Everything about Euclid Avenue totally explained
Euclid Avenue is a name applied to streets in many American cities; however,
Cleveland, Ohio’s Euclid Avenue received nationwide attention from the 1860s to the 1920s for its beauty and wealth. Today, the road is undergoing a large reconstruction project that will include a
bus rapid transit system.
Euclid Avenue runs from Cleveland to the suburb of
Willoughby. It passes through the cities of
East Cleveland,
Euclid and
Wickliffe and forms part of the border between Wickliffe and
Willowick. The Cleveland portion of the street begins at
Public Square and extends to
University Circle. The street passes
Playhouse Square,
Cleveland State University, the
Cleveland Clinic,
Severance Hall, and
Case Western Reserve University.
At the turn of the century, Euclid Avenue was internationally known; Baedeker’s Travel Guides called the
elm-lined avenue “The Showplace of America,” and designated it as a must see for travelers from Europe. The concentration of wealth was unparalleled; the tax valuation of the mansions along “the Avenue” far exceeded the valuation of New York’s
Fifth Avenue in the late nineteenth century.
On August 5, 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue, the first traffic light installed in the United States.
Families living along "
Millionaire's Row" included those of
John D. Rockefeller,
Sylvester T. Everett,
arc light inventor
Charles F. Brush,
George Worthington,
Horace Weddell,
Marcus Hanna,
Ambrose Swasey,
Amasa Stone,
John Hay (personal secretary to
Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State under
William McKinley),
Jeptha Wade (Cleveland benefactor and founder of
Western Union Telegraph), and
Alfred Atmore Pope (iron industrialist and art collector). Euclid Avenue's most infamous resident was con artist
Cassie Chadwick, the wife of Dr. Leroy Chadwick, who was unaware that his wife was passing herself off to bankers as the illegitimate daughter of steel magnate
Andrew Carnegie.
In their 1949 musical "
South Pacific,"
Rodgers and Hammerstein indirectly acknowledged the street's fame. In the script, Captain Brackett sends a grass skirt to one "Amelia Fortuna, 325 Euclid Avenue, Shaker Heights, Cleveland, Ohio."
As the Cleveland’s commercial district began to push eastward along Euclid Avenue, families moved east towards University Circle. However, southeast of University Circle, the topography of the area rises sharply into what is referred to as "The Heights," and the development of
Cleveland Heights and
Shaker Heights, along with more efficient means of travel, became more attractive than the increasingly commercialized Euclid Avenue.
By the 1920s, the former "Millionaire's Row" was in decline. During the
Great Depression, many mansions were converted by their owners into rooming houses, which accelerated the decline. In the 1950s, Cleveland's
Innerbelt Freeway cut through the Euclid Avenue between
downtown and the rail crossing at East 55th Street. By the 1960s, the street that once rivaled Fifth Avenue as the most expensive address in America was a two mile long slum of commercial buildings and substandard housing. In the late 1960s,
Cleveland Cavaliers owner
Nick Mileti announced plans to move the basketball club from Euclid Avenue's
Cleveland Arena to
a new arena in suburban
Richfield Township.
Today, eight houses from the era remain on Euclid, including the
Samuel Mather and Howe Mansions owned and used by
Cleveland State University. The most recent to be demolished was the Lyman Treadway Mansion, which served as part of the
Cleveland Museum of Health from the 1930s until it was razed in 2002 for a new museum building.
The
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is currently undertaking a complete refurbishment of Euclid Avenue as part of the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project. A
bus rapid transit line will run from Public Square to the
Stokes Rapid Transit station in
East Cleveland, which is the eastern terminus of the
Red Line rapid transit route.
Parts of U.S. routes
6,
20 and
322 follow Euclid Avenue.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Euclid Avenue'.
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