Cleveland, like many cities in America’s Midwest, has lost population, industry and in some cases, hope over the past few decades, but it’s still possible to see the traces of the glory days, and watch the city try to secure a new future.
On a recent visit to the city, I spent half a day walking Euclid Avenue, from less dense areas toward Public Square, Cleveland’s equivalent of Times Square. Along the way, I poked along side streets, admired buildings, sighed over the loss of some, and noted the university districts that are keeping others alive. In one conversation along the way, a local resident who asked what I was doing, told me I was too late—”It’s half-past Cleveland.”
Obviously, not the sentiment of this street muralist…
My walk started in the Midtown District, near 36th Street, where the massive 1920s Masonic Hall forlornly waits for a buyer and perhaps a fate better than demolition. Midtown historically was a mix of residential and commercial activity, including, once, Ohio’s only Chinatown. It is still markedly residential, although many homes are gone. Significant areas of the city saw rebellions and fires in the 1960s.
A variety of interesting, sometimes unique, features mark the buildings that remain. Two above with unusual features, and below, the Stockbridge Apartments and the Fine Arts Building, with its sculpted insets and eclectic extension.
At 36th Street, an arch and a small garden mark a spot once occupied by a church.
While some newer buildings like the glassy Applied Science Center above take a new tack, some of the newer buildings pay interesting tribute to the past, such as this one, occupied by a building trades union.
A view from about 30th Street, looking toward Public Square and the Terminal Tower building. Views like this were easy to come by; in three days in Cleveland I seldom had to wait for traffic to clear to allow me to stand in the street for pictures.
Quite a few churches lined Euclid Avenue, including several Gothic majesties. The one just below, built in 1905 as the First United Methodist Church is now Majestic Hall, a catering venue. Just down the road is Trinity Cathedral, still the seat of Cleveland’s Episcopal diocese.
Nearby is the 45-room Mather Mansion, set back from the street on a large plot and built in 1910. It was once the most expensive home in the city; its survival is due to being owned now by Cleveland State University, which covers more of Euclid Avenue than any other use. It’s a far cry from that to the tacky-looking university housing on the other side of the avenue!
While nothing else on the street matches Mather, there are interesting bits on other buildings along the way.
At this point, we’re nearly out of the Campus District, and headed toward real ‘downtown’ spaces, starting with Playhouse Square, where several large theatres provide space for plays, touring musicals, concerts and film.
It’s also where we begin to see the grand impressions that Cleveland’s business elite set out to make for themselves.
Below, the Hanna Building, named for one of the city’s Big Names, the Hanna family. The Hannas built huge fortunes in iron, coal, and shipping during the 19th and early 20th centuries and ran Cleveland politics through most of that time. The building puts on quite a show, even if the ground floor now sports a Ben & Jerry’s where elite specialty shops once did business.
The nearby Halle Building, named for the department store that occupied it until 1982, is a few years newer in style than Hanna, with some near-Deco touches. These days, the Halle Building is all residential, along with the annex of the Hanna Building and many other former commercial buildings in the city center, including the former top-of-the-line Hotel Statler.
A pleasant open space where Huron Road splits off from Euclid, and the U.S. Bank Centre, a 1990s new-build that was originally dubbed Renaissance Center. Further down Euclid there are several other newer towers clustered near Public Square.
Cleveland’s United Way occupies the former Lindner Building, an Art Nouveau + cast-iron gem. Lindner was a women’s specialty fashion store with connections to Paris fashion houses and a French restaurant in the building. It passed through several hands later on before being abandoned in the 1980s. United Way moved in in 1995 after renovations.
The Union Club, founded in 1872, served to bring together Cleveland’s power elite of politicians, businessmen and educators. Among its founders were Mather (of the mansion), Hanna and future president William McKinley. It is still an invitation-only center for the powerful, although no longer restricted to white male Protestants.
This building, former home to a leading jewelry store, could easily be placed in the 1920s for style, but was actually opened in 1909, a style ahead of its time.
With so many buildings converted to residential use, there’s a need for groceries. And, hidden behind the facade of this 1907 Beaux-Arts building is just that: a branch of a Heinen’s, a major regional supermarket chain. The ornate lobby of the former Cleveland Trust Company includes the store’s dining area, while the store continues into the adjacent building.
Some nice details on a few more buildings. The Tiffany Glass Building, by the way, only recently got that name and hasn’t any actual Tiffany Glass these days, although it originally had appointments designed by Tiffany. Until fairly recently, Clevelanders believed that the dome above Heinen’s was by Tiffany, but it was actually from a Philadelphia competitor.
And we arrive at the end, where Euclid Avenue meets Public Square and the Civil War Memorial, stopping for a moment at a hotel that’s still a hotel, the ornate Hyatt Regency. The lower two floors of the 1890 building, The Arcade, was modeled on Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and is still retail space with a five-story atrium; it was the first indoor shopping mall in the U.S. and Cleveland’s first building to be landmarked.
The May Department Store building, just off Public Square, is the work of ‘City Beautiful’ architect Daniel Burnham from 1915; the Terminal Tower is visible next to it. You’ll likely not be surprised that the May building is also now mixed use residential and commercial.
And so, at the end of Euclid Avenue, I found myself wondering: Is it truly ‘half-past Cleveland,’ or is it ‘quarter to Cleveland?’
