Central

The Central neighborhood, also known as Big Italy and Gladstone, is one of the largest neighborhoods in Cleveland. Central is located southeast of downtown Cleveland and is bordered by the Fairfax neighborhood to the east and the North Broadway neighborhood to the south. Central has a rich history of Cleveland ethnic communities, including African Americans, Italian Americans, and Jewish Americans. Resources for this neighborhood include books, maps, newspaper clippings, and yearbooks.   

Need additional assistance? For more information, please contact our Center for Local and Global History

Phone: 216-623-2864 Email: clgh@cpl.org

Books 

Ward 5 Central neighborhoods master plan, Cleveland, Ohio 

Central Village profile 

General development plan for the West Central and Dike Communities 

Maps

For more information about neighborhood maps, please contact the Map Collection. 

Central-Woodland: Big Italy 

Call number: G4084.C5:2C4 1915.C5x 

Dike and west central communities general development plan 

Call number: G4084.C5:2C4G45 1964.C5x 

Gladstone property acquisition map 

Call number: G4084.C5:2C4G455 1972.C5x 

Gladstone acquisition & property map 

Call number: G4084.C5:2C4G455 1972.C5x 

Microfilm/Microfiche

Microfilm resources may include newspaper clippings, city reports, and other historical documents. Depending on the scope of the work, these items may be available in several departments, including History, the Microform Center, or Public Administration Library.

Center for Local and Global History: 

Newspaper Clipping File-Neighborhoods-Central

Newspaper Clipping File-Neighborhoods-Gladstone

Gladstone : urban renewal project no. R-8

Supplemental report to Gladstone: urban renewal project no. Ohio R-8 (January 14, 1963)

Photographs

For more information about the neighborhood photos, please contact the Photograph Collection.

The Photograph Collection has 1.3 million items, including a large collection of historical images for Cleveland and northeast Ohio. A small portion of them are available in our digital collection.

For specific photo requests, please think about important streets, intersections, institutions like schools, businesses, churches, and other important landmarks. This will help aid in our research.

School Periodicals & Yearbooks

For more information about yearbooks at the library, please contact the Social Sciences Department. 

Central High School Annual

Central High School Monthly

East Technical High school June Bug

Jane Addams High School Yearbook (1962)

Longwood Transcript (Longwood Commerce High School)

Pioneer (Cleveland Lutheran High School)