Recent Stories
The Shaker Heights Service Center
As you drive east on Kinsman Road today through Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood and approach East 154th Street, you come upon and notice it--almost before you notice anything else. You see it before you see that Kinsman Road has now become…
Dr. Spock's Last Babies
Benjamin McClane Spock (1903-1998) was born to an upper-class Connecticut family. He attended private schools and Ivy League colleges, along the way capturing a gold medal in rowing for his Yale team in the 1924 Olympics. He graduated first in his…
Hessler Road and Hessler Court
Visitors to University Circle are often struck by the area’s grandeur. Magnificent museums. Huge hospital systems. A sprawling college campus interspersed with innovative new structures, iconic old buildings and well-preserved mansions.
Yet…
The Max Ellis House
Derrell Max Ellis (later known simply as Max Ellis) was born on March 10, 1914, in Wellington, Kansas. The youngest of four children, Max grew up in Iowa and studied theater at the University of Iowa, performing in plays in the 1930s written by…
The Hanna Building
The Hanna Building was named after the famous U.S. senator from Ohio and oil and coal baron Marcus Alonzo Hanna and built by his son Daniel Rhodes Hanna. Hanna is perhaps best known for having endorsed William McKinley for president in 1896, spending…
Baker Electric Building
More than century before Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster was launched into space, the first crude electric carriage was produced by the Scottish inventor Robert Anderson in 1832. In 1891 the first successful electric automobile in the United States was…
Featured Stories
Nela Park
The National Electric Lamp Association (NELA) formed in 1901 under Franklin Terry and Burton Tremaine. Much of NELA's light-bulb innovation stemmed from, and competed with, both Brush's arc light…
The McCart Street Gang
Many Cleveland moviegoers have seen Martin Scorsese's 2002 film "Gangs of New York," a story about the vicious street gangs that populated New York's notorious Five Points District around the time of…
Shaker Lakes & The Freeway Fight
The Shaker Lakes are man-made bodies of water created by the North Union Shaker Community in the mid-nineteenth century to power a series of mills. When the Shakers left and their lands became part of…
Featured Tours
Cultural Gardens
26 Locations ~ Curated by CSU Center for Public History + Digital HumanitiesIn Search of the Underground Railroad
6 Locations ~ Curated by CSU Center for Public History + Digital HumanitiesCleveland Metroparks 100th Anniversary
19 Locations ~ Curated by Cleveland MetroparksRaymond L. Pianka Memorial Walk
15 Locations ~ Curated by The Cleveland Historical TeamCleveland Historical
A project by Center for Public History + Digital HumanitiesCleveland Historical is a free mobile app that puts Cleveland history at your fingertips. Developed by the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University, Cleveland Historical lets you explore the people, places, and moments that have shaped the city’s history. Learn about the region through layered, map-based, multimedia presentations, use social media to share your stories, and experience curated historical tours of Northeast Ohio. Read more About Us