The photo above shows typical housing available in the Cedar-Central neighborhood around East 22nd Street before the area was cleared for public housing projects in 1935. (Photo Courtesy of Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection). At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States experienced a momentous population shift that affected a number of northern cities, including Cleveland. The Great…
In the early hours of March 24, 1970, one of Cleveland’s most visited landmarks, an enlarged cast of Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture The Thinker, was changed forever. The beloved statute outside the Cleveland Museum of Art was rocked by an explosion caused by a metal pipe bomb attached to a ten-foot, military-style fuse. According to the Cleveland Museum of Art,…
In 1976, Cleveland was the most bombed city in the United States. The assassination and vandalism bombings that had been on the rise throughout the decade culminated in this particularly violent year—leading the national news to dub Cleveland “Bomb City, USA.” According to a Plain Dealer article from this era, “Bombing Business Booming Here,” Cleveland’s national ranking in bomb crimes…
After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, the United States was officially flung into World War II. England and France, the United States’ European allies, were under constant bombardment from Axis forces, which left their cities devastated. Although the Atlantic Ocean stood between the United States and Europe, the United States still took precautions to protect its citizens…