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Cleveland’s Lakeview Cemetery

October 12, 2014

Euclid Avenue gate, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

If Cleveland’s architecture provides insight into its history, its magnificent Lakeview Cemetery yields insights into the dreams, accomplishments, and tragedies of its people.

Modeled after the great garden cemeteries of Victorian era England and France and opened in 1869, it is the permanent resting place of more than 100,000 Clevelanders.

Cleveland skyline from heights above Lakeview Cemetery

Nearly 1,000 permanent residents are added each year and a quarter of the 285 acres are yet undeveloped.

Many of the immigrant stonemasons who landscaped the cemetery and carved its monuments lived in adjacent Little Italy.

Gravesite statuary, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

One of the more poignant memorials is to the nearly two hundred children killed in the Collinwood school fire of 1908.

The cemetery is the final resting place of twentieth century notables, as well as of some of historical footnote interest.

Garfield Monument, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the U.S., is the most well-known of the statesmen buried here, which also include U.S. Senator and Republican Party kingmaker Mark Hanna, U. S. Secretary of State John Hay, and Newton D. Baker, World War I Secretary of War.

Oil baron John D. Rockefeller is also buried here.

Garfield, a former Civil War general, college president, and Congressman, became the Republicans’ dark horse nominee on the 36th ballot and won the election by only 10,000 votes.

Garfield Monument, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

Only four months after his inauguration in 1881, he was shot by a disappointed officer seeker in Washington’s railroad station and lingered for two months before he died.

His monument is an imposing sandstone structure that combines Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine styles of architecture, and stands 180 feet tall.

On a clear day, visitors can see up to forty miles of Lake Erie shore from its balcony.

Garfield Monument, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

Garfield’s life and death are depicted in five terra cotta panels, and more than 100 life size statues. The Memorial Hall is done in gold mosaics, colored marble, stained glass windows and red granite columns.

Cleveland Indians short stop Ray Chapman, killed when struck in the head by a pitch in 1920, is buried here. He is one of only two MLB players to die of a head injury sustained on the playing field during a game.

Lakeview is also the burial site of pioneer rock ‘n’ roll DJ Alan “Moondog” Freed.

Gravesite statuary, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

Some of those buried here are not themselves well-known, but have made widely-known contributions from the profound to the lighthearted. Garrett Morgan invented the gas mask and the three-colored traffic light . James Salisbury invented… the Salisbury steak.

The ashes of Untouchables detective Eliot Ness, Cleveland’s Director of Public Safety from 1935-42, are scattered here. So are the ashes of comic book writer Harvey Pekar, known for his groundbreaking series American Splendor.

Wade Chapel, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

The cemetery’s Wade Chapel is a must-see. Built in memory of Western Union founder Jeptha Wade, it contains one of the few surviving interiors totally designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Wade Chapel, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

Massive bronze doors set into the Neo-Classical style exterior open on a chapel dominated by Tiffany’s stunning stained glass window.

Its brilliant colors are at once opalescent, iridescent, and translucent.

Wade Chapel, Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland

A mosaic on the Chapel’s west wall symbolizes prophecy and the law of the Old Testament.

The mosaic on the east wall symbolizes the fulfillment of the Prophets’ laws by Christianity.

Both were constructed in the Tiffany Studios in New York and re-assembled on site.

Gravesite statue “Angel of Death Victorious” by sculptor Herman Matzen.

Also check out the smaller but well known memorial, “Angel of Death Victorious” at the gravesite of the Haserot family, created by sculptor Herman Matzen.

See my related post on La Recoleta (one of National Geographic Top 10 cemeteries) in my post Links to a Buenos Aires past.

See also my related Cleveland posts:

Big-Spirited Little Italy

Cleveland’s Public Square

Cleveland’s historic architecture

Cleveland’s river roots

Both Cleveland and its Public Square, along with Cleveland’s Little Italy, figure prominently in my recently published novel Lifelines: An American Dream, available on Amazon.

