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86-18 Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion
At 2:30 p.m. on Friday, October 20, 1944, an above ground storage tank that held liquefied natural gas in the East Ohio Gas Company’s tank farm began to emit vapor from a seam on the side of the tank that dropped into nearby sewer lines. It mixed with air and sewer gas and ignited, resulting […]
85-18 Springvale Ballroom / Springvale Ballroom
Springvale Ballroom is located on part of the one hundred and forty acre tract that English immigrant John Biddulph bought in 1840. Fred Biddulph, John Biddulph’s grandson, was born near this site in 1887. Fred and his wife, Clara, built the five thousand square foot Springvale Ballroom. On May 19, 1923, they paid fifteen dollars […]
84-18 Bedford Historic Business District
The town of Bedford was settled in 1837. Early residents, Hezekiah and Clarissa Dunham donated the land that serves as Bedford Public Square. The Dunhams built one of the area’s first homes in 1832, which stands at 729 Broadway with the letters H & D above the doorway. Early settlers were attracted to the area […]
83-18 The Weston House / Sandstone Houses
This rare sandstone house was built for Austin (c. 1788-1848) and Roxanna (Sears) Lilly (c. 1793-1868). They came to Dover Township (now Westlake) in 1832 from Ashfield, Massachusetts, an area from which many Dover settlers originated. This lot had been owned by Ozias and Hiram Smith. The Lillys erected this house in about 1844 and […]
81-18 Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument
This monument, dedicated July 4, 1894, honors Cuyahoga County men and women, who performed military and patriotic duties during the Civil War (1861-1865). William J. Gleason (1846-1905), army veteran and local businessman, proposed its creation in 1879. Captain Levi Tucker Scofield (1842-1917), Cleveland architect and sculptor, designed the structure and supervised its 19-month construction by […]
80-18 South Park Village and The Whittlesey Tradition
Directly across the Cuyahoga River from this spot is the South Park Village. Here, archeologists uncovered the remains of a four-acre, Native American settlement populated by people of the Whittlesey Tradition. The people of South Park lived in communal structures and grew maize, beans, and squash in the floodplain fields that surround you. Food remains […]
78-18 The Ohio AFL-CIO
Following the national merger of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1955, more than 2,000 labor delegates representing one million union members convened at the Cleveland Public Auditorium for the founding convention of the Ohio AFL-CIO in 1958. This leading labor organization achieved significant advances in the […]
79-18 The Fight for the Eight-Hour Day
Organized efforts to establish an eight-hour workday existed as early as 1866 in the United States. The Cleveland Rolling Mills Strikes of 1882 and 1885, as part of this almost-70-year struggle, contributed to the establishment of the eight-hour workday. Both strikes challenged the two-shift, twelve-hour workday in addition to seeking recognition of the Amalgamated Association […]
77-18 James Mercer Langston Hughes
One of the most recognized figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902 and moved to Cleveland by the time he was in high school. An avid traveler, he credited his years at Central High School for the inspiration to write and dream. The consummate Renaissance man, […]
76-18 Sarah Benedict House
The Sarah Benedict House is a rare survivor of the once fashionable Upper Prospect neighborhood that included “Millionaires Row” on adjacent Euclid Avenue. Sarah Rathbone Benedict had this Queen Anne-inspired house built in 1883, when she was 68, and lived here until her death in 1902. She was active in the social, religious, and charitable […]