This ad for the real estate and insurance businesses of Belden Seymour ran in the Cleveland Herald on February 3, 1852, two years before Ohio City was annexed to Cleveland, thereby becoming the latter city's west side. Seymour became one of the west side's wealthiest businessmen. According to one local Cleveland historian, when the Superior Viaduct, the first high level bridge to cross the Cuyahoga River, was completed in 1878, Belden Seymour was selected as the west side business man to walk to the middle of the bridge on December 27th of that year and shake hands with a prominent east side businessman, a gesture symbolizing the new bridge's role in uniting Cleveland's east and west side business communities. Shortly before the Superior Viaduct was completed, Seymour constructed a new commercial building on Detroit Avenue near Pearl (West 25th) Street, not far from the Viaduct. That building, initially called the Seymour Block, is still standing today, adjacent to the Forest City Bank Building. | Source: Cleveland Public Library, Digital Newspaper CollectionDownload Original File
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Cleveland Public Library, Digital Newspaper Collection
