By the year 1956, the United States and the Soviet Union had been engaged with one another in the Cold War for almost a decade. Although there was no direct confrontation between the two world superpowers, the development of weapons and defense systems was heating up heading into the 1950s. Cleveland and its surrounding suburbs played a part in the Cold War narrative due to the fact that eight Nike missile installations were active in and around the city itself during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Among these installations was one in the West Side suburb of Parma Heights. Designated as Nike Site CL-59 by the U.S. Army, it was tasked with protecting that particular part of Northeast Ohio from the perceived Soviet threat.

The Army officially activated Nike Site CL-59 in 1956, and by July of that year, the base was capable of launching the cutting-edge Nike Ajax missile at incoming Soviet bombers. However, as technology advanced during the Cold War, soon there was a bigger and deadlier weapon which would replace the Nike Ajax missile. This new missile was named the Nike Hercules and was considered more capable of taking out a greater number of Soviet aircraft and could also be equipped with a nuclear warhead. Nike Site CL-59 was retrofitted to accept this new technology following its tenure being armed with the Nike Ajax missile.

As far as the base itself, the installation could be split into two major sections. One section was referred to as the ‘Control Area’ while the other was the ‘Launch Area.’ The control area was primarily where military personnel worked and spent much of their time and included amenities such as a mess hall and a barracks where soldiers lived. The other portion, referred to as the launch area, has a fairly self-explanatory purpose. The missiles themselves were located here, as well as an underground storage apparatus for them and their launchers which actually propelled the missiles skyward. The storage of fuel and waste products was also located in this section in the form of underground tanks.

Nike Site CL-59 occupied 187.2 acres in an area located near primarily residential-zoned property as well as Crile Hospital to the east. During the base’s heyday, an interesting intersection of military and civilian life occurred there in the form of dances and even beauty pageants which were held in or in close proximity to the base itself and involved servicemembers stationed there. Additionally, there was even an organized basketball team made up of some servicemembers from the ‘B Battery’ section of the base who played other local teams.

Nike Site CL-59’s tenure in the Parma – Parma Heights area was fairly short, though, due to the fact that it was only formally active from 1956-1961. The years following CL-59’s deactivation were filled with discussion and debate as far as what the land should become when the military was finished with it. Most bases in the Cleveland area were re-designated into areas having to do with education or recreation, and as fate would have it, land occupied and in close proximity to CL-59 became both of these things.

Following the base’s peak, the area the site once stood on was divvied up amongst various local entities, and the creation of recreational areas such as public parks occurred. Nike Park, located on Pleasant Valley Road, as well as Nathan Hale Park were two such locations born out of what used to be a military base which at one point had the potential to launch nuclear missiles. Another notable structure located in close proximity to Nike Site CL-59 is Cuyahoga Community College’s Western Campus. The institution, which was first completed in 1965, is actually on land which was primarily Crile Hospital. However, the fact that Tri-C West is the closest modern structure to what used to be the base’s launch area is most certainly a fact most students studying there are not aware of and makes for an interesting bit of area trivia.

Another aspect of the former location of Site CL-59 involves the removal of two underground storage tanks which at one point housed potentially dangerous fluids such as fuel and acid. This action occurred in the year 2000, a full thirty-nine years after the base was formally deactivated in 1961. It is important to note that at this point, all of the recreational and educational facilities which were planned for the former missile site’s location had been present for a number of years themselves. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was involved in the removal of the tanks, and the local citizenry was also made to be a part of the entire event, with public forums and the like being held.

All in all, although Nike Site CL-59 itself can most certainly be considered a relic of the Cold War, what became of the area is something quite different than what the land was originally meant for. Although the base itself disappeared decades ago, the strategic defense it once provided for part of the local area has not been forgotten by those who consider themselves Cold War historians. Also, it is worth pointing out the juxtaposition between the area when it was occupied by tools of warfare versus what it consists of now. Today, what used to be CL-59 is made up of facilities which are used to educate students and serve as recreational areas for local citizens, a far cry from the destructive objects which once occupied the land.

