Bag Company brought with it many Polish immigrant workers and new houses—built and sold by the company. Several patterned concrete block houses and a school remain from this era, along with a company store building. A somewhat later 20th-century building, the M. D. Garage has been restored, including period gas pumps and signage, and now houses art exhibits. The compact nature of the village creates streetscapes that juxtapose the buildings from each era.

The Boston Mills Historic District is roughly bounded by Riverview, Boston Mills and Stanford rds. and Main St. within Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Boston Store, now a visitor center and museum, is open June-August from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily; November weekends from 10:00am to 4:00pm; closed September-October, Thanksgiving, and December-February. Call 216-524-1497 for further information.

Peninsula Village Historic District

Settled in 1818, Peninsula, on the Cuyahoga River halfway between Cleveland and Akron, is a well-preserved mid-19th-century town, that grew and prospered with the establishment of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Valley Railroad. The village was platted in 1837 by Herman Bronson. Peninsula was a bustling canal boat stop—home to several mills, stone quarries and boat yards, five hotels and 14 bars until 1887. The Gothic Revival Bronson Memorial Church, originally constructed in 1835 as the Bethel Church, according to William Perrin's History of Summit County (1881) was an attempt to “introduce moral and religious tactics among the vicious and unlawful practices of the canal boatmen.” In 1889 the church was remodeled in the Gothic Revival style.

The historic district extends along Main Street and contains many fine examples of early 19th-century architecture. The dominant Greek Revival style reflects popular architectural tastes at the time the area was settled by New Englanders. A notable high style example of the village’s Greek Revival architecture is the 1824 Bronson House, built of locally quarried sandstone blocks.

Several canal-era houses are typical of the popular Western Reserve New England building type called the Upright-and-Wing, particularly suitable for the early 19th-century Ohio frontier. The main gable-front two-story section contained a parlor and bedchambers, while the kitchen was located in a perpendicular one-story eave oriented section. Other architectural styles include Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Stick and Colonial Revival. The 1886 Stick style Boston Township Hall originally functioned as the village high school. The three-story hip roofed building contains a pyramidal roof tower with an open belfry. The Township Hall is now the Cuyahoga Valley Historical Museum.

The Peninsula Village Historic District, in the heart of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, is located along State Hwy. 303 in Peninsula . Shops, restaurants, art galleries and a bike shop within the district are open during normal business hours. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor center at Peninsula Depot is open May-August from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily, sporadically at other times, call 216-524-1497. The depot is also a boarding site for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

The Cuyahoga Valley Historical Museum at 1775 Main St. is open from 12:00pm to 4:00pm Wednesdays and Friday-Sunday, and is also available for rentals. Call 330-657-2665 for further information. Portions of the Peninsula Village Historic District have also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. Further information is available at www.explorepeninsula.com.

Valley Railway Historic District

The Valley Railway was constructed in 1880 to link Cleveland’s growing steel industry and the rich coal fields of the Tuscarawas River Valley, extending south to Zoarville. Although the first railroad came to Cleveland in 1854, the majority of the rail lines ran east-west and did not connect the metropolitan and industrial centers of Cleveland, Akron and Canton. The Valley Railway was built next to, and sometimes on top of, the Ohio and Erie Canal . The Valley Railway provided a faster transport for the coal needed to fuel the new industrial economy.

Although the railway primarily functioned as an industrial and freight carrier, the railway published “The Travelers and Tourists Guide to the Valley Railway!” to promote its passenger service. This guidebook describes the origins and character of many towns and notable natural features along the route. The Valley Railway brought an increase in noise and pollution to the quiet rural valley. The guidebook was a common promotional piece used to make the railway seem more recreational than industrial. Many believed that the presence of the railroad in pastoral landscapes all around the country, referred to as the “machine in the garden,” represented a significant shift away from an agrarian society towards an industrial one.

In 1895 the Valley Railway became the Cleveland, Terminal and Valley Railway. In 1915 the line was absorbed into the Baltimore and Ohio system. Although many small independent lines from this era were absorbed into larger lines and acquired parallel tracks, the Valley Railway retains single track alignment and has been well-preserved. A great deal of the track runs through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which has preserved the cultural landscape of the valley and prevented modern intrusions into it. Today the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway runs excursion service extending from Cuyahoga County to Canton.