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Cleveland’s river roots

Filed under: U.S., U.S. Midwest — 3 Comments

October 5, 2014

View of “The Flats” from the Terminal Tower.

The magnificent buildings of Cleveland’s historic downtown reflect commercial activity that was once a feature of its riverfront.

For nearly a century, Cleveland’s location on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River made it one of the nation’s premier commercial hubs.

The Warehouse District sits on the East Bank bluffs above the river.

The historic Warehouse District sits on the East Bank bluffs above the river.

The river has carved its bed through the bluffs on which the city is perched.

The low-lying area along its banks has long been known as “The Flats”.

In the 1820’s, Cleveland was first connected to the Ohio River by a canal which was the region’s primary commercial traffic route until railroads replaced it in the 1860’s.

In the years following, Cleveland grew into a major rail hub. The New York Central, Erie, and Nickel Plate railroads all connected here.

View of Downtown Cleveland from the West Bank of the Cuyahoga River.

Today, parts of the canal are preserved under park service stewardship, and a restoration of its towpath has created jogging and bike trails.

The river’s water quality and fish populations have improved every year since 1970.

Lake freighters carrying Mesabi Range iron ore south and railroads carrying West Virginia coal north converged in Cleveland to fuel one of the nation’s largest steel-making centers.

Refineries and steel mills have been replaced by cultural and entertainment venues.

In The Flats, the smelters and rolling mills of U.S. Steel, Republic. Bethlehem and Jones & Laughlin along both sides of the river became the pillar of the city’s economy, as well as a major source of river pollution.

On the East Bank, the refineries of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company leaked oil into the river for decades.

The Cuyahoga River has caught fire more than a dozen times since 1840. The last fire was in 1969, and the story which appeared in TIME magazine was a wake-up call both for Cleveland and the nation.

West Side public market and clocktower.

Beginning in the late 1960’s, the migration of steel-making to China and Europe triggered massive layoffs and plant closings, leaving The Flats populated by decaying buildings and the river plagued by persistent pollution.

West Side Market clocktower

In the mid-1980s, the Flats saw a resurgence as warehouses and other historic buildings were converted into nightlife destinations.

Cleveland’s West Side Market

The Flats became an entertainment mecca for the region

By the early 1990s, The Flats had the highest concentration of bars in the Midwest, but its heyday was short-lived.

Current plans call for a new mixed-use development on the East Bank that aims to create a new downtown riverfront neighborhood.

Rivergate Park, a public park devoted to rowing, canoeing, kayaking and dragon-boating, officially opened May 2011.

The West Bank has fared better. Many older establishments still remain open, and new housing and retail venues like the Steelyard Commons have breathed fresh life into this neighborhood

The Powerhouse, which once generated power for the city’s streetcars, has been renovated to include multiple bars, restaurants, and an outdoor music venue. A National Historic Landmark, it is also home to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium.

Cleveland’s West Side Market

The story of Cleveland is the story of immigrants.

In the 1820’s, the West Bank was home to the heavily Irish immigrant workforce that built the Ohio and Erie Canal in the 1820’s.

In the twentieth century, the neighborhood was a center for the city’s Eastern European immigrants.

(The West Side’s St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral was the location of the wedding scene in the movie The Deerhunter.)

Cleveland’s West Side Market

The West Side Market has been there through it all.

Opened in 1840 at the corner of West 25th and Lorain, it is Cleveland’s oldest publicly owned market.

It was first operated as an open air market, and the current structure dates from 1912.

Today it is home to more than one hundred vendors selling fine meats and produce, fresh seafood, baked goods, dairy and cheese products, and even fresh flowers.

Cleveland’s West Side Market Cafe

Many booths also sell ready-to-eat foods, and products often reflect Cleveland’s melting pot history. More than a million people visit the market annually.

The next post wraps up my visit to Cleveland with a walk through the city’s historic and scenic Lakeview Cemetery.

