Cleveland in HDR – The 6th City Collection

In today’s photo blog I wanted to share some photos from the Greater Cleveland Aquarium. If there is one place you should visit with your children over winter break this is it!  I was fortunate enough to visit and photograph the aquarium last week and I was very impressed with it. Not only is it much larger than I expected but there are tons of things to see and do! You can pet rays or maybe even scuba dive with sharks! The aquarium itself is housed in the old powerhouse near the Nautica Entertainment Complex which includes the Windows on the River, Trolley Tours, the Sugar Warehouse with Shooters on the Water, the IMPROV Comedy Club and Restaurant, and Jacobs Pavilion.  

Here is a little about the Aquarium from their website:

 “Consider the Greater Cleveland Aquarium a portal; a portal that will take you all over the world without ever leaving Cleveland. Visit Australia, South America, Africa and the Indo-Pacific; discover aquatic life native to the lakes and rivers of Ohio, and exotic aquatic life native to the Red Sea, Eastern Asia, Indonesia, Fiji and Hawaii. Learn about our animals, how we care for them, when they eat, what they eat and the personalities each one has developed during their time spent here with us. Located in The FirstEnergy Powerhouse, which is considered an historical building, the Greater Cleveland Aquarium spices up the old brick building with fresh colors and playful aquatic creatures with a fun and educational setting”. 

For more information on how you can visit the Greater Cleveland Aquarium please follow this link: http://greaterclevelandaquarium.com/

Today’s Photo: Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial

More info from the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial Society website: “The Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial Society honors and preserves the memories of peace officers who gave their lives in the performance of service to their communities and the nation; and provides support to the families of fallen officers.

Each May, the Police Memorial Society sponsors the Greater Cleveland Police Memorial Commemoration in conjunction with National Police Week and Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15th). Public events include a parade down Lakeside Avenue (“Police Memorial Way”) followed by a commemorative service at the Peace Officers Memorial.

The premier event of each year’s Commemoration is the Cleveland International Tattoo, a spectacular display of pageantry and music in the time-honored tradition of the military tattoo, with performances by the pipes & drums corps of police departments from throughout the United States and Canada, as well as US military bands, drill teams, dance and choral groups. The entire community joins together in remembrance, fellowship and celebration to salute our safety forces, our military and our country.”

In addition to maintaining the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial, the Society has pledged itself to the following goals:

• Honor all law enforcement officers who have
  died in the line of duty.
• Provide assistance to families of officers who have
  died in the line of duty.
• Provide assistance to police officers seriously injured
  in the line of duty.
• Assist law enforcement agencies with planning and implementation of Line of Duty Death funerals.
• Increase public awareness of the hazards of the law enforcement profession.
• Improve police-community relations.
• Further the law enforcement profession by sponsoring
  training and humanitarian programs, as well as educational
  development such as the Pete Lawer Memorial Scholarship fund.

Today’s Quote: “It’s not the length of life, but the depth of life” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland was established in 1914 as a part of the Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States. The Bank’s main office took up residence in its current home in the heart of downtown Cleveland in 1923.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland serves the Fourth Federal Reserve District, which comprises Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. It is one of twelve regional Reserve Banks, that together with the Board of Governors in Washington, DC, make up the Federal Reserve System.

Today’s Quote: “A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it”. – Bob Hope

“The Cuyahoga River was a retreat from the last glaciers ever seen in the United States. It is called an “infant glacial river”, because it is young compared to all of the other rivers formed by glaciers. The river was formed about 13,000 years ago, but the Cuyahoga Valley has been there even longer. The Cuyahoga River also had a great influence on the Native Americans. The Native Americans named it “Cuyahoga” meaning “crooked river”. The Cuyahoga River also had a great influence on the Native Americans. They came as early as 200 B.C. to the Northeastern part of what is now the Ohio Valley. The Indians used the river mainly for food and transportation. They built canoes and fished along the river. The river had an abundant supply of fish as well as plants. Also, large game settled near the river. These resources made it very easy for the Native Americans to live. As the War of 1812 ended, Western settlers displaced the Indians off the Cuyahoga Valley. The Cuyahoga River was becoming a place which was rich and plentiful. Moses Cleveland founded the township of Euclid at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in 1796. Benjamin Franklin and George Washington thought that the Northern part of what is now the Ohio would be of great importance. They knew that the Cuyahoga was the prime spot for the continental divide passing directly through and for the mouth coming out at the Lake Erie”.

For more info:

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/fenlewis/History.html

Today’s Quote: Concentration is my motto – first honesty, then industry, then concentration. – Andrew Carnegie

The Cuyahoga County Courthouse stretches along Lakeside Boulevard at the north end of the Cleveland Mall in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The building was listed on the National Register along with the mall district in 1975.

From Wikipedia”

“The building was constructed from 1906–1912 by the architectural firm of Lehman & Schmitt. The building is Beaux Arts style and is constructed of Milford pink granite from Massachusetts. The rusticated masonry of the ground floor includes deeply recessed and arched windows and doors. A protruding keystone tops each one. The front entrance is flanked by bronze statues of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton sculpted by Karl Bitter. Directly above the front entry doors are three large arched windows between fluted columns of the Ionic order allowing daylight into the courtroom within. The frieze of the cornice includes the inscription “Cuyahoga County Courthouse”. Above the cornice are several stone statues of historical law givers. Two of these figures, of Edward I and John Hampden, were sculpted by Daniel Chester French. The rear elevation facing Lake Erie is composed similarly, but with the inscription “Liberty is Obedience to Law”. A pediment with a plain tympanum surmounts the central element of the facade on both the north and south elevations”.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be… if we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” – Thomas Jefferson

Today’s Cleveland photo: The Charles Brush Memorial

Here is some information about Charles Brush from the Green Energy Ohio website: “Like fellow Ohioan Thomas Edison, Charles F. Brush, born in Euclid in 1849, was a restless backyard tinkerer and clever entrepreneur. A child prodigy, by age 15 he had built electrical gadgets and microscopes and telescopes for school chums. Brush graduated from the University of Michigan in 1869, with a degree in mining engineering. Brush is best remembered for his dynamo and arc lights, which illuminated a Cincinnati physician’s home in 1878 then Cleveland Public Square in 1879. These and more than 50 patented innovations made Brush a wealthy man. His company, Brush Electric Company, merged with companies that eventually formed General Electric, which still brings good things to light”. More info on Brush and his electric windmill: http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageId=341

For more information about other famous Clevelanders check out the Citiview website: http://citiviewcleveland.com/features/famous-clevelanders/

“Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science”. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today’s Cleveland Photo: GuitarMania Cleveland

From the GuitarMania website:

“GuitarMania^® is a Greater Cleveland community public art project that has raised $2 million for its two benefiting charities – United Way of Greater Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s education programs. The project consists of large, 10-ft-tall Fender^® Stratocaster^® guitars creatively transformed into works of art by local artists and national celebrities. The guitars are displayed on the city streets of Cleveland for residents and visitors to enjoy from the end of May through October, 2012. Corporations, organizations and individuals sponsor the guitars and select from a variety of local artists to paint, sculpt or decorate them. Celebrity artists also paint and decorate guitars.”

http://www.cleveland.com/guitarmania/

Here’s a Fun Fact:

Did you know that Cleveland was originally spelled “Cleaveland,” named after General Moses Cleaveland. The “a” was dropped so that the name could fit into a newspaper’s masthead. For more cool fact about Cleveland check out the Citiview Cleveland website: http://citiviewcleveland.com/

Today’s Cleveland photo is of the Dante Alighieri statue that was dedicated in the Italian Garden of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens on June 29, 2012. Here is some more information about Dante from Wikipedia: “Durante degli Alighieri, simply referred to as Dante, was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Commedia and later called Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature”.

For more info:

http://culturalgardens.org/gardenDetail.aspx?gardenID=10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri

Today’s Quote: “Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.” ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Today’s photo of the Cleveland Skyline! Did you know that there are a whole bunch of famous Clevelanders? Here is a list of some of them from the Positively Cleveland Website:

Halle Berry – Actress/producer – the first African American actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress

Drew Carey – Creator/producer and star of ABC-TV’s “The Drew Carey Show” and host of “The Price is Right”

Traci Chapman – Singer/songwriter

Tim Conway – Comedian/actor

Ben Curtis – Graduate of Kent State University and the 2003 PGA British Open Champion

Dorothy Dandridge – Actress – First African American woman to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress

Phil Donahue – Talk show host and winner of 19 Daytime Emmys

Alan Freed – D.J. who coined the phrase “Rock n’ Roll”

James A Garfield – 20th US President

Arsenio Hall – Comedian/Actor – The first African American host of a nationally televised late night talk show

Patricia Heaton – Actress

Anne Heche – Actress

Langston Hughes – Poet

Bob Hope – Actor/Comedian – Winner of 5 Special and Honorary Oscars

Sammy Kaye – Band leader – Kaye had more than 100 hit records from 1937-1953

Don King – Boxing promoter

Henry Mancini – Composer of “Moon River,” “The Pink Panther” and many more memorable melodies. Winner of 20 Grammys and four Oscars

Toni Morrison – Winner of 1993 Nobel Prize for literature

Paul Newman – Actor, director, race car driver and Oscar Winner for Best Actor

The O’Jays (Eddie Levert & Walter Williams) – Popular R&B group

Jesse Owens – Olympic track star

John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil founder

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster – Creators of Superman

Molly Shannon – Actress and cast alumni of Saturday Night Live

Henry Sherwin – Founder, Sherwin Williams

Don Shula – Football coach

Tris Speaker – Baseball player

George Steinbrenner III – Former owner, NY Yankees

Vernon Stouffer – Founder, Stouffer Foods

Joe Walsh – Singer, songwriter, guitarist and member of the “James Gang” and the “Eagles”

Archibald Willard – Artist, painted “Spirit of ’76”

Tom Wilson – Cartoonist, Ziggy

Debra Winger – Actress

Cy Young – Baseball player

For more info on visiting Cleveland:

http://www.positivelycleveland.com/

“Nautica Entertainment Complex in Cleveland, Oh invites you to experience exceptional dining and exhilarating entertainment in a dramatic setting where you can see giant lake freighters maneuver the Cuyahoga River. Since its opening in 1987, the Nautica Entertainment Complex has attracted millions of people annually. Anchored by two dramatic jackknife bridges, the distinctive character of the Flats is accentuated by Cleveland’s finest entertainment venues.

Nautica Entertainment Complex includes the FirstEnergy Powerhouse (home to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, Windows on the River banquet facilities and Trolley Tours); the Sugar Warehouse with Shooters on the Water, the IMPROV Comedy Club and Restaurant and Great Lakes Watersports; Jacobs Pavilion (a 5,000 seat outdoor amphitheater); the Nautica Queen dining/cruise ship, and the Apartments at Nautica building with McCarthy’s Downtown and the Nautica Charity Poker Festival At the Cuyahoga River’s edge is the half-mile long Nautica Boardwalk offering special views of boats on the river and Cleveland’s resurgent skyline.”

For more info- http://www.nauticaflats.com/venues/a/jacobs-pavilion-cleveland-concert-event-venue

Todat’s quote: Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. – Voltaire