The Valley Railway Historic District, partially located in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, extends more than 24 miles from Rockside Rd. in Independence to Howard St. in Akron. For more information on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad visit www.cvsr.com.

Everett Historic District

Located in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Everett is a small, unincorporated crossroads hamlet, which remains intact and uncompromised by suburban development pressures. Prior to the development of hard-surfaced roads and free rural postal delivery, the unincorporated hamlet was the second most common type of rural settlement, after the isolated farmstead. Hamlets were a reflection of an agriculturally prosperous area. They provided convenience services such as taverns, blacksmiths, a doctor’s office, church and school to otherwise isolated communities. These towns were oriented towards the roadway, with no internal street system for traffic circulation or formal centralized business district. Residences were the most prevalent buildings and often included agricultural outbuildings. Perhaps the primary centralizing function of the unincorporated settlement type was the post office, typically located in the general store. In 1896, Rural Free Delivery of mail began experimentally and was adopted permanently a few years later, beginning a decline in the number of unincorporated hamlets. Once rural postal delivery and better roads were established, settlements catered to transient automobile populations rather than local farming communities.

Buildings in the Everett Historic District date from the 1880s to the 1930s. Most are simple frame one-and two-story houses with shallow front yards. Outhouses and detached garages are the dominant outbuildings, but barns, chicken coops and a milk house also convey the agricultural setting. The district overlaps part of the Everett Knoll Complex, an archeological district associated with the prehistoric Hopewell culture. The mound under part of Everett Road is thought to be a burial site, but this has not been substantiated. This area was also utilized by the Civilian Conservation Corp for a nursery that played a key role in the development of the state and metropolitan parks in the area. Everett serves as a reminder of when the communities were much smaller. As one former resident stated about her childhood, “We always thought we had everything we needed!”

The Everett Historic District, located in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, extends from 4731 to 4642 Riverview Rd. in the Peninsula area. None of the buildings of this hamlet are open to the public.

Virginia Kendall State Park Historic District

The Virginia Kendall State Park Historic District consists of approximately 530 acres in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and reflects the naturalistic landscape style and rustic architecture associated with the Civilian Conservation Corps. Cleveland coal baron and industrialist Hayward Kendall acquired this property in the first part of the 20th century for use as a hunting retreat. Upon his death in 1927 the property transferred to his wife, Agnes, with the stipulation that it would eventually become a park named in honor of his mother, Virginia. Agnes Kendall was not interested in the property and turned it over to the state in 1929.

In 1933 Harold S. Wagner, the Director-Secretary of the Akron Metropolitan Park District filed with the National Park Service to create a Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Virginia Kendall Park. Approval of the application required evidence of the ability to work with the rustic architecture style. Harold Wagner partnered with Akron architect Albert Good, who had previously designed the rustic lodges of the adjacent Boy Scout Camp Manatoc. Good went on to edit Park and Recreation Structures and Park Structures and Facilities, which are the definitive “parkitecture” books for the National Park Service.

Virginia Kendall Park consists of four naturalistic style landscapes designed around the sandstone ledges that mark the prehistoric edges of Lake Erie. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the drives, parking areas, meadows and wooded areas were all carefully laid out using the National Park Service’s master planning process. The buildings were incorporated into the landscape rather than the landscape framing the buildings. Man-made improvements to the landscape were designed to harmonize with the natural patterns. Locally quarried sandstone and wormy chestnut were used to construct numerous comfort stations and shelters that anchor “playstead” meadows. The shelters evidence sophisticated design and placement; the Octagon Shelter located on the top of a knoll, the Ledges Shelter's rectilinear plan parallels the ledge wall face and the Lake Shelter sited at the base of a hill that fronts the man-made lake surrounded by rolling hills.

The Virginia Kendall State Park Historic District, within Cuyahoga Valley National Park ,is located at Truxell Rd. and 434 W. Streetsboro, in Peninsula. The park is open daily, year-round. Contact the Happy Days Visitor Center for further information at 330-650-4636.

Hudson Historic District

Hudson was established in 1802 and named in honor of its founder, David Hudson, who led a settlement party from Goshen, Connecticut, to Connecticut’s Western Reserve. This area of land had been part of the State of Connecticut during the colonial era, and even after Connecticut gave up its claims to western lands of the United States, it retained a portion of northeastern Ohio known as the Connecticut Western Reserve. Noted for its prominent role in the early settlement of northeast Ohio, the Village of Hudson retains much of its New England heritage. Centered by a town green, the town contains outstanding examples of Greek Revival architecture with some regional adaptations. High style examples of Victorian architecture are also found in Hudson.

When the Ohio and Erie Canal started operations through Peninsula, Hudson started to grow and flourish as the canal brought trade, industry and development to the region. Through the efforts of David Hudson, the Western Reserve College was established in 1826 and acquired the reputation of being “the Yale of the West.” Now a private preparatory school, Western Reserve Academy built an early observatory (1838) , one of the first built in North America. Master builders Lemuel Porter and his son Simeon worked extensively in Hudson during the early 19th century. Many of their buildings bear a distinctive detail--a truss of wheat fanlight surround. This semi-elliptical element, mimicking cut wheat being held in the middle and dropping down on the ends, is found on the façade of the Bliss House (1831) which faces the town green. The Brewster Mansion, 1853, is an unusual Moorish influenced building that also fronts the green.

After the Civil War, the town prospered with the arrival of railroad related commerce, but many citizens in Hudson over-speculated in the railroads and were financially ruined. In 1882 the college moved to Cleveland and a devastating fire in 1892 destroyed Hudson’s downtown area. Salvation for Hudson arrived in the form of returning son James W. Ellsworth. After making millions in the coal industry, Ellsworth returned to Hudson and decided to make it a “model town.” He planted trees, brought electrical service, paved streets, established a water and sewer system and in 1912 built the clock tower in the town green. The town has prospered ever since.

The Hudson Historic District is roughly bounded by College, Streetsboro, S. Main and Baldwin sts. in Hudson. Shops and restaurants are open during normal business hours. For more information, visit the city’s website or the Hudson Heritage Association. Several building in the Hudson Historic District have also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey . Use the search box to find properties associated with Hudson, Ohio.

Stan Hywet Hall

Located in Akron, Ohio, Stan Hywet Hall is one of the finest examples of Tudor Revival architecture in America. This majestic 65-room country manor house sits on 70 acres of designed landscaped gardens and grounds. The estate was named Stan Hywet (an Old English term for “stone hewn”) because of a sandstone quarry on the property. The mansion was constructed between 1912 and 1915 for industrialist and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company co-founder Frank A. Seiberling and his wife Gertrude. Designed to accommodate their active lifestyles and large family, Stan Hywet also met the couple’s need to lavishly entertain business associates, friends and prominent members of the community.

Stan Hywet was designed by noted Cleveland architect Charles Schneider. Another Clevelander and one of the fathers of American landscape design, Warren Manning, served as landscape architect for the gardens. Warren Manning’s assistant, Harold Wagner, was chosen by Seiberling to be the first director of the Akron Metropolitan Park System. The landscape features a beautiful birch allee leading to a dramatic overlook providing a broad view of what is now Cuyahoga Valley National Park. A walled English garden designed by America’s first woman landscape architect, Ellen Biddle Shipman, an oriental garden complete with lagoons and the original greenhouse are also found on the estate grounds.

The Manor House is filled with period furnishings and antiques from around the world. The house's 21,000 panes of glass, 23 fireplaces, and hand-carved paneling of oak, sandalwood and black walnut reflect the opulence of the era. Every room tells its own story of the Seiberling lifestyle—from the Billiard Room where F.A. entertained his business associates to the ornate Music Room where famous celebrities like Will Rogers and Shirley Temple entertained the Seiberlings and their friends.

Numerous outbuildings associated with the original manor are intact. The gatehouse, carriage house, and green house are all designed in the same style and display the same attention to detail. The chicken run was detached from the farmer’s cottage, and the cottage was converted into a residence and is now considered outside the grounds of the estate.

Stan Hywet Hall, a National Historic Landmark is located at 714 W. Portage Path in Akron. The house and gardens are open to the public, for a fee. The gardens are open from 9:00am to 6:00pm, and the house is open from 10:00am to 4:30pm daily, April-December. In February and March the house is open Tuesday-Saturday 10:00am to 4:00pm and Sunday from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. For further information call 330-836-5533 or visit the house’s website. Several building on the estate have also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. Use the search box to find information associated with Hywet Hall.