Many of the places picture in these posts figure prominently in my recently published novel Lifelines: An American Dream, available on Amazon.

See my related posts on Cleveland:

Big-Spirited Little Italy

Cleveland’s Public Square

Cleveland’s historic architecture

See also more public markets in my related posts:

Seattle’s Pike Place Market

Culinary Lima, Peru

Barcelona Beckons

Guadalajara’s Mercado Libertad

Tianguis’d

Tags: Cuyahoga riverfront Cleveland, The Flats Cleveland, West Side Market Cleveland

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Cleveland’s historic architecture

Filed under: U.S., U.S. Midwest — 2 Comments

September 28, 2014

The Arcade, Cleveland

A city’s architecture is like tree rings that tell its life story. Cleveland’s industrial decline in the last part of the twentieth century left much of the city’s architectural legacy intact, and its buildings now stand as a living timeline.

The Arcade, Cleveland

One of the most notable examples is Cleveland’s Arcade, which opened its doors in 1890 to become one of the nation’s first indoor shopping centers.

Modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milano, Italy, the exterior is done in the Romanesque Revival style, and the interior in the Victorian style.

The Arcade, Cleveland

Once known as Cleveland’s Crystal Palace, The Arcade connects five stories of galleries to two ten story towers.

Along its indoor balconies were boutique shops and restaurants. It was, in 1973, among the first buildings to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A partnership with Hyatt Hotels rescued the Arcade from the wrecking ball with a restoration completed in 2001, and today Cleveland’s Hyatt Regency occupies the twin towers and top three levels of the atrium.

The Arcade’s two entrances connect Euclid and Superior Avenues at 14th Street. The lower two levels remain open to the public.

Cleveland Trust Building

By 1924, the Cleveland Trust Company, was the nation’s sixth largest bank.

Like many Cleveland buildings constructed early in the century, its home office reflects the neo-classical influence of Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition…. the “White City.”

Cleveland Trust Building facade detail

It’s not surprising that the muralist who did much of the work on the Columbian Exposition was chosen to paint its interior murals. The building was completed in 1908.

Rockefeller Building, Cleveland

John D. Rockefeller lived in Cleveland for thirty-five years, and founded his Standard Oil Company there. His seventeen-story Rockefeller Building, completed in 1905, was designed in Chicago’s “Sullivanesque” style.

Art Deco facade, Cleveland

Cleveland’s zenith as an industrial powerhouse in the years between the World Wars fueled a building boom which defined a clear break from the city’s past and made Deco a major architectural feature of its central business district.

Art Deco facade, Cleveland

Art Deco architecture first appeared in France after World War I and became internationally popular from the 1920s until shortly after World War II.

Art Deco facade, Cleveland

It’s a style that integrates craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials, employing rich colors, bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation.

Art Deco was a reflection of luxury and glamour, and the nation’s exuberance and faith in social and technological progress.

Playhouse Square, Cleveland

Playhouse Square is a row of five Euclid Avenue theaters built in the early 1920s.

These temples to the golden age of Hollywood are done in decorative themes that would do any Las Vegas casino proud. Playhouse Square was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

The Ohio and State Theaters – both in the Italianate style – the Allen with its Pompeiian motif Allen, the Classical Hanna, and the French Renaissance Palace theaters have a combined total of over 10,000 seats, making Playhouse Square the largest performing arts center in the U.S. outside of New York City.

Playhouse Square, Cleveland

These theaters presented serious theater, vaudeville shows, and movies for nearly half a century,.

The growth of the suburbs and the rise of TV led to their decline in the years after World War II, and by July 1969, all but one of the theaters had closed.

Art Deco facade, Cleveland

Plans to raze the vacant theaters in the ’70’s caused a public outcry, and public-private partnerships raised $40 million for the Square’s renovation.

Most of the work was completed between 1979-1988.

