The Cleveland Police Historical Society Inc. and Museum

There are many big museums in Cleveland but one that is not as well known is the Cleveland Police Historical Society Inc. and Museum, which is located on 1300 Ontario St, on the first floor of the Justice Center.Founded in 1983, it came to be as a result of the efforts of a group of Cleveland policemen and area citizens. The idea was hatched as a result of a visit to Scotland Yard’s Black Museum

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The Cleveland Meteorologists’ Holiday Snow Dance

Admit it, you’ve noticed that the Cleveland television meteorologists seem to be ecstatic at the prospect of a nice big lake effect snowstorm, or even a “synoptic” snow storm that could dump tons of snow on whole the area. In fact, if you didn’t know better, you’d think that they are actually doing a snow dance behind those big green screens on their weather set. (By the way, a synoptic snow is

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Cleveland’s Sidaway Bridge

Image from Google Street View Image from the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER)With all the talk about the Cleveland’s Innerbelt Bridge, I thought it was a good time to talk about a bridge in Cleveland that most don’t know about or have never seen. It’s the Sidaway Bridge , Cleveland’s only suspension-style bridge, built in 1931, at 680 feet long. The bridge was designed by Wilbur J.

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Cleveland Metroparks: The Emerald Necklace

Tinker's Creek Gorge, Bedford ReservationThe Cleveland Metroparks public park system is a true jewel of the Cleveland Metropolitan area. It is a series of parks, hiking trails, biking trails, horse trails, nature preserves, scenic wonders, and public golf courses that circle the city of Cleveland. They are nicknamed “The Emerald Necklace” because collectively from above, they look like a

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Greenberg Slams Cleveland in the Must Miss Book “Don’t Go There”

I chuckled when I first read the title of the Peter Greenberg book, “Don't Go There!: The Travel Detective's Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World.” I laughed because in the late 1950s, when I was very little and living on West 50th Street, my dad used to tell a story about something scary at the end of the street at West 50th and Denison, always ending the story with a spooky

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The Geology of Cleveland

The earth underneath the Cleveland metropolitan area isn’t something that people think about very often, if at all. Of course, if you live in one of the areas surrounding the city that has been hit with mild tremors over the last few years, maybe it has crossed your mind once or twice.I’ve always been interested in geology. Not seriously, though.  As a kid I liked to pick up all kinds of rocks,

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Cleveland’s Favorite “Haunts”

Franklin CastleWith Halloween coming up, it makes me think of all the places in Cleveland that are reported to be haunted.I’ve already written here before about what is probably Cleveland’s most famous haunted house, Franklin Castle, located on Franklin Boulevard at the intersection of West 44th Street. The Gothic-style house was built in 1865 for grocer and banking executive, Hannes Tiedemann

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The Cleveland Browns

Cleveland’s NFL football team, The Cleveland Browns , incites all kinds of passion in people, some of it the good kind, some of it bad. Long time Clevelanders have a love-hate relationship with the team. It comes from many years of having fans’ hopes raised when teams reached the playoffs, only to have fans’ hopes dashed when the team just can’t quite reach the top rung. Of course, just this past

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A Tour of Cleveland in Vintage Postcards

Here is a short video tour of the city of Cleveland, using vintage postcards from the 1930s-1950s. There are quite a few places of interest represented: the Terminal Tower, Public Square, Euclid Avenue, University Circle, some beautiful public parks, and a few of the city’s most notable bridges, monuments, and structures such as Public Auditorium and the Cuyahoga County Courthouse. It’s easy to

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Cleveland’s Innerbelt Bridge: In Trouble?

Last December, I wrote here about Cleveland’s many bridges (“Cleveland:City of Bridges”). One of the bridges mentioned was the I-90 Innerbelt Bridge, and at the time, there was much concern over the deterioration of the span.Months later, things haven’t improved. The West 14th Street ramp in Tremont was closed several months ago due to concerns about the bridge structure in that area. This week,

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Cleveland’s Bygone Millionaire’s Row

There is a stretch of Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue (US Route 20) that was once known as the most beautiful street in America. It was also known as “Millionaire’s Row”, because in the late 1800s to the early 1900s the street contained the homes of some of the richest and influential people in the city and the county. Some of the names of the families who lived on "Millionaire's Row" included those

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The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Integrity and SecurityMoney and the economy are on everyone’s mind lately. So, I thought this would be a good time to cover the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Cleveland serves as headquarters for the Fourth Federal Reserve District, an area which comprises Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. It is located on East 6th Street and Superior

