The Kokoon Arts Klub was anything but conservative. Online sources describe it as a “Bohemian artists group.” The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History highlights its “unconventional activities and espousal of ‘new art.’” In 1923, the Bishop of Cleveland…

Many would argue that the heart of Cleveland's historic Polish community lies at St. Stanislaus Church and in Slavic Village on the southeast side of the city. But there is so much more to Cleveland's Polish community than this one church and that…

For decades, visitors to Tremont have wondered about the three magnificent, but poorly maintained mansions they encounter when exiting Interstate 90 at Abbey Avenue and West 14th Street. What are (or were) these structures? Why have buildings in such…

In years past, when you traveled Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to the Cleveland Museum of Art, you likely noticed the formidable-looking bronze statue towering over the road's intersection with Jeptha Drive, the little road that takes you up to the…

The word genocide conjures disturbing images of the Holocaust. Yet, another massive but often overlooked extermination of human life also occurred on the European continent. This little known genocide, orchestrated by Josef Stalin's Soviet regime, is…

Claes Oldenburg (1929-) and Coosje van Bruggen (1942-2009) were all about BIG; and the Free Stamp in Cleveland’s Willard Park is no exception. Inarguably the world’s largest office stamp, the aluminum and steel structure is 49 feet long, 28 feet high…

Parker-Hannifin Hall was once a mansion owned by George Howe, Cleveland businessman and Cleveland Police Commissioner. Parker Hannifin Hall is one of the last surviving Millionaires' Row mansions. It is a small reminder of a bygone time when ornate…

Tucked away in a Cleveland Heights neighborhood is a whimsical trove of 1930s federal art. Thousands of students and hundreds of teachers who walked daily through the halls and library of Oxford Elementary School have passed by these beautiful pieces…

Nottingham-Spirk Innovation Center looms high above University Circle, its stiletto-like tower visible from miles away. Originally built in 1930 as First Church of Christ Scientist, the classically inspired building that served as a model for…

Harry Potter and his friends would feel right at home in the Coventry Village Library, a brick Tudor Revival and Jacobean-style building that sits on a gentle grassy slope near the intersection of Coventry Road and Euclid Heights Boulevard. The…

James A. Garfield was born on November 19, 1831, in a log cabin in Orange Township. His father passed away when he was only 18 months old, leaving his mother to fend for herself and her family. Garfield started working at an early age to try to keep…

R. Guy Cowan opened Cowan Pottery on Nicholson Avenue in Lakewood in 1912. The studio produced mainly architectural tiles, but also made a line of vases and bowls called "Lakewood Ware." Work from this period can be found in the East Cleveland Public…

In 1966, the city's Estonian community unveiled a symbolic flame to Estonia--then a state within the USSR. Designed by Oberlin graduate and prominent architect Herk Visnapuu, the Estonian Garden features an abstract sculpture, an inscribed flame, at…

During the summers of 1936 and 1937 Cleveland's civic and business leaders sponsored the Great Lakes Exposition. Held along the lakefront on a reclaimed refuse dump, the Expo was intended to foster civic and regional pride, attract visitors and…

Playhouse Square emerged in 1921-22 with the opening of the State, Ohio, Allen, Palace, and Hanna theaters near the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East Fourteenth Street. The brainchild of Joseph Laronge, four of the five theaters were…

The Cleveland Museum of Art sponsors Parade the Circle, which began in 1990 with a small number of artists and has since grown to become a major event, drawing crowds in the tens of thousands to University Circle every June. Parade the Circle offers…

The Cleveland Institute of Art was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women. The school began very small, with only one student and one teacher, but it quickly grew. The school, despite its name, did a few male students and…

The Cleveland Museum of Art is one of the foremost art museums in the world, having outstanding collections of Pre-Columbian, medieval European, and Asian art. It opened to the public in 1916 on Jeptha H. Wade's Wade Park property in University…

The Rose Iron Works, opened in 1904 on Cleveland's east side. The oldest continually-operating decorative metalwork company in the United States, it was founded by Martin Rose, a Hungarian immigrant who worked in Budapest and Vienna before moving to…

The story of the Cleveland Play House begins in 1915 with a series of meetings held at the home of essayist Charles Brooks. The well-to-do Charles and his wife Minerva Brooks met each week with eight of their friends to discuss theatre and the arts.…