2012 marks the 100th birthday of the Cuyahoga County Court House on Lakeside Avenue. The courthouse was designed by Charles Morris along with Lehman and Schmitt and is one of the finest examples of the Beaux-Arts style in the city.
For more info: http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=LAS1
Today’s Quote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today’s photo is of a really cool sculpture in Downtown Cleveland. It is the Triple-L Excentric Gyratory Gyratory III, made by George Rickey in 1980. This kinetic sculpture is comprised of three L-shaped arms that move and twist. It has a 27-foot radius of movement.
Today’s Quote: “Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in”. – Amy Lowell
It’s the 2012 Rock Hall induction week in Cleveland! Guns N’ Roses, the Beastie Boys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers; how cool would it be to be there for this?
From Cleveland.com: “The 2012 induction ceremony will take place Saturday, April 14, at Public Auditorium in Cleveland. Guns N’ Roses, the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan, Laura Nyro and the Small Faces/Faces will be inducted as performers. Late bluesman Freddie King will be ushered in as an early influence. Among the nonperformer inductees will be Don Kirshner, Tom Dowd, Glyn Johns and Cosimo Matassa.
The inductions here will be preceded by nine days of tie-in events, including the grand opening of the Rock Hall’s library and archives on Cuyahoga Community College’s Metropolitan Campus, the launch of a major new exhibition and a free “Concert for Cleveland.” Details for those events will be announced later, along with celebrity presenters for the inductions. This will be the third induction ceremony in the Rock Hall’s hometown.”
For more info:
http://rockhall.com/event/2012-inductions/
http://www.cleveland.com/rockhall/
The Old Stone Church on Public Square is one of my favorite buildings to photograph. The staff at the church was kind enough to take me on a tour of the building and I was able to learn a lot about one of Cleveland’s coolest landmarks. (see http://brentdurken.com/inside-the-tower) Here is some more information about the Church from their website:
“The Old Stone Church, long a downtown Cleveland landmark, has a congregation dating back to 1820. Officially known as The First Presbyterian Society, it was founded at a time when Cleveland was just a village of a few hundred people. As Cleveland has grown in size and importance, The Old Stone Church has kept pace, becoming a symbol of spiritual leadership, community involvement and stability in the heart of the city.
The sixteen Christian men and women who met on September 19, 1820, to sign the charter formally establishing the First Presbyterian Church were members of a Bible class which had met for a year under the direction of Elisha Taylor. Among them was Rebecca Carter who with her husband, Lorenzo, had been the first permanent white settlers in Cleveland. A variety of sites, including a one-room schoolhouse and the log courthouse, served as meeting places for the fledgling church. Finally, in 1827, The First Presbyterian Society was incorporated, with the primary purpose of building a permanent home for the congregation.
The first church building was dedicated on February 26, 1834, on the northwest corner of Public Square, the historical center of downtown Cleveland. The building, of Tuscan-style architecture, was built of gray sandstone. It was the first stone church in Cleveland and was known as “The Stone Church.” Later, as the sandstone darkened, the name became The Old Stone Church.
Dedicating the Church was the Rev. John Keep, the last of six home missionaries recruited by the Connecticut Missionary Service for “frontier service” to Congregational and Presbyterian groups. The year following the dedication, the first Pastor, Samuel Aiken, was called. He served more than 25 years, establishing a precedent for exceptionally long pastoral tenure throughout the history of The Old Stone Church.
In 1853, reflecting the rapid growth of Cleveland, the congregation was outgrowing the sanctuary which had been erected just 20 years earlier. A new church, built on the site of the original structure, was dedicated on August 12, 1855. The massive foundation and walls were constructed of sandstone, lined with brick, at a cost of $60,000.
Nineteen months later, on March 7, 1857, a disastrous fire hit The Old Stone Church and spread from the roof to the 250-ft. steeple, which swayed and crashed across Ontario Street. Amasa Stone led the successful struggle to rebuild on the original property, and the renovated church was dedicated on January 17, 1858. Later, galleries and another graceful spire were completed.
During the following twenty-five years many social service organizations were formed by Old Stone members, directed toward moral and social problems. These included the YMCA, the YWCA, Children’s Aid Society, Western Seamen’s Society, Lakeside Hospital, The Goodrich Society, and the first Cleveland medical school.
A Service of Thanksgiving was held at the end of the Civil War, and a new Peace Bell raised in the belfry. As Abraham Lincoln’s funeral cortege stopped at Public Square, people were called to his memorial service at the church by the tolling of the massive bell (now installed in front of the church, facing Public Square).