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Severance Hall, Home of the Cleveland Orchestra

Photos from clevelandorch.com Severance Hall, in the University Circle area, is the beautiful home of the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra was formed in 1918, and it was decided in 1928 that a permanent home for them was in order. Severance Hall construction took place from December 1929 through early 1931. It was a gift from John L. Severance, in memory of his wife,

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Cleveland’s Hanna Theatre Re-Opens

Images from GLTF Back in January, I wrote about the history and renovation of the Hanna Theatre in Playhouse Square (“Imagine a Re-Imagined Hanna Theatre”).The Hanna renovation is now complete, and The Great Lakes Theatre Festival will be calling the Hanna their new home. The theater will have a grand re-opening with the GLTF annual benefit this Saturday, September 20.Here are the details from

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The (Animated) Cleveland Brown

No, this isn’t about that certain Cleveland NFL football team that Clevelanders either love, or love to hate. (Sometimes both.)This is about the fictional, animated character Cleveland Brown, from the Fox series “The Family Guy.” He is a recurring character on the show, playing one of Peter Griffin's neighbors and friends. He also owns a delicatessen, named fittingly, "Cleveland's Deli". He is

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The Cleveland Cultural Gardens

Stretching from I-90, which runs by the shore of Lake Erie, to the University Circle area, are the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. It is a collection of gardens with statuary, decorative ironwork, and fountains,  serving as a living monument representing the diversity of the varying ethnic groups of the Greater Cleveland area. It is an approximately 50 acres section of the much larger 254-acre

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Cleveland, Birthplace of Superman

One famous person who was born in Cleveland is fictional. It’s Superman. But he wasn’t born the old fashioned way, it was with the merging of the creative minds and hands of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.Joe Shuster (July 10, 1914 - July 30, 1992) was born in Canada, but his family moved to the Cleveland area in the mid-1920s, when Shuster was 10 years old. Jerry Siegel (October 17, 1914 – January

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Cleveland’s "Other" Arcades

The ArcadeWhen everyone thinks of an arcade in Cleveland, they think of “The” Arcade, (above) which sits between Euclid Avenue and Superior, and is now part of the Hyatt Regency hotel. Of course, it is an impressive building. But there are two other, smaller arcades very close by on the other side of Euclid Avenue that deserves more attention and respect than they get.Built in 1898, The Colonial

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"The Rocker" Set To Rock Cleveland - and The World

The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently featured a movie whose story is set in Cleveland, with some of the exteriors filmed in Cleveland. It’s called “The Rocker” and stars Rainn Wilson. The film opens nationwide on Wednesday, August 20. Take a look at the trailer; the Plain Dealer article is below. "The Rocker" Preview Clip from the Film's YouTube ChannelRainn Wilson pounds and preens for laughs as

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Cleveland’s Collection of Children’s Shows

Back when there were only a handful of TV channels from which to choose – Channel 3 (WKYC/KYW), Channel 5 (WEWS) and Channel 8 (WJW), locally produced programming for the kids in town was a very big deal. Cleveland had a whole litany of stars for the kids: Captain Penny (Ron Penfound) with Jungle Larry; Mr. Jingeling (played by Max Ellis, Carl Mackey, and Earl Keyes); Barnaby (Linn Sheldon) and

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The Rose-Mary Center: Cleveland’s Living Angels

There are some places in Cleveland area that may be relatively unknown to people, that is, until they find themselves in need of their services. The Rose-Mary Center may be one of those places. You may have heard their name mentioned on Cleveland radio station Mix 106.5 when they have on-line ticket auctions for special concerts, but you may not have ever bothered to find out exactly what it is

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To Forbes Magazine: Reports of our Death are Greatly Exaggerated

An editorial Cleveland makes another list, this one from Forbes Magazine, calling Cleveland one of “America’s Fastest-Dying Cities”. More specifically, in the pictorial summary of the cities, they list the area as the “Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio, metropolitan statistical area.” And I am not quite sure of the location of photo of Cleveland that they used (see below), but it hardly represents

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The Cleveland Public Library

Photo from Bluffton.eduThe Cleveland Public Library’s web site states its high-reaching mission: “To be the best urban library system in the country by providing access to the worldwide information that people and organizations need in a timely, convenient, and equitable manner.” Their vision: “The People's University" is to be the learning place for a diverse community, inspiring people of all

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Songs About, or Mentioning, Cleveland

Photo by the authorSince this blog is all about the great city of Cleveland, I thought it would be a good place to assemble a definitive collection of all the music videos I could find that are either about Cleveland, or that simply mention the city by name. Here’s the list I’ve compiled so far, and the songs covered various musical genres. If I’ve missed any, please leave me a comment and I’ll

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The Mall: Downtown Cleveland’s Public Park

When people first hear of Cleveland’s Mall, they think of a retail shopping mall. While Cleveland does have retail shopping downtown, The Mall I refer to is the downtown public park. It was created as part of the “City Beautiful” movement, which, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, arose in the United States in response to crowded inner-city districts. The goal was to use beautification and

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The Cleveland Museum of Art

Old Postcard - 1916 BuildingThe Cleveland Museum of Art is currently undergoing a 10-year, $350 million expansion and renovation. After completing part of the renovation, the museum recently reopened the Historic 1916 building, with 19 galleries and over 900 works of art. If the work done on the 1916 building is any indication of what will be coming for the remainder of the renovation, I think

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Cleveland’s Public Auditorium

The only time I was in Cleveland’s Public Auditorium (also known as Public Hall), I was a teenager attending a Moody Blues concert. Luckily we had seats close to the front, as Public Auditorium was so huge that sitting too far back would make for a bad view. My ticket cost a whopping $5.00. I don’t think I was ever there again. I believe the next concert I attended was at the Music Hall,

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Cleveland’s Shameful Eyesore: Lakefront "Howard Johnson’s"

Cleveland's Eyesore, sitting behind Fox 8 One of Cleveland’s ugliest sights – at least for those who have to drive past it every day – is the old Howard Johnson’s Hotel (5700 South Marginal Road) - viewable from I-90. It sits right behind Fox 8 studios, much to their dismay, I am sure.The location itself has possibilities. It has a nice view of the Lake, and easy freeway access. Yet, it

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Cleveland’s Great Mustard Debate

Forget Paris…well, I mean Dijon. Mustard, that is. There are only two kinds of mustard for true Clevelanders. One is Stadium Mustard, and the other is Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard. Stadium Mustard is currently the official mustard of Progressive Field, is featured at 150 stadiums and arenas throughout the United States, and has been served to astronauts on the Space Shuttle. Bertman’s had

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Lake Erie “Beyond the Surface” Part 4

The fourth and final installment of “Lake Erie Beyond the Surface” will be airing on Cleveland’s WKYC Channel 3 on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 7:00 PM, hosted by Mark Nolan. So far, this series has been excellent, and I encourage everyone in the Channel 3 viewing area to catch the show. Lake Erie is a vital resource that we should all understand, respect, and protect.More information and links to

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Pete Townshend’s Ode to Cleveland

Pete Townshend - of The Who and also a very successful solo artist in his own right - said that he only wrote one song about one city, and that city was Cleveland. It’s one of my favorite tunes from Townshend’s solo career, titled "Sheraton Gibson," appearing on his “Who Came First” album that was released in 1972.

Here are a few versions of the song performed by Townshend. The first is a live

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The William G. Mather Maritime Museum

The Steamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum has been a familiar sight on Cleveland’s Lake Erie shoreline since October 1990, initially at a berth at the East Ninth Street Pier on Cleveland's North Coast Harbor, and now located just north of the Great Lakes Science Center at Dock 32.More than just a museum, it had a busy life as a Great Lakes bulk freighter that transported cargo such as ore,

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Cleveland's Love Affair With Beer

My treasured beer bottle bank capThe other day while sifting through a box of items I’d had packed away years ago, I found a giant beer bottle cap. It came from a giant glass beer bottle bank that belong to my grandparents that they used to save money for their grandchildren. They would start saving loose change, and then whatever was in the bank at the time one of their grandchildren was born,

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Cleveland’s University Circle

A section of Uniiversity Circle, Aerial ViewUniversity Circle is more than just a university, and also more than a circuitous road where it’s easy for some to get lost. It’s a hub of education, medicine, museums, music, and just about any cultural thing you can imagine.Located a few miles east of downtown Cleveland, it was originally known as Doan’s Corners, named after Nathanial Doan, a member

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Cleveland’s West Side Market

Photo by James Popp Web site here. One thing you should never do when visiting Cleveland’s West Side Market is go there hungry. If your empty stomach doesn't get you to buy everything you see, your eyes will. The West Side Market is also the place to go to experience the full breadth of Cleveland’s ethnic eats. The one thing I always hear from people who have moved out of the Cleveland area is