In 1978, Playhouse Square became one of nearly 400 Cleveland area sites named to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Euclid Corridor Transportation Project, which connects Public Square to the Cleveland Clinic, opened its Playhouse Square station in 2008.

So far I’ve not ventured more than ten blocks from Cleveland’s Public Square, so there’s still plenty more to see here.

Still to come: An exploration of Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River roots and the stunning monuments of its Lakeview Cemetery.

See my related Cleveland posts:

Tags: Cleveland Arcade, Cleveland Hyatt Regency, Cleveland Trust Company, Euclid Corridor Transporation Project, Playhouse Square Cleveland, Rockefeller building Cleveland

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Cleveland’s Public Square

Filed under: U.S., U.S. Midwest — 4 Comments

September 21, 2014

Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland

Cleveland, Ohio is the home of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, the Cleveland Clinic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the AFC’s Cleveland Browns.

It was also, in the ’70’s and 80’s, arguably the Rust Belt’s poster child.

A century ago, though, this home of the Federal Reserve’s Fourth District was the nation’s fifth largest city, and for nearly half a century one of its industrial and political powerhouses.

Terminal Tower & Old Stone Church, Public Square, Cleveland

It was here that John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil, and both he and U.S. President James Garfield, assassinated in 1881, are buried in its Lakeview Cemetery.

Cleveland’s Mark Hanna played Presidential kingmaker before the turn of 20th century, and Democratic Party national conventions were held here in 1924 and 1936.

Cleveland’s rich legacy is still very palpable in its historic architecture and the relics of its twentieth century melting pot neighborhoods.

Those who wonder why Cleveland is home to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame may not know that the very first rock ‘n’ roll concert was held in the Cleveland Arena in 1952, promoted by radio disc jockey Alan “Moondog” Freed.

The fire department closed the concert down when attendance far exceeded the Arena’s 20,000-seat capacity.

In the late 1960’s, Cleveland radio station WMMS-FM was a pioneer broadcaster of the ‘progressive rock’ radio format.

The current Cleveland Browns stadium was built in 1996 on the site of an earlier stadium dedicated in 1931, and where the first event held was the Schmeling-Stribling world heavyweight title fight.

Browns Stadium, Cleveland

The original structure was one of the first multi-purpose stadiums in the country, and until 1994 also the home field of the Cleveland Indians, who played games from their pennant-winning 1920 and 1948 World Series there.

Terminal Tower, Public Square, Cleveland

The Browns began play in 1946, the year after the Cleveland Rams won the NFL title and moved to Los Angeles.

The new team won its first NFL championship in 1949, and would win it three more times within the next 15 years.

Cleveland has the distinction of being the only city to retain the name and archives of an NFL franchise when its team moved to Baltimore in 1996.

A revived Cleveland Browns franchise resumed play three years later.

Cleveland was first settled just before the turn of the nineteenth century by families arrived from New England, who brought with them the idea of a ‘town commons’ and accordingly laid their city out around a Public Square.

Terminal Tower, Cleveland

In 1930, a new rail terminal was constructed on its southwest corner, topped by a fifty-two story structure that came to be known as the Terminal Tower. It was, at the time, the tallest building west of the Hudson River and the biggest dig since construction of the Panama Canal.

Terminal Tower, Cleveland

While rail traffic has significantly diminished in the eighty years since its construction, the Tower lives on as the hub of the city’s light rail system, and as a vibrant retail and entertainment venue. Much of the original architecture has been lovingly restored and maintained.

Terminal Tower, Cleveland

Old Stone Church, Public Square, Cleveland

The Old Stone Church, a longtime downtown Cleveland landmark, sits opposite the Tower on Public Square.

Its congregation dates back to 1820, and the current structure, dedicated in 1858, is the third church on the site.

Historical marker, Public Square, Cleveland

Built in the Victorian Romanesque style, its interior is notable for its wood paneling, ornate carvings, stained glass, and a barrel-vaulted ceiling of trussed wood. The church is the oldest surviving building on the Square.

Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument, Public Square, Cleveland, OH

Just across the Square, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, located within the Square commemorates the Civil War.

Along the monument’s esplanade, bronze groupings depict battle scenes for the Navy, Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry. The thirty actions in which soldiers from Cuyahoga County fought are listed on bronze bands. Perched atop its 125-foot stone is the statue ‘Goddess of Freedom’.

Bronze relief sculptures here are among the first to honor the war role of women nurses, and to show a free black man in a combat role. Before the Emancipation, Cleveland was a center for Abolitionists and served as fugitive slaves’ last stop on the ‘underground railway’ before Canada.

My walk on this morning has covered only a few blocks of Cleveland’s vintage downtown, but more architectural treats lie just beyond the Square. Come along when I next post!

Author’s notes:

See also my related Cleveland post Big-Hearted Little Italy.

Both Cleveland and its Public Square, along with Cleveland’s Little Italy, figure prominently in my recently published novel Lifelines: An American Dream, available on Amazon.

Tags: Browns Stadium Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Old Stone Church Cleveland, Soldiers and Sailors Monument Cleveland, Terminal Tower Cleveland, Things to see and do in Cleveland

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To Live and Die in New Orleans

Filed under: U.S., U.S. South — 2 Comments

August 17, 2014

French Quarter, New Orleans

I’ve been to New Orleans more times than I can count, but as I planned my first post-Katrina trip, I wondered how much of its long-familiar landscape would still remain.

My New Orleans ritual has remained unchanged in all of those years. It begins with beignets and café au lait at the Cafe du Monde, followed by a stroll around Jackson Square and a climb to the crest of the levee, where I sit and watch the boats plying the Mississippi.

Larger-than-life Louis Armstrong parade mask.

On this morning as I sit in the cafe, a van pulls up and its two occupants extract from it a gigantic paper-mâché mask of Louis Armstrong.

Both men seem improbably short to be walking the streets with it perched upon their shoulders, but an entourage shortly appears, dressed in Mardi Gras finery.

“Second Line” dressed for a parade.

The mask’s occupant appears and suits up, then the troop sets off down the streets for reasons and parts unknown.

More “Second Line”

It’s a perfect welcome back to New Orleans.

Jackson Square is always a feast for the eyes. Artists who hang their work on its wrought iron fences are regulars, but the supporting cast of characters is constantly changing.

Jackson Square play date.

Today, two mothers sitting in the shade watch over a play date and what can only be described as the mini-van of baby strollers.

Across the square, a group of choir boys files down the sidewalk.

Choirboys near St. Louis Cathedral, Jackson Square, New Orleans

Motorcycle cowboy, Jackson Square, New Orleans

The engine of a motorcycle with longhorn handlebars and an honest-to-God cowboy saddle clicks and cools as its owner sitting nearby with guitar and harmonica, picking out a tune.

Hey, buddy, can you spare some change for gas?

Garden District, Washington St., New Orleans.

I decide to revisit old haunts in the Garden District and hop aboard the St. Charles Street trolley, hopeful that I’ll find the District as unchanged by Katrina as the French Quarter seems to be.

“Katina cross” marks a hurrican damage inspection.

At first not much seems out of place, but after only a few blocks’ walk I come upon my first vacant house marked with the infamous X-code, or “Katrina cross”… which many have mistakenly taken for a demolition flag.

The markings in each of its quadrants actually record the date and time that the house was searched, the identity of the searchers, and a count of people found in the home… whether alive or not.

Lafayette Cemetery, Garden District, New Orleans

The Lafayette Cemetery #2 is five blocks off St. Charles St., at the corner of Washington and Loyola, and even though I’ve seen the St. Louis cemetery – the heavyweight among New Orleans burials – on past trips I can’t resist walking its lanes to check out the stories told by its gravestones.

Back in the French Quarter, I stop by the Central Grocery for the world’s best-known muffaletta sandwich before wandering the streets.