Old Stone is the only remaining building to have been in existence during the lighting of Public Square with Charles Brush’s arc light in 1879.
The building was struck by another severe fire on January 5, 1884. John Foote, Samuel E. Williamson and Col. John Hay convinced the congregation that the historic site was worth preserving. Work began immediately, with architect Charles Schweinfurth employed to guide the restoration. Mr. Schweinfurth was new to Cleveland and Old Stone’s renovation was the first of many important commercial architectural contributions he was to make to the city.
While Old Stone’s walls required few repairs, the interior needed to be completely reconstructed. The steeple was declared unsafe and removed. The restored church, dedicated on October 19, 1884, is essentially the church you see today. A recent capital campaign resulted in cleaning and repairing the church, re-landscaping, and restoring the steeple. The Sanctuary was also renovated”.
http://www.oldstonechurch.org/
Today’s quote: “On the recollection of so many and great favours and blessings, I now, with a high sense of gratitude, presume to offer up my sincere thanks to the Almighty, the Creator and Preserver”. – William Bartram
The Galleria at Erieview is a two floor shopping mall that opened in 1987 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. It is adjacent to the Erieview Tower and it was the first major retail venture in Downtown Cleveland since the 1920s.
For more info: http://www.galleriaaterieview.com/
Today’s Quote: “We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” – Winston Churchill
Today’s photo is of a Cleveland RTA HeathLine bus traveling down Euclid Ave. past the City Club of Cleveland. The City Club of Cleveland was incorporated in 1912 and is known as “America’s Citadel of Free Speech”. It is the longest continuous independent free speech forum in the country. Several Presidents have spoken at the City Club including Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and every President since Jimmy Carter. Some other notable speakers at the City Club include Robert F. Kennedy, Douglas MacArthur, Henry Louis Gates, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu who called the City Club “a beacon, a symbol and a sentinel for freedom, for justice, for tolerance”.
For more info:
Today’s Quote: “The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny”. – Hugo Black
The Cleveland Fire Fighters IAFF Local 93 has posted the following info on their website: “The new Cleveland Fallen Firefighters Memorial was made to honor those firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice. The new memorial is more representational of firefighting and is located in one of the most visible sites in Cleveland.
It is at the corner of Erieside Ave and Lerner Way at 362 Erieside, between Cleveland Browns Stadium, the Science Center, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It is our goal to keep alive the memory and sacrifice of these brave men, and in doing so will honor past, present and future fire fighters.
The Cleveland Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial was dedicated on June15th, 2007”.
For more info: http://iafflocal93.org/memorial.htm
Today’s Quote: “A hero has faced it all: he need not be undefeated, but he must be undaunted”. – Andrew Bernstein
The Cleveland Skyline – Cleveland got the nickname “The 6th City” during the early 1900’s when its population made it the 6th largest city in the country. Cleveland had the sixth largest population in the 1910, 1930 and 1940 U.S. Federal census. As of the 2010 Census, the city proper had a total population of 396,815. That makes Cleveland the 45th largest city in the United States. That being said Cleveland is part of the larger Cleveland-Akron-Elyria Combined Statistical Area, which in 2000 had a population of 2,945,831, and ranked as the country’s 14th largest.
Today’s Quote: “I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature”. – John D. Rockefeller
If you have never seen a play at the Hanna Theater in Playhouse Square you are missing out. The atmosphere is great and everything is modern. The Hanna Theatre opened March 28, 1921, and would go on to host such stage and film luminaries as Al Jolson, Katherine Hepburn, Henry
Fonda, Ethel Barrymore, Ginger Rogers, Helen Hayes, Mary Martin and Yul Brynner. In 2008, the Hanna underwent a renovation to add a thrust stage, re-work its seating to 550 and become the main performance base for Playhouse Square’s long-time constituent, Great Lakes Theater. Few people know that the famous Tom Hanks got his first acting job right here in Cleveland with the Great Lakes Theater Festival. He worked 3 summers with Great Lakes making $45 per week. Playhouse Square is the second largest performing arts center in the country, behind only
New York City.
For more info: http://www.playhousesquare.org/default.asp?playhousesquare=62&objId=2
Today’s Quote: Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. – John Quincy Adams
Northeast Ohio’s beautiful rolling landscape and changing seasons make for some great and challenging golf courses. Make sure that you get out and enjoy all that our area has to offer.
Check out this link for a list of local courses:
http://www.golfmax.com/Golf-Courses/Cleveland-Ohio-Golf-Courses.shtml
Today’s Quote:
If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf. –
Bob Hope