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The Cleveland Area’s Annoying Midges

A midge, greatly enlarged They don’t bite. They don’t sting. But they can still annoy. They’re midges (some call them muckleheads), and every year around this time when it starts to warm up, they come out in full force. And sometimes in the fall they return again if the conditions are right.These insects are largely ignored, until they come out in such numbers that they can’t

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Funny Clevelanders: Tim Conway

Before Drew Carey, one of Cleveland’s resident funny men was Tim Conway. He is considered a Clevelander, even though he was born in Willoughby, Ohio and grew up in Chagrin Falls. He is best known nationwide for his performances on “McHale’s Navy” and “The Carol Burnett Show”, but long time, maybe older Cleveland area residents remember him from his work on Cleveland radio and TV with Ernie

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Rating The Web Sites for Cleveland’s TV News Channels

Just what you've been waiting for - my review of the web sites for your favorite local news channels. One of them gave me a migraine. Each channel's home page can be accessed by clicking on the channel name/station.WOIO Channel 19This web site screams cheesy and sleazy. When I looked at the home page early this afternoon, on the upper right side, there was a video that touts “ Hookers, Johns,

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The Return of the Cuyahoga: PBS Documentary Airs April 22

PBS will be airing the documentary “The Return of the Cuyahoga” on Tuesday, April 22 at 9:00 PM. A preview is below. Please note that the airdate listed in the video is not correct for the Cleveland PBS station, WVIZ, so if you’re reading this blog from outside the Cleveland area, please check your local listings for dates and times. (UPDATE April 18: My DVR program guide now indicates this

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Cleveland’s Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument

Stained Glass Inside the MonumentBeginning in June, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which sits on Cleveland’s Public Square, will be undergoing a renovation. According to Neil K. Evans, president of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission, restoration will take place on the glass, brass and marble inside the historic structure. The cost of this project is estimated at $2 million.

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Cleveland’s Whaling Wall

Image from The Wyland FoundationDaily, many Clevelanders pass the painting of whales on the Cleveland Public Power Plant, but probably don’t know much about it.The mural is one of many “Whaling Walls” painted by artist Robert Wyland. It is Whaling Wall #75, called “Song of the Whales”, and was completed in 1997. It is 300 feet long, and 108 feet high.Robert Wyland is a multi-talented artist and

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Cleveland's Ameritrust (Breuer) Tower: Déjà Vu All Over Again

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that another bid has been received for the Ameritrust Tower (also known as the Breuer Tower, after its architect). Well, maybe we should say it’s the same bidder as before, just a differently structured bid. The bidder (again) is Willoughby, Ohio’s K&D Group, a local residential developer. The new bid is for the minimum asking price of $35 million, but

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See Cleveland Via Google Maps Street View

Street View from the West ShorewayThe Plain Dealer reported today that Cleveland is now included in the list of cities where a “street view” is available using Google Maps. The street view shows you actual images of what you would see on the street if you were standing or driving there yourself. (Don't worry, it's not live!) Just go to this link to Google Maps, type in “Cleveland, Oh” in the

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Cleveland: Birthplace of the First Electric Traffic Signal?

Morgan's Patented DesignSome sources claim that the first traffic light was NOT in Cleveland, as earlier signals had been used in London England in 1868, and another version in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1912. But, there is one consistent design and name that comes up, Garrett Augustus Morgan, whose design was patented on November 23, 1923. Morgan, born in 1877 in Kentucky, was the son of former

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Cleveland’s Slogans,Catchphrases, and Monikers

In my 53 years living here in the Cleveland area, I’ve heard a lot of city slogans and catchphrases. Some have been very positive for the city, some have been downright negative. Some of the best ones have gone by the wayside while people seem to remember all the bad ones, and some make no impression at all.The best one I think I ever heard, which sadly the city seems to have completely discarded

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Cleveland's Firefighters Memorial

Every year on St. Patrick’s Day in Cleveland, the city celebrates with a parade through the city’s downtown streets, including police and firefighters as staples of the parade procession. The Cleveland Firefighters Shamrock Club also hosts the annual Memorial to Fallen Firefighters at this time. But the memorial itself stands year round between Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Great Lakes

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Cleveland’s Local News Commercials

Newscasts in Cleveland are a competitive business. With four major networks in town (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC), there is an on going battle to draw viewers to local programming. Viewers often remain steadfastly loyal to their on-air news talent, until something nudges them to make a change. For me, I used to watch Channel 5 (WEWS) a lot, but something happened several years ago – maybe the overkill

