In Downtown Cleveland
If walking and history are your thing, or if you just really think Cleveland is cool, you’ll want to stop and walk with a Take-A-Hike Tour of downtown Cleveland. I had more fun and picked up more history than I expected when I took a hike at 10AM on a recent Saturday in the Warehouse District. I joined the Take-A-Hike tour that began at Constantino’s Market on West 9th Street, headed down towards the Main Avenue Bridge on The Bluff, wound down Lakeside to West 6th Street and then west on Superior, and returned to West 9th Street. The Warehouse District tour is a great way to learn about the history of Cleveland.
The guided walking tours are led by school teachers who run into actors along the way who portray historic figures in Cleveland. The tours run between now and Sun 9/12, so you only have a few weeks to stay downtown or come down for the weekend to experience Cleveland’s history on a walking tour. The other Take-a-Hike Tours are: the Gateway district on Thurs (meet at The Arcade) at 6PM, the Canal Basin area on Sun at 10AM (start at Settlers Landing), and Playhouse Square on Tues (meet at the State Theatre) at 6AM. I’m glad I chose the Historic Warehouse Tour with a varied crowd of about fifty people who joined Tom McMahon, a Cleveland Public Schools history teacher who obviously loves history and loves Cleveland.
We heard the stories about the relocation of the Cuyahoga River from its original meandering route that took it closer to Edgewater and about the Connecticut Land Company selling lots to pioneers who lived in log cabins along the The Bluff. Cleveland was an outpost compared with Cincinnati, and few people wanted to do business there. We also heard how the estate and lighthouse of William Borden once stood where the abandoned stairs are under the Main Street Bridge are still visible.
Once Cleveland became a bustling financial center in the latter part of the 19th century, dry goods stores and garment factories, owned and run by recent immigrants, took over the warehouse district. The Bingham Hardware Building, now renovated as apartment buildings, was built in 1840, making it one of the oldest buildings in the Warehouse District. The Mr. Bradley who owned the Bradley Building, built in the late 1800s, was a shipbuilder whose business became American Shipbuilding. The Rockefeller Building was built in 1903 for John D. Rockefeller.
The Western Reserve Building, built by the famed Burnham & Root in 1891, was built for Samuel Mather, grandfather of the Cleveland Cliffs Building. Frank Cudell and John Richardson, early architects in Cleveland, built buildings that were fireproof, more open, and of steel construction, and include the Worthington Building, the Perry-Payne Building, and the Root & McBride-Bradley Building. Cleveland made a name for itself in architecture. Take a Hike is generously presented by PNC. The program is also funded by the Ohio & Erie Canalway Association and Downtown Cleveland Alliance. Program partners include Historic Warehouse District, Positively Cleveland, Ohio Canal Corridor and PlayhouseSquare.Get out and take a hike in Cleveland. The four Take-A-Hike tour routes cover the Warehouse District, the Historic Gateway Neighborhood, the Canal Basin, and Playhouse Square. If you plan to go, you should try to arrive ten minutes before the scheduled tour. The tours are free, but donations are accepted. For more information about the tours visit http://historicgateway.org or call 216-771-1994.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia Taller, whose passion for words has led to creation of the Lakeside Word Lover’s Retreats, an outgrowth of her work with Skyline Writers.
Her favorite foods are red wine, salmon, ice cream, and chocolate. She loves to read, write, tour wineries, ride her bike, ease into yoga, and cook gourmet meals for friends. Find her at http://www.claudiatallermusings.blogspot.com.