#12   Cleveland OH

Here are some houses on our way into town as we drove along highway 2 and 20 west of Cleveland.  We saw many areas of lovely homes as we drove around the area.

Some multi-family units look like this.

Brick apartment buildings like these slip in between the houses.

Check out this bus stop!

Meet Lolly the Trolley!  Driver Jim gave us an excellent tour around the Cleveland neighborhoods.

Here we are ready to go!   We signed on for the 2 ½ hour. Jim loves Cleveland! His enthusiasm for the city showed as he guided us around town.

The Cuyahoga River divides Cleveland into a West Side and East Sides affectionately called The Flats. We heard that great restaurants sat by the river, but the ones I googled had big price tags too.

We passed this Irish Pub with a sign indicating this is the official headquarters of the St. Patrick’s Day parade committee.

Nice view of Cleveland.

 The Cleveland Clinic and medical facilities ranks as Cleveland’s biggest employer.  We think they employ 80,000 people, if we heard Jim correctly.  They rank #2 in the country. Facilities exist all over town.

The Health-Tech Corridor seems more modern than the brick structures closer to downtown.

We passed the Health-Tech Corridor farther along in the tour and after Millionaire’s Row.

According to Jim this Ronald McDonald house is the largest one in the United States.

I found it interesting that they have their own police force. 

I liked this church undergoing renovation.

This blue house was built to Amish standards by an Amish man who moved to Cleveland. 

A drive through the neighborhood!

The warehouse district takes up only a few blocks. The most notable occupant is the Great Lakes Brewing Company.

The trolley passed The West Side Market. Jim claims the food networks call this the best market in the nation.

 

Apparently 4^th street is Cleveland’s version of Beal or Bourbon Street.

Cleveland downtown buildings have been around for a while.

Several corners in downtown support hot dog stands.

One of the city parks include this pool where people can cool off.

It also has a huge statue. It may be a war memorial.

In Playhouse Square a huge chandelier created by GE hangs over Euclid Avenue.  The chandelier hangs suspended 44 feet above the street. The chandelier itself measures 20 feet tall with 4200 crystals. Look it up and you can see pictures of it lit up at night.

The theaters on this street were constructed in the early 1920’s.  Later they were gradually shut down until a grassroots effort revived them. Today Playhouse Square claims to be the largest performing arts center in the United States, outside of New York City.

The Halle Building bit of trivia states that Halle Berry’s mom worked here, and that’s how Halle got her name.

One of the city’s claims to fame involves the movie, A Christmas Story.  The department store downtown recorded several scenes from the movie.  The house the family lived in is marked on the city maps.   The original department store is now the J.A.C.K. Casino.  Not a casino, but in reality another department store. I missed the photo.

Several bridges cross over the Cuyahoga River.

 The blue Main Street Bridge is the longest of them all.

At each end of the Hope Bridge, the Guardians of Traffic stand watch.  Each Guardian holds a different symbol of transportation.  Bob Hope’s father, a stone mason helped create these giant statues.  Urban myths aren’t sure if the Hope Bridge is so named for the father, or the son.

Cleveland from the Hope Bridge.

For the sports minded Cleveland supports three pro teams.

The Cleveland Indians, baseball team, calls Progressive Field, aka Jacobs Field or “the Jake”, home.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, their basketball team, will soon call The Rocket Mortgage Arena their new home.  As we drove around town, Jim, our guide, pointed out places that LaBron James and Kyrie Irving have penthouse apartments, usually with a water view.

The Cleveland Browns, football team plays games in the First Energy Stadium.

 I found it novel to put some of the stadium rules on the planters out front.
Some pots say:  Metal Detectors are in use.... Welcome to the dawg pound....Clear bags only beyond this point.

We also drove by Cleveland State University.

This is their new student union.

This road leads to Millionaires’ Row.  At the turn of the century the homes along Euclid Avenue belonged to some of the nation’s most powerful and influential industrialists including J. D. Rockefeller. Lavish gardens and ornate mansions came from a concentration of unparalleled wealth.

These men used their wealth to support charitable organizations and fund the construction of churches, universities, medical schools, art museums and orchestras to name a few. In 1910 Cleveland was the 6^th largest city in the U.S.   As times changed many of the mansions were destroyed for other construction.  Jim said some owners knew no one could maintain these homes and put their destruction to occur following the owners death.  Only about 4 are still 
intact.

Jim passed out photos of the old mansions.

This mansion now houses a Children’s Museum.

University Circle includes the Case Western Reserve University.

  This odd building houses the Business school.  The structure has no regular angles in it. Jim said stay away in winter because the snow just slides right off that roof.

The Wade Oval includes this water feature and a park that sits across the street from the Art Museum. Jim and family planned to attend a concert there later in the evening.

Severance Hall houses the Cleveland Orchestra.                                                                   

In this area the Art Museum, Museum of History, Museum of Music and the Botanical Gardens reside.

I think this is one view of the Art Museum.

Lolly the Trolly stopped at the Art Museum for us to stretch our legs.  Inside the front doors a large atrium occupied the entrance to the museum proper.

 I liked the Catcher’s Mitt sculpture.

We saw these beautiful homes that my friend thinks are probably Shaker Heights.  I can’t remember.

I enjoyed our drive through the lush Rockefeller Park.  

Cleveland includes a large variety of ethnic groups.  In an effort to build relationships between them The Cultural Gardens were created.  Each ethnic group built a garden representing their home country.  Each country name is posted at the entrance.  What a lovely idea!  Here are a few examples. The first two represent Germany, then Greece, Italy and Poland.

Rockefeller also wanted these brick underpasses along the main drive.

We returned to town along the shores of Lake Erie. 

Lots of marinas occupy the waterfront.

The Cleveland skyline from the shores of Lake Erie.

This blue building, a Hyatt Hotel, rates as one of the newest structures in Cleveland.  That notch way up near the top is a restaurant.

One of the shoreline parks has a Blue Angel plane on display.

Near the end of our tour we went past this mural that a lady painted of the children from the projects. I believe she even had the children help her.

We think this is project housing.

Tomorrow we visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland.