According to this $40 million World War II-era transit plan, not only would a subway pass beneath Public Square, pedestrians could also circulate through subterranean passages to reach basement entrances to nearby office buildings and stores--similar to setups that have since appeared in Montreal and Toronto. Interestingly, this plan also reveals one of many redesign proposals over the years for Public Square in which planners sought to eliminate the at-grade intersection of Ontario and Superior. Note that the Soldiers and Sailors Monument is absent. Many Clevelanders decried the monument as hopelessly Victorian around midcentury, and this and a later subway plan in 1959 would have tunneled under the Square in such a way that they would have forced the removal of the monument! | Source: Cleveland Press, March 29, 1945, courtesy of Cleveland State University Library Special CollectionsDownload Original File
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Cleveland Press, March 29, 1945, courtesy of Cleveland State University Library Special Collections
