Cleveland History Blog: December 2009

Broadway/Rockefeller Bridge to be Demolished

Today's Plain Dealer announced that the Rockefeller Bridge, closed since 2003, is slated by RTA to be demolished. This bridge was constructed in 1929 as part of the Cleveland Union Terminal (Terminal Tower) construction project in the '20s and '30s as the Broadway Bridge. The recently-replaced Adelbert Bridge beside CWRU was another old C.U.T. concrete bridge that time has overtaken.

Labels: Broadway Bridge, Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Cleveland Union Terminal, Rockefeller Bridge, RTA

Horace Wade, Boy Author

Cleveland's own Horace A. Wade was a published author at age 11, with his book In the Shadow of Great Peril, and went on to write numerous other works, especially about horse racing.

The buttons are mostly about Herbert Hoover. This Cleveland Press photo was taken in 1920 and I just got a kick out of it.

Labels: author, Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Horace A. Wade

Timken Tank at Cunningham Sanitarium

I was recently asked about the "Timken Tank." Never having heard of it before, I imagined some sort of Army tank manufactured by the Timken Roller Bearing Company of Canton. But in examining it further, I discovered that it was this giant live-in medical treatment facility on the NW corner of Lake Shore Boulevard and East 185th Street. Looking like some Buck Rogers era space ship had landed, it was installed at the Cunningham Sanitarium (more shots) as an experimental device to deliver healthful properties through living in a high-pressure environment, the Timken Tank was a landmark until being scrapped in 1942. The metal thus recycled might have fittingly gone into actual Army tanks, who knows.

Labels: Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Cunningham Sanitarium, Timken Roller Bearing Company, Timken Tank

First United Methodist is merging with Epworth-Euclid Methodist

I missed this when it was announced in the Plain Dealer last week. First United (left) is a major building on Euclid, at East 30th, and I'm sorry to see the congregation leave, even to shore up the equally-grand Epworth-Euclid (below).

With all the Catholic churches closing (and some depressing photos of the gutted St. Joseph Byzantine Church on Kinsman someone just showed me today), it seems like the city's sacred landmarks are taking a tremendous hit in our time.

Labels: Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Epworth-Euclid Methodist, First Methodist, sacred landmarks, St. Joseph Byzantine

A Season of Memories

With the holidays upon us, this is the time of year when everyone starts remembering celebrations in years past. For those who grew up in Cleveland a half-century or so ago, that's the lavish Christmas shopping displays downtown. There are a lot of photos of those times in the Cleveland Memory Project and we are starting to get the usual and frequent requests for the words to the Mr. Jingeling song and the recipie for Higbee's frosties.