Cleveland in HDR – The 6th City Collection

It’s Buzzard Day! Every year on March 15^th the world-famous buzzards return to the Buzzard Roost in Hinckley Reservation.

From the Metroparks website: “March 15th is known as the ‘Ides of March,’ but is also internationally-known as the day the buzzards return to their summer roost at Hinckley Reservation’s Buzzard Roost. Grab the binoculars and search the skies with Cleveland Metroparks Official Buzzard Spotter, Bob Hinkle, and Cleveland Metroparks Chief of Outdoor Education as he searches the early morning sky for the first turkey vultures to return for the year. The search begins at 7 a.m. and continues until the first buzzard returns to the roost.”

For more info: http://www.clemetparks.com/events/buzzards.asp

Today’s Quote: “Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books”. – John Lubbock

The 100th Bomb Group Restaurant is located directly across from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Therefore, I drive past it every day on the way into work and thought this would make a cool photo.  I have eaten there many times and the food is really good. The thing that makes this restaurant so cool however is its World War II era theme and amazing views of the airport. Make sure you put this unique restaurant at the top of things to experience when you are in Cleveland.

For more info: http://www.100thbgrestaurant.com/100thbg/

Today’s Quote: “Always do right – this will gratify some and astonish the rest.” Mark Twain

Today’s photo is of a winter scene near Peninsula, Ohio in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Here is some info from the National Park Foundation’s website: “Though a short distance from the urban environments of Cleveland and Akron, Cuyahoga Valley National Park seems worlds away. The winding Cuyahoga—the “crooked river” as named by American Indians—gives way to deep forests, rolling hills, and open farmlands. The park is a refuge for flora and fauna, gives a sense of times past, and provides recreation and solitude for Ohio’s residents and visitors. The park has a rich cultural legacy as well. Remains of the Ohio & Erie Canal, which traveled through the valley in the 19th and early 20th centuries, offer a glimpse into the past”.

For more info: http://www.nationalparks.org/discover-parks/index.cfm?fa=viewPark&pid=CUVA

Today’s Quote:  “Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product”. – Edward Steichen

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was originaly dedicated on 4 July 1894 and has recently undergone a 2 million dollar makeover. If you live in the Cleveland area you should try to check it out sometime. In Cuyahoga County, 10,000 of the 15,600 eligible men served in the war, including my own 3rd Great Grandfather Michael Druckenbrod (188th Ohio Vol. Inf.). For more information:

http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=SASM

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/04/ohio_and_clevelands_role_in_th.html

Today’s Quote:

Today’s photo is of the Civil War Cannon located inside Gray’s Armory. The Secesh Cannon was captured by Northern troops during the Civil War. The iron barrel with a 3-inch bore was manufactured in 1861 for the state of North Carolina at Joseph Reid Anderson’s Tredegar Foundry in Richmond, VA, and bears the number 1151. It is on permanent display on the ground floor of Grays Armory in Cleveland. The piece may be the only surviving captured Southern Civil Cannon in any Northern City. Confederate cannon in existence in any major northern city. Confederate cannon in existence in any major northern city.

From the Gray’s Armory website: “Since 1837 when 118 brave men adopted the motto, “Semper Paratus,” (Always Prepared) and where chartered in as an independent militia the Cleveland Grays and their friends have made history. From 1792 to 1903 state and federal law authorized independent militias, private volunteer groups that supplemented the official state militia, and served the community in all the ways that the National Guard does today. The Richardsonian Romanesque Revival-style Armory was built in 1893. Within its imposing walls the armory has also made history by hosting Cleveland’s finest events and its people. This included the first concert by John Phillip Sousa and Cleveland’s first Auto Show”.

For more info: http://www.graysarmory.com/

Today’s Quote: “Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”- John Quincy Adams

Heroic Head of Pierre de Wissant, One of the Burghers of Calais, by Auguste Rodin at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Museum is one of the world’s most distinguished art museums and it’s free!

Here is some history on the museum from its website: “The museum opened on June 6, 1916 after many years of planning. Its creation was made possible by Cleveland industrialists Hinman B. Hurlbut, John Huntington, and Horace Kelley, all of whom bequeathed money specifically for an art museum, as well as by Jeptha H. Wade II, whose Wade Park property was donated for the site. The endowments established by these founders continue to support the museum. The original neoclassic building of white Georgian marble was designed by the Cleveland firm of Hubbell & Benes and was constructed at a cost of $1.25 million. Located north of the Wade Lagoon, it forms the focus of the city’s Fine Arts Garden.”

Visit: http://www.clevelandart.org/

Today’s Quote: “We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.” – Alice Bloch

Today’s Photo: The Cleveland Masonic Temple

From the Cleveland Historical site:

“The Masonic Temple and Performing Arts Center at 3615 Euclid Avenue was completed in 1921. The original plans for a high-rise office building addition to the temple, however, were never implemented. The Masonic Auditorium was home to the Cleveland Orchestra for ten years prior to the opening of Severance Hall in 1931, and it continued to be used as the setting for most of the orchestra’s recordings long thereafter as a result of its fine acoustics. The building also is home to the Cleveland Masonic Library and Museum, as well as budding arts groups like: Dancing Wheels (a wheelchair ballet group), RED: An Orchestra (an avant-garde ensemble) and The Singing
Angels (a youth choir)”.

