Filed Under Parks

Market Square Park

A Public Space for Two Centuries

In or about 1822, pioneer real estate developers Josiah Barber and Richard Lord laid out a village west of the Cuyahoga River. Its public square was located on what is today the northwest corner of West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue—just across the street from the West Side Market. While the village, which was known as "Brooklyn," was short-lived, the public space that was created for its village square was not. Two hundred years later, it still exists and is home today to Cleveland's Market Square Park.

Market Square Park sits across West 25th Street from the West Side Market. While the Market is one of the best-known--even beloved--places on the West Side of Cleveland, Market Square Park is not. Likely for many, it appears to be merely a small and uninteresting park that you might walk through or walk past on your way from the West Side Market to Great Lakes Brewing Company's BrewPub on Market Avenue. It might surprise you then to learn that, while the West Side Market has indeed stood on the northeast corner of West 25th and Lorain for a long time—more than a century now—the land upon which Market Square Park stands has been a public space for even longer than that—a full two centuries.

It was in about 1822 that Josiah Barber and Richard Lord, brothers-in-law and pioneer real estate developers, laid out a village west of the Cuyahoga River that they named Brooklyn. This village extended from Detroit Avenue on the north to Walworth Run on the south, and from the Cuyahoga River as far west as today's West 44th Street. On the northwest corner of the intersection of Pearl (today, West 25th) and Lorain Streets, the two men directed their surveyor, Edwin Foote, to set aside a parcel of land, eight rods by eight rods (132 feet by 132 feet), which they made the village's public square.

Little is known of this early Brooklyn Village which was absorbed into the City of Ohio ("Ohio City") when the latter was incorporated by the Ohio Legislature on March 3, 1836. Seven months later, developers Barber and Lord created a subdivision in Ohio City which platted most, if not all, of the territory of the former Brooklyn Village, including the land that had served as the village square. On their subdivision plat, however, the two made no mention of that square. Instead, the focal point of their new subdivision was a circular piece of land a half mile to the north, from which several streets radiated. Called "Franklin Place" originally, we know it today as Franklin Circle.

The creation of Franklin Place and the omission of any mention of a Brooklyn Village square in the Barber and Lord subdivision led to uncertainty, first within Ohio City, and later in Cleveland after the former was annexed by the latter in 1854, whether the village square was in fact still a public space. As early as 1851, according to a news item appearing in the Plain Dealer in April of that year, Ohio City Council had directed its mayor to take steps to "gain possession" of the land. It was not, however, until after the annexation of Ohio City to Cleveland that, as a result of several critical events, resolving the matter became a high priority for City officials.

The first of these events occurred in 1855, just a year after Ohio City's annexation, when prominent residents of Franklin Street (today, Boulevard), including future Cleveland Mayor Irvine U. Masters and future Common Pleas Judge James M. Coffinberry, persuaded their new City government to build a public park at Franklin Place. This necessitated finding a new location for the open-air market that had been held there for decades and which, after Ohio City's annexation to Cleveland, had become known as the "West Side Market." Two years later, Cleveland officials were still examining potential sites for that public market's relocation when David Pollock, a West Side businessman, petitioned the City to remove a blacksmith shop that he claimed was unlawfully operating on the old Brooklyn Village square. When Cleveland's City Marshal went out to investigate the matter, he found, and reported to Cleveland City Council, that not only was the blacksmith shop trespassing on the old village square, but so were two commercial buildings owned by Pollock.

Before the City could take action against him, Pollock sued it in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in February 1858, seeking an injunction and a declaration that the land upon which his buildings stood was not public land. While little remains of the record of this lawsuit, an appearance docket and final judgment entry, along with a few newspaper articles, reveal that, on December 18, 1858, Judge Horace Foote (a first cousin of Barber and Lord's surveyor Edwin Foote) decided the case in Cleveland's favor, finding that the former village square was still public land. This decision cleared the way for the City to raze all of the buildings on the land, including Pollock's, and moreover, in the summer of 1859, move the West Side Market there.