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The Old Stone Church

The Old Stone Church on Public Square© allthingscleveland The recent collapse of a major water line at Cleveland’s Public Square made me have a fleeting thought if the Old Stone Church escaped damage, as it was very close by. (Thankfully, it was safe.) The church is one of those Cleveland buildings that everyone knows about, but we often take for granted.First of all, its original, more

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Cleveland’s Wind Power

I think it was almost two years ago I saw a strange sight while driving on the I-90 spur between I-271 and Route 2. A large semi truck was carrying a very long, oddly shaped load, which looked like a huge white propeller. Since the truck was moving slowly, I passed it, and shortly came upon another truck, heading in the same direction, with the same type of load. As I neared the Route 2 section

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Cleveland: Stressful?

Bizjournals.com recently published their list of the 50 most stressful metropolitan areas in the United States, where Cleveland came in second with a 6.53 stress index. Detroit claimed the top spot with a 10.64 stress index. Bizjournals.com says about Cleveland, “Right behind Detroit on the stress index is another Great Lakes metro with its share of economic woes, Cleveland. It's burdened with

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Cleveland’s Free Stamp

Poor Free Stamp; shunned by the company that initially commissioned the work, and almost destroyed because of a closed-minded member of Cleveland City Council, it’s as if no one wanted it. But, it’s always been a favorite of mine because it’s big, it’s bold, and it’s a survivor.For those of you not familiar with Free Stamp, it is a large sculpture, designed by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van

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Ameritrust/Breuer Tower: Its Fate In Question, Again

Previously, I’ve written in this blog about the Breuer Tower (AKA The Ameritrust Tower) and its architectural significance and ownership status. (The blog entries can be found here and here.)Recent events again put the fate of the Ameritrust/Breuer Tower in question. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the city has rejected K & D’s offer to buy the property. The Plain Dealer states that if

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The Cleveland Press

I was going through some childhood mementos the other day and found one of my prized possessions as a child – my Paper Mate pen that I won in the fifth grade for winning my grade school’s Cleveland Press Spelling Bee. I started thinking about how I used to come home from school and sit down and read the afternoon newspaper. Full disclosure – I always started with the comics section. Our household

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The Euclid Corridor Project

Did you know that Euclid Avenue is part of the longest road in the United States? Yes, US Route 20, known as Euclid Avenue in the Cleveland area, stretches from Boston, Massachusetts to Newport, Oregon, with a length of 3,365 miles (5,415 km).In Cleveland, the longest road in the US is getting a much needed facelift. It isn’t just a simple repaving of the street and new sidewalks. The project

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Those (Annoying) Local Cleveland Area Commercials

You can’t get away from them even if you tried. They’re commercials for local Cleveland area businesses. Some of them only seem to come out in the wee hours of the morning. Some get repeated ad nauseam during the morning news shows.The question is – do they work? I suppose only the companies can tell you for sure. But one thing I will tell you, some of them will stick in your mind whether you

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Cleveland's New Avenue District

Artist Rendering of The Avenue DistrictWhen I was working downtown in the Tower at Erieview, my view directly below and to the east was of a dismal parking lot. Thankfully, the parking lot is now becoming The Avenue District, which, as their web site states, “will be a walkable neighborhood weaving seamlessly with The Theatre, Gateway, Civic, and Lakefront Districts and right next door to

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Cleveland’s Local Mid-Morning Talk Shows: A Waste of an Hour

Remember the 1950s-1960s “glory days” of Cleveland’s locally produced television shows? There was The Gene Carroll Show, Polka Varieties, Mike Douglas, Captain Penny, Barnaby, The One O’clock Club, etc. Of course, we only had three to four channels to choose from (if antenna reception was good) so we took whatever we could get and learned to love it. And even though they called it the “glory days

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Cleveland’s Dead Man’s Curve

Cleveland's Dead Man's Curve, I-90 WestboundDead Man’s Curve is one of those Cleveland landmarks that was never intended to be a landmark. The near 90-degree curve is where I-90 takes a hard left where it splits off with Ohio Route 2 westbound, or with a hard right for drivers going eastbound. Constructed in 1959 as part of the Innerbelt project (which started in 1954), it opened with a speed

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The Cleveland Crib

What is the Cleveland Crib? No, it’s not a big bed for all the babies in town. It’s the main intake for the Cleveland water supply, and it sits a little over three miles away from the downtown Cleveland shoreline, and 5 miles from the pumping station. The "Crib" term is from the metal cage structure, which was built on shore, then taken out to the lake location, filled with rock, and sunk to the