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The lazy days of summer took an industrious turn for attendees of the Young Men’s Christian Association River Road Camp at the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District's North Chagrin Reservation in 1943.  The camp’s forty-four temporary residents had joined in the war effort by enlisting with the United States Crop Corps service. The boys awoke at six o' clock each morning from Monday to Saturday, washed up, made their beds, and straightened the sleeping quarters for inspection.  Upon devouring a large breakfast, they were piled into school buses and shipped off to local farms and orchards. The recruits spent their summer weeding, cultivating plants and harvesting crops. In return for an eight hour day of of sweat and manual labor, the youngsters received forty cents an hour and a chance to enjoy life at the YMCA’s newest camp in the Cleveland Metropolitan Parks. This wasn’t merely a chance for the boys to rough it in the wilderness under the cover of battered tents. The River Road Camp was a tiny, rustic village situated in the forested outskirts of Cleveland.  The rural resort was comprised of thirty-five buildings, including a recreation center, craft shop, nature museum, dining hall, and sleeping cabins.  The impressive complex housed both the mission of the YMCA and its campers — young and old alike — for nearly forty years. 

Camping had been a cornerstone of the YMCA’s programming since the undertaking of its first American summer overnight expedition in 1885.  Similar to any longstanding institution created for children, the design and purpose of YMCA camps changed over time in response to the values and concerns of adult society. At their core, though, these camps were built upon promoting the tenants of Christian faith,  instilling confidence and self reliance in campers, and fostering positive social development in children.  As early as 1921, the YMCA secured sites within the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District for use as daytime and overnight retreats.  Small camps and structures were erected or borrowed by local chapters of the service organization in Rocky River, Brecksville, and Euclid Creek Reservations.  Boys generally brought their own food and supplies, and camping was free or offered at a nominal charge to cover the cost of ice and kerosene.

The funding, labor, and impetus to build what would become the YMCA’s River Road Camp materialized with the birth of federal relief agencies during the Great Depression. The land in North Chagrin Reservation had been operated as a camp since the 1920s by the Cleveland Heights Kiwanis Club and the Cleveland Heights Board of Education.  In 1934, the Euclid Post of the American Legion took over existing camp equipment as an experiment in community service. Forty-nine additional American Legion posts agreed to support the funding and operation of the camp within a year. Even in the depths of an economic recession, their venture in the woods took root and grew.  The camp brought together the varied Americanization, youth activity, child welfare, relief, community service, and juvenile delinquency programs of the American Legion.   The American Legion supplied $12,000 in materials, and worked in consort with the Park Board to obtain state and Works Progress Administration support for the construction of the $100,000 camp.  The immense project was meant to provide other social and civic organizations a model in offering the public both recreational and educational facilities.

By incorporating National Park Service design standards, the cabins and campground of the American Legion Boys and Girls Camp embraced contemporary trends in camp planning.  Partly a response to the theories of child psychologists of the day, professionally designed landscapes were commonly employed that envisioned encampments as planned communities.  Attractive permanent structures and picturesque landscapes gained favor over tented or makeshift sites that typified campgrounds of service organizations prior to the 1930s.  Dedicated in August of 1939, the ornate American Legion camp was envisioned as vacation grounds for the city’s youth.  Children were to be whisked away from the stresses of daily life for a brief stint of leisure, recreation and education; the lucky campers even received a reprieve from daily chores  – including the scourge of kitchen duty.

Amnesty from the drudgery of daily errands soon came to an end for campers in North Chagrin Reservation.   The American Legion camp was leased to the YMCA in 1942 for use in expanding the latter organization’s service-oriented facilities.  The camp was repurposed as a front line defense against the rise of wartime juvenile delinquency.  Constructive activities and daily tasks bestowed upon camp attendees aimed to not only occupy their time during the summer months, but aid in building character.  Without doubt, the boys participating in the United States Crop Corps remained busy while earning their keep at the YMCA camp.