At the time of the relocation of the West Side Market to it, the village square was still being referred to in county tax records as a "public square." However, in 1864, James Webster, a real estate developer who had acquired David Pollock's land located adjacent to the village square, re-platted that land and on his plat identified the village square as "Market Square." It has been known by that name ever since (except for a brief period in the second and third decades of the twentieth century when it was officially, but not popularly, called "United Market Square.")

Market Square was home to this early West Side Market for nine years, from 1859 to 1868. In the first several years of that period, it operated, as it had at Franklin Place, as an open-air market, but, in or about 1862, according to newspaper accounts, a market house—perhaps a very small wooden building of humble construction—was built on the site. In 1868, that first market house was torn down and replaced by a new and larger market house, which the City of Cleveland named the Pearl Street Market. The new market house occupied virtually all of Market Square and stood on the site from 1868 until 1915.

By the mid 1890s, Pearl Street Market was in a rundown condition and was too small to meet the needs of West Side vendors and customers. Plans were initially made and circulated around this time by a West Side businessmen's association to raze it and build in its place on Market Square a larger and grander market house. However, those plans changed in 1902 when Mayor Tom Johnson, who inherited the project from two of his predecessors, decided to build the new market house instead on the northeast corner of Pearl and Lorain due to land acquisition problems and renewed concerns over the validity of the City's title to Market Square. Construction of the new West Side Market began in 1907 and was completed 1912. After the new West Side Market opened, the old Pearl Street Market House continued to stand on Market Square for several more years while the Produce Arcade for the new West Side Market was being constructed and while City officials debated other possible uses for the old market house. The Produce Arcade was completed in 1914 and, when City officials could not come to any agreement upon various proposed uses for the Pearl Street Market, it was razed in 1915.

After the old market house was razed, Market Square continued to serve the public for many years, during good weather, as an open-air market for vendors who did not have stalls across the street in the new Produce Arcade or at the West Side Market. It was also used for years as a gathering place for community events ranging from street carnivals to holiday celebrations to weddings to political speeches and protests. It was notably the site of a fiery speech given by Socialist Party candidate Charles Ruthenberg on October 28, 1917, in his bid to become mayor of Cleveland. (He finished third in the race, but received more than 25 percent of the votes cast.)

In 1930, the City built a shelter house (also called a comfort station) on the eastern part of Market Square fronting West 25th Street, which resulted in vendor stall spaces being moved to the western portion of the Square. It was used for these two purposes by the City until about 1950 when the shelter house was leased to a business that converted it into a popular bakery shop with the rest of Market Square serving as a parking lot for that shop. Shortly after this occurred, a lawsuit was filed against the City of Cleveland by descendants of Josiah Barber, who for decades had been interacting with the City regarding its use of the land dedicated by their ancestor as a public square. They alleged in their lawsuit that, by allowing Market Square to be used for "other than public purposes," the City had forfeited its right to the land and that title had by law reverted to Barber's heirs. This lawsuit remained pending in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for a number of years before Judge Benjamin Nicola, having afforded the heirs numerous opportunities to amend their pleadings to state a legally cognizable cause of action, dismissed their lawsuit in 1957.

In the 1960s and 1970s, as the renaissance of the Ohio City neighborhood was underway, West Side businessmen urged the City to convert Market Square into a park. Planning and funding for the project were started during the Perk Administration. After initially opposing the park project on the grounds that the park would attract only "winos," the Kucinich Administration reluctantly undertook construction of it in 1978. The former shelter house, which in recent years had become a fast-food restaurant, was torn down. The cement parking lot behind it was removed and replaced with red brick pavers. Brick planters were added; trees planted; and street lighting added. Market Square Park opened to the public in 1979. In 1984, during the Voinovich administration, a large stone, multipart sculpture called "Tempus Pons" (Time to Build a Bridge) was added to the park. The sculpture was a prominent feature of the park until around 2010-2012, when, during a park redesign, it was dismantled and somewhat unceremoniously carted away. Market Square Park remains today (2022) a pleasant and open public space across the street from the West Side Market. It has now occupied Market Square for more than forty years. And to date, there have been no complaints about this use of Market Square by the descendants of Josiah Barber.

Images

Market Square Park in 2017
Market Square Park in 2017 Among the oldest public spaces in Cleveland, the land upon which Market Square Park is located was originally set aside in circa 1822 as a village public square by pioneer Ohio City real estate developers Josiah Barber and Richard Lord. Source: Google Maps
Josiah Barber (1771-1842)
Josiah Barber (1771-1842) Possibly more responsible for the development of Cleveland's West Side than any other person, Barber and his brother-in-law Richard Lord, both born and raised in Connecticut, migrated to Cuyahoga County in the second decade of the nineteenth century. He and Lord commissioned a survey that laid out a village called "Brooklyn" on the west side of the Cuyahoga River which had its village square at what is today the northwest corner of West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue, across the street from the West Side Market. While this particular Brooklyn Village did not last long, his dedication of land to serve as the village's public square formed the basis for Cleveland's claimed ownership of this land following its annexation of Ohio City in 1854. That land today is home to Cleveland's Market Square Park. Source: Western Reserve Historical Society
Barber and Lord Subdivision - 1836
Barber and Lord Subdivision - 1836 After their village of Brooklyn was absorbed into Ohio City in 1836, Josiah Barber and Richard Lord laid out a residential subdivision which approximated the territory of the former village. Their failure to indicate on their subdivision plat that Brooklyn's village square was still a public space led to uncertainty for decades whether the land was still in fact public land. The red circle on this portion of their subdivision plat marks the approximate location of the original Brooklyn Village Square. Source: Cuyahoga County Archives
D Pollock Allotment - 1853
D Pollock Allotment - 1853 In 1853, Daniel Pollock, a west side businessman filed this commercial plat which identified the former Brooklyn Public Square as having dimensions of 30 feet by 139.5 feet rather than 132 feet by 132 feet as identified in other Cuyahoga County records. It took a law suit in 1858 to determine not only whether the Brooklyn village square was still public land, but what the correct dimensions of that square were. Source: Cuyahoga County Archives
Judge Horace Foote (1799-1884)
Judge Horace Foote (1799-1884) The Common Pleas Judge who presided over the 1858 civil case of David Pollock versus City of Cleveland, his decision in Cleveland's favor cleared the City's title to the land upon which Market Square Park is located today. This sketch of Judge Foote was taken from a news article about him that appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on February 12, 1899, some 15 years after his death. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Newspaper Collection
James Webster Subdivision - 1864
James Webster Subdivision - 1864 A real estate developer, Webster re-platted David Pollock's commercial land near the northwest corner of Pearl (W. 25th) and Lorain after acquiring it from Pollock in 1859. In the plat which he filed in 1864, he identified the public land on the northwest corner of Pearl and Lorain as "Market Square." It has been known by this name ever since. Source: Cuyahoga County Archives
1874 Cuyahoga County Atlas - Pearl Street Market
1874 Cuyahoga County Atlas - Pearl Street Market Built in 1868, the Pearl Street Market House on the northwest corner of Pearl (West 25th) Street and Lorain occupied nearly all of the land which today is known as Market Square Park. It was razed in 1915. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Map Collection
Ketteringham Photo of Pearl Street Market - circa 1901-1902
Ketteringham Photo of Pearl Street Market - circa 1901-1902 George Ketteringham photographed many of Cleveland's notable buildings in the early years of the twentieth century. This photo of the Pearl Street Market appears to have been taken while he was standing on the southeastern corner of Pearl and Lorain. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection
United Market Square?
United Market Square? From 1915 until about 1930, Market Square was officially known as "United Market Square," to distinguish it from a Market Square that then existed on Cleveland's east side, near the Broadway (or Newburgh) Market , a public market which was located at the corner of Broadway and Canton from 1879 to 1963. This article appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on June 20, 1915. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Newspaper Collection.
Charles Ruthenberg at Market Square Park - 1917
Charles Ruthenberg at Market Square Park - 1917 Socialist Party candidate for mayor of Cleveland in 1917, Charles Ruthenberg gives a fiery speech at Market Square Park on October 28 of that year, just a week before mayoral election. He finished third in the race, receiving more than 25 percent of the votes cast. Source: Ohio Memory, a product of the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio
A Bustling Place in the Roaring Twenties