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Happy Birthday, Moses Cleaveland

Moses Cleaveland, the name sake and founder of the City of Cleveland, was born on January 29, 1754, in Canturbury, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale in 1777 after studying law, and was commissioned shortly thereafter to fight in the Revolutionary War in the Continental Army. He resigned in 1781 and began to practice law.After the Revolution, people began a westward migration, and disputes

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Lake Erie – Look at What’s “Beyond The Surface”

Usually local Cleveland programming can be bland an uninspiring. But one local series, called “Lake Erie Beyond the Surface” is the exception to that rule.This half hour show features one of the most amazing and diverse resources to which the Cleveland area has access: Lake Erie. This series digs deep into life in and around the lake, not just in Cleveland proper, but also in other areas along

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The Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Downtown Cleveland

Last summer I made a trip to the Cuyahoga County (Probate) Courthouse on Lakeside Avenue for a family member to get a copy of a marriage certificate. Since I had never been in the building – at least that I can recall – I decided to take the camera and snap a few pictures.Central Court Entry

The Courthouse was completed in 1906. The Bluffton.edu web site contained some interesting information

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Imagine a Re-Imagined Hanna Theatre

The Hanna in the 1940s The Hanna Theatre is undergoing an extensive renovation, or “re-imagining," to create a new theatre experience in Cleveland, and is being touted as a theatre unlike any other in the country. Some background on the theatre: It was designed by Charles Platt, built by John Gill & Sons, and decorated by Faustino Sampietro. It first opened on March 29, 1921, and was dedicated

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Rating Cleveland’s Morning News Shows

The one thing of which Cleveland has no shortage is morning news shows. Between 5:00 AM and 7:00 AM, you’ll find news on channels 3, 5, 8, and 19. And each show has a personality all its own. Since I’m a frequent watcher of “Fox 8 News in the Morning” and a former frequent watcher of “Channel 3 News Today”, I spent the last few weeks watching all four channels to get an idea of who really has the

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UPDATE: Breuer Tower Has a New Owner

This is an update to an issue I covered in my blog on January 7, link here. The Breuer Tower, AKA The Ameritrust Tower, has been saved from both the mismanagement of Cuyahoga County politicians, and the wrecking ball (hard to tell those two things apart).The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported that Willoughby-based K&D Group has purchased the Ameritust complex and has some great plans for the

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Haunted Cleveland: Franklin Castle

In the fall of 2006, while driving downtown, I hit a detour in the freeway and accidentally took the wrong freeway exit. In trying to get back to my original destination, I got really lost on the West Side of town off I-90. My ability to get my bearings was being hampered because the entire Cleveland area had been hit by pea-soup fog. I could barely see the front of my car, much less street

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It’s Now Progressive Field – Get Over It!

The Cleveland media announced yesterday that Jacobs Field, the home of The Cleveland Indians, would now be called Progressive Field. Progressive Insurance purchased the naming rights for the playing field, in a 16 year, $3.6 million a year deal. The length of this agreement coincides with the Indians’ lease with Gateway.If you listen to the media reports, one would think that Progressive was

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The Hulett Ore Unloaders: Cleveland's Late Workhorses

Once you’ve seen the Hulett Ore Unloaders, it’s hard to forget them. They looked like giant, prehistoric steel grasshoppers sitting on Whiskey Island. I use the past tense, because they’re not there anymore.The Huletts were invented in 1898 by George H. Hulett, who was born in Conneaut, Ohio, but grew up in Cleveland. The Huletts were revolutionary at the time, greatly speeding up the process

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Breuer Tower (AKA The Cleveland Trust/Ameritrust Tower): A Reprieve?

The Breuer Tower has been the subject of some controversy. You may not know that the building is even there, because it sits so nonchalantly behind its smaller, yet architecturally more obvious neighbor, the old Cleveland Trust rotunda.What’s the big deal about this building? Well, it’s a prime example of the ignorance, the shortsightedness, and the blind spending of local politicians. More

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Tallest in Cleveland: The Key Tower

The granite-faced Key Tower sits impressively on Cleveland's Public Square. At 57 stories and 947 feet tall, it is the tallest building in Cleveland, the tallest in Ohio, and the 16th tallest in the United States. It was originally called the Society Center (for Society Bank, the original owners), and was renamed after Key Bank acquired the company. It was designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates.

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