For more info: http://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/9

Today’s photo is of the detail in the woodwork at Cleveland Public Hall. This photo was taken from the stage floor looking upward at the proscenium arch of the stage opening. From Wikipedia: “Public Auditorium (sometimes called Public Hall) is located in Cleveland, Ohio. Since it was opened in 1922, it has served as a concert hall, sports arena and convention center. Although it was planned and funded prior to World War I, construction did not begin until 1920. Designed by city architect J. Harold McDowell and Frank Walker of Walker and Weeks in a neoclassical style matching the other Group Plan buildings, it was the largest of its kind when opened, seating 11,500. The auditorium cornerstone was laid on Oct. 20, 1920, and the completed building was dedicated on April 15, 1922. Smith & Oby was one local company involved in the project, at the time the largest convention hall in the United States. In 1927, the Music Hall was added at the south end of the auditorium. The main arena floor is 300 ft. long, 215 ft. wide, 80 ft. high. No columns were used in its construction. The main stage is 140 ft. by 60 ft., with a 72- by 42-ft. proscenium arch.”

“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe”. – Voltaire

The history of the Cleveland Metroparks from clemetparks website:

“The oldest park district in Ohio, the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District was born in 1917, the initiative of a young, self-taught engineer who had conceived the idea of an outer chain of parks with connecting boulevards some 12 years earlier. William Stinchcomb’s genius was to anticipate the future need for open space at a time when Cuyahoga County outside of Cleveland was still largely rural. From a few scattered donations of land in the Rocky River Valley, the Park District grew to embrace some of the most scenic areas of Greater Cleveland.

Stinchcomb first suggested his idea in 1905 and repeated his plea in 1909. Cleveland, which was then the nation’s sixth largest city, finally formed a park board in 1912 following an act by the Ohio Senate. In April 1912, West Side brewer Leonard Schlather offered to donate approximately three acres of bottom land in the Rocky River Valley.

But, there was a problem. Although the park board had the power to receive gifts of land and property, it had no money of its own and no authority to raise money by bonds or taxation. The park board remained basically dormant for several years.

State law changed in 1915, allowing the Cuyahoga County Commissioners to appropriate money to the park board and in 1916 the first funds were received. Stinchcomb, who had been elected Cuyahoga County engineer, stayed involved in the project as a consulting engineer and developed the “Proposed Cuyahoga County Park and Boulevard System.” The plan showed a continuous parkway encircling Cuyahoga County, threading its way through the Rocky River, Big Creek, Chippewa Creek, Tinkers Creek, Chagrin River and Euclid Creek valleys, and connecting, in two places, with the existing city of Cleveland park system.

In March 1917, the Ohio General Assembly passed a bill providing for “the conservation of natural resources by the creation, development and improvement of park districts.” On June 30, 1917, the Board of Trustees of Euclid Township petitioned the Probate Judge of Cuyahoga County for the creation of the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District. In July, a new park board was appointed and then met for the first time on July 30, 1917. Stinchcomb stayed on as a consultant without compensation.

From its inception through the 1920s, the Cleveland Metropolitan Park Board concentrated its efforts on assembling parkland. The Park District materially took shape during its first decade. In 1920, the Park District held title to just 109 acres of land in Rocky River and Big Creek; by 1930, it had acquired at a cost of $3.9 million, 9,000 acres in nine large, unconnected reservations: Rocky River, Huntington, Big Creek, Hinckley, Brecksville, Bedford, South Chagrin, North Chagrin and Euclid Creek.

The next step, connecting the reservations, would be tackled in years to come.”

For more info: http://www.clemetparks.com/index.asp

Today’s Quote: “All art is but imitation of nature”. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Here is some info from the Cleveland Cultural Gardens website: “Dedicated in 1935, the Czech Garden was designed by landscape architects B. Ashburton Tripp and Maurice Cornell. At the center of a circular lawn, flanked by an Eagle Pylon and a Lion Pylon, is a sculptured frieze depicting the history of the migration of Czechs to the United States. Atop the frieze and facing the lawn are busts of Bedrich Smetana, a composer, Dr. Miroslav Tyrs, an educator and organizer of Sokol gymnastic societies, Jan E. Purkyne, a physiologist, and Bozena Nemcova, a novelist. The garden also contains busts celebrating Frantisek Palacky, a historian and statesman, Anton Dvorak, the composer of the well-known “New World Symphony,” the Reverend Jendrich Simon Baar, a priest and novelist, Karl Havlicek, a journalist imprisoned because of his political views, and Thomas Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. Most of these statues, as well as the frieze, were the work of Frank L. Jirouch, a Cleveland-born sculptor of Czech descent who sculpted many of the busts in the garden.

On April 1, 1939, the President of Czechoslovakia planted two linden trees from Bohemia in the garden. In 1949, the Czech delegation added the Tyrs, Nemcova, and Purkyne bust, and in June 1962, Masaryk’s statue was added. At the dedication ceremony, United States Senator Frank Lausche lauded the choice of Masaryk, giving the dedication political resonance in the broader context of the raging Cold War. Lausche stated, that The love of liberty lives strong in the hearts of the Czechoslovakian people in America. … Our government will not make any pact for the degradation of Czechoslovak liberty.”

For more information on the Czech Garden: http://culturalgardens.org/gardenDetail.aspx?gardenID=7

Today’s quote is one of my favorites and comes from the garden itself: This Garden is dedicated, to our beloved Czech parents who by their teachings and by precept and example have established for us a high ideal of American citizenship.