Hi Friends,
Mark and I are so blessed to live within close proximity to what I believe is one of the most underrated cities in the US... Cleveland! Mark works in downtown CLE and from time to time, I like to go down and visit him and to see the sites. At the end of June, Mark and I took a little "staycation"... a much needed break from the everyday routine and time to focus on working on documenting sites. Our first staycation stop was downtown Cleveland. It was great to see good old CLE from a different perspective... not one from the lens that always view CLE through (you know... we only go downtown to go to work and occasionally to see a ball game or other special event and that's it!). We tried to look at Cleveland through the eyes of a tourist... so that's exactly what we did! We parked the car and staked out on foot to Rediscover Cleveland! I cannot tell you how much fun it was! Things look so different when on foot instead of zooming past in a car. We saw Cleveland how it was meant to be seen.
We started our day at Riverside Cemetery. We were impressed at the size of this cemetery. It's HUGE! My dad and I had visited this cemetery once when I was young but I didn't remember much about it except that I remembered thinking that it was really neat. Mark and I had never been there together, so we figured that we might as well stop! We were impressed at the variety of markers, monuments and mausoleums. The chapel in the cemetery and the cemetery building are on the National Register of Historic Places, so it made stopping all the more important to us.
After the cemetery, we headed towards downtown. We parked our car over by Progressive Field and started off on foot. Our first goal was to head to Public Square. There, we documented the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. The monument is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday 9am-4pm (excluding Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day). Click here for their official website. This is one of Cleveland's true gems, and so many Clevelanders either don't know what it is, or don't know that one can go inside. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument not only has an OHS marker, but it's also on the National Register of Historic Places.
After the monument, we took some photos all around Public Square, but focused on our favorite building, the Cleveland Union Terminal Tower, the "Grande Dame" of the Cleveland skyline. Cleveland's Union Terminal is one of the most spectacular buildings in Cleveland. It has such a fascinating history, and its presence forever changed the face of Cleveland's skyline, economy and industry. I want to focus on the aesthetics of the Tower in today's post... I'll focus on its history in a later post. In the meantime, for further reading on the Tower,James Toman & Daniel Cook have a fabulous book- Cleveland's Towering Treasure: A Landmark Turns 75. This book is available at most Cleveland area bookstores, as well as online. It's by far the best book that deals with the Union Terminal complex.
We also photographed the Old Stone Church and wandered around on foot, finding a few more historical markers along the way. We also stopped at the Old Arcade... I am ashamed to admit that I had always walked passed it, but never set foot inside. It's beautiful, another one of Cleveland's gems.
Check out our most recent post for all of the photos: http://rediscoveringohio.weebly.com/1/post/2012/07/downtown-cleveland-part-2.html
Stay tuned for part three...
Alexandria Scott
Rediscovering Ohio