The YMCA continued operation of its River Road Camp following the conclusion of World War II.  As an extension of the service organization’s longstanding mission to nurture the spiritual, physical and intellectual development of young men, the summer camp housed a variety of programs that promoted fitness, nature study, and the fashioning of slightly disfigured handicrafts. The success of the camp, and of the national YMCA organization, lay in its openness and affordability to middle class families.  Dependent on attracting paying customers, YMCA branches proved flexible in adapting programming to the needs of their surrounding communities. The River Road Camp became coed in 1957, mirroring a trend in Cuyahoga County of sharing facilities with the Young Women’s Christian Association to meet public demand and lower operating costs. 

Also critical to the YMCA’s continued success was a transformation of American thought concerning the importance of fitness during the 1950s.  With the advent of the Cold War, the national media quickly pointed out how terribly unfit American children were in comparison to their European counterparts.  Popular rhetoric increasingly equated fitness with morality, and emphasized the importance of health, religion and sports – a position that paralleled the YMCA’s mission.  This emphasis on fitness was further bolstered during the early 1960s as scientific research identified the importance of exercise in preventing disease.  The subsequent health craze invaded mainstream society, as evidenced by the existence of a rather pricey fitness industry at the decade’s end.

The River Road Camp was revamped in 1966 as an answer to the public’s growing interest in health and fitness. During two ten-day intervals, squads of boys majoring in a sport of their choosing were submitted to intensive training under the direction of branch YMCA instructors.  A half-mile obstacle course highlighted the new fitness camp.  Battalions of youth raced through its 27 activity stations, balancing on beams over tiny pits, dragging themselves across horizontal ladders, climbing and swinging from ropes, and scaling a 40 foot high wall.  Soon after, adults were let in on the fun. An annual Physical Fitness Camp for Women was established in 1969 that catered to middle class housewives seeking exercise, healthy meals, and massages.

The fitness and sports-themed camping experience proved popular, and continued to be a mainstay at the River Road Camp until its closing in 1979. While varied YMCA branches continued to use cabins and grounds in the Cleveland Metroparks for their extensive programming, the lease between the Park Board and the YMCA for the operation of the North Chagrin campgrounds expired in 1980. As part of the Cleveland Metroparks’ million dollar redevelopment of the North Chagrin Reservation during the early 1980s, the aged buildings of the American Legion summer camp were demolished to make way for a picnic shelter and area for winter sporting activities.

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Rustling trees, wildlife, ponds, fountains, and students hustling between their cars and classrooms. The first impressions of Cuyahoga Community College's Western Campus would, most likely, not include hints of its significant military history. Yet, wounded soldiers, German prisoners of war, and an entire military "city" were once the occupants inhabiting the property at 11000 Pleasant Valley Road in Parma. The site's rich history began when Crile General Hospital was dedicated on Easter Sunday 1944.

Built as a "temporary" facility, Crile grew to be more than a hospital. Its barracks-type structures were in almost continuous use for thirty years and served a variety of purposes. The Crile complex provided medical care to veterans of two wars, held 250 German POWs during World War II, and housed a Nike anti-aircraft missile base during the Cold War. It became home to Tri-C's Western Campus in 1966.

Crile General Hospital was built by the U.S. Army and named in honor of George Washington Crile (1864-1943), an internationally renowned surgeon and founder of the Cleveland Clinic. Crile served in both the Spanish American War and World War I and was a pioneer in military medicine, leading research and treatment of shock, blood transfusion, and blood banking.

Crile General Hospital actually received its first patient weeks before the official opening. In early March 1944, Richard Currier, a severely wounded POW, arrived as the lone patient in a facility with nearly 2,000 beds, 7 miles of corridors, and a staff of 1,000. Other patients arrived a few weeks later. In December 1944 the first detachment of German POWs arrived from Camp Perry, Ohio and remained until the end of 1945. Repatriated to Germany at the end of the war, many returned to the United States and subsequently became citizens.