A Bustling Place in the Roaring Twenties This photo of Market Square, taken in 1928, shows that, while the Pearl Street Market House was razed in 1915, open air market activities still continued outdoors on the Square for decades. In the background, on the left, you can see part of the Woolworth Five and Dime Store which then stood on the northwest corner of Market and West 25th Streets. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection
The Shelter House
The Shelter House In 1930, the City of Cleveland built a shelter house (also called a "comfort station") on Market Square which fronted on West 25th Street. This required, as is shown in this photo copy of the City's plans, a realignment of the vendor stall spaces on Market Square. The Shelter House was converted into a commercial store and leased by the City to private sector businesses beginning in circa 1950. The building itself was later torn down in 1978 when Market Square Park was built. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Map Collection
Cleveland Plat Book - 1937
Cleveland Plat Book - 1937 This section of Volume 2 of Cleveland's 1937 Plat Book shows Market Square and the West Side Market near the intersection of West 25th and Lorain. Market Square is occupied only by a shelter house fronting on West 25th and a small brick building to the rear of the Square which was a scale house. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Map Collection
A Proposed New Market Building for Market Square - 1948
A Proposed New Market Building for Market Square - 1948 In the 1940s, the City of Cleveland struggled to find an appropriate public use for Market Square and, at one time, even contemplated selling it. This is a 1948 drawing of a proposed new market building which looks very much like a modernized version of the old Pearl Street Market. The building was never built and instead the City elected to lease the shelter house on Market Square to a business entity which converted it into a bakery. Source: Cleveland State University, Michael Schwartz Library, Special Collections
Market Square - 1949
Market Square - 1949 This photograph graphically shows the aging condition of Market Square in 1949. The posts seen in the foreground of the photo, as well in the background near Lorain Avenue, likely were placed there by the City to mark the boundary lines of Market Square. If so, they could be replacements for the original wooden "landmark" posts that Cleveland ordered to be placed along the "corners" of the Square shortly after Common Pleas Court upheld Cleveland's title to the land in 1858. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection
West 25th and Lorain from above - 1963
West 25th and Lorain from above - 1963 This photograph presents a view of West 25th Street near Lorain Avenue in 1963. If you look closely, you can see the former shelter house across from the West Side Market on the west side of West 25th. By this year, the shelter house had been converted into a commercial building that the City had most recently leased to the owners of Kaase Bake Shop. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection
A Proposal for a Park on Market Square - 1975
A Proposal for a Park on Market Square - 1975 During the Perk Administration (1971-1977), the City of Cleveland responded to calls by West Side business owners to build a park on Market Square. This photograph shows one model of what proponents in 1975 thought such a park might look like. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection
Market Square Park under Construction - 1979
Market Square Park under Construction - 1979 While planning for Market Square Park began during the Ralph Perk Administration (1971-1977), the park was actually constructed during the Dennis Kucinich Administration (1977-1979). This photo shows the park still under construction in 1979, the last year Kucinich was in office. Source: Cleveland State University, Michael Schwartz Library, Special Collections
Arts Festival at Market Square Park - 1984
Arts Festival at Market Square Park - 1984 On October 10, 1984, an Arts Festival called "On Common Ground" was held at Market Square Park. At the Festival, sculptor Carl Floyd (shown in this photo on stage at the microphone) was selected to create a sculpture that would epitomize the festival theme. Mayor George Voinovich (man in blue suit sitting closest to the camera) looks on. Floyd created a piece called Tempus Pons (Time to Build a Bridge) which was placed in the park in 1984. Most of the sculpture was removed at a subsequent renovation of the park in 2010-2012. A part of the sculpture, however, still remains at the west end of the park. Source: Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection
Tempus Pons - 1985
Tempus Pons - 1985 This photograph shows the multipart stone Tempus Pons (Time to Build a Bridge) sculpture on Market Square Park in the year that it was erected there. The sculpture was the dominant feature of Market Square from 1985 until it was dismantled and largely removed from the park at some time during the period 2010-2012. Tiles from the vertical stone columns shown in the foreground of this photo still remain at the west end of the park. Source: Ohio Outdoor Sculpture (Creative Commons)

Location

Market Ave, Cleveland, OH

Metadata

Jim Dubelko, “Market Square Park,” Cleveland Historical, accessed May 12, 2024, https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/959.