After the end of World War II, Crile General Hospital became Crile Veterans Hospital in June 1946. Crile General Hospital had treated and healed over 15,000 patients by this time. The capacity of Crile was reduced to 1,000 beds, but was reorganized for clinical study and teaching. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, and corrective therapy were additional aspects of the Veterans Hospital's program.

The Crile Hospital in Parma closed in 1964, relocating to a new facility in University Circle (now the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center). In the fall of 1966, however, life returned to its empty ward and hallways as Cuyahoga Community College's newly created Western Campus enrolled 3,000 students. In 1975, the barracks were torn down and a new campus rose on the site of the old hospital to meet the community's expanding educational needs.

The site's military legacy has not been forgotten, however. Dedicated to preserving Cuyahoga Community College Western Campus's rich history, the Crile Archives, housed at the Tri-C Western Campus, is home to artifacts, documents, photographs, and books chronicling combat medicine and veterans' experiences from World War I to the present.

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The NASA Glenn Research Center opened west of Cleveland, adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, in 1941. Initially called the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory, the facility first served as a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) research laboratory and was responsible for key aeronautic jet propulsion advancements during World War II. During this period, using wind tunnel testing, NACA developed airfoil shapes for wings and propellers, which simplified aircraft design. The shapes eventually found their way into the designs of many U.S. aircraft of the time, including a number of important World War II-era aircraft, such as the P-51 Mustang.

NACA existed since World War I and responded primarily to military aviation needs and challenges. The success of the Cleveland lab earned it a bright future with the advent of rocketry initiatives during the post war years. Abe Silverstein was appointed Director of Research for the lab in 1949. Over several years, he organized the program, personnel, and facility to focus upon guided rocket propulsion and the development of hydrogen and nuclear fuels for rockets. In 1957, the laboratory was recognized as a leader in these systems and the October launch of Sputnik propelled America’s entry into the space race powered by the rocketry work at the lab and at Plumbrook—a partner facility near Sandusky, Ohio.

In October, 1958 a legislative act was passed creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a result, the facility was absorbed by NASA and renamed the NASA Lewis Research Center in honor of George Lewis, NACA’s Director of Aeronautical Research. NACA and its missions and projects were incorporated into the new agency. The new agency would be responsible for civilian human, satellite, and robotic space programs, as well as aeronautical research. Abe Silverstein joined NASA headquarters in Washington and brought broad influence upon formative NASA policies and projects. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Lewis Research Center built and utilized the Rocket Engine Test Facility (RETF) to conduct experiments and develop technologies in support of the space program for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs to reach the moon and the ensuing STS (Space Shuttle) program. The center played an important role in perfecting the use of liquid hydrogen upper stage rocket fuel used in the space missions leading to the lunar landings beginning in 1969.

Completed in 1966, the Zero Gravity Research Facility (Zero-G) at Lewis has also been utilized in support of space flight components and fluid systems in a weightless or microgravity environment. The Zero-G is a ground based microgravity facility, the largest of its kind in the world. It is one of two 432 feet drop towers located at NASA Glenn. The facility is currently used by NASA-funded researchers from around the world to study the effects of microgravity on physical phenomena such as combustion and fluid physics, to develop and demonstrate new technology for future space missions, and to develop and test experiment hardware designed for flight aboard the International Space Station and future spacecraft.

The RETF earned a National Historic Landmark designation in 1984 to acknowledge its developments during the space missions of the 70’s and 80’s. However, neighboring airport expansion forced its closure in 1995 and demolition in 2003, and the withdrawal of its National Historic Landmark. The Zero-G, however, continues to hold the designation of a National Historic Landmark. In 1999, the Lewis Research Center was renamed NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in honor of Ohio Senator John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. Today, NASA Glenn Research Center continues to conduct experiments to support the aeronautics and aerospace industries.

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