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The
City Sights Network
University Circle
The
University
Circle neighborhood includes both the
University Circle
and Little Italy areas. It became part of the City of
Cleveland
when portions of
East Cleveland
Village
and
East Cleveland
Township
were respectively annexed to the City in 1872 and 1892.
University
Circle started in 1799 when Nathaniel Doan established a log tavern and
hotel at the present intersection of East 107th and
Euclid Avenue
.
Euclid
was at the time a main road linking
Cleveland
to
Buffalo
and "Doan's Corners" grew rapidly as a stopping point for
travelers between the two cities. Later, several stores were built and by
the 1870’s, the area was flourishing having added churches, small
industries a hotel and a post office. It was annexed to
Cleveland
in 1866.
But
the expanding city also changed the area. A vaudeville theatre,
Keith’s
East 105th street
theatre attracted numerous people to the area in the 1920’s,
transforming it into a “second downtown” made of hotels, theatres,
banks, commercial buildings, and apartment houses. The
area remained a popular weekend attraction until the urban developments
started in the 1970’s. Today, there are no marks of this past and the
Cleveland Clinic now occupies the area. The very first traffic light was invented by Clevelander Garrett Morgan
and installed at Doan’s corners on
Euclid Avenue
and
E. 107th street
.
The
area’s modern history could then begin with the donation of 63 acres of
wooded parkland to the city by industrialist Jeptha Wade.
Western Reserve
College
and the Case School of Applied Science were then relocated in the area.
Just north of the institutions, land along
Wade Park Avenue
and
Magnolia Drive
became the site of numerous stately residences, many of which were
occupied by trustees of the institutions.
Martin Luther King Boulevard
, previously called
Liberty Boulevard
links the lakeshore to University circle, the cultural heart of the city
of
Cleveland
. The movement eastward of the wealthiest families in the city generated
the development of institutions that the Clevelanders still enjoy today.
The list of extremely renowned medical, cultural, religious and
educational institutions gathered in
University Circle
is quite impressive: reaching the number of sixty, the very unique blend
of these diverse institutions is gathered in a 488-acre campus with parks
and recreation close to downtown. Among them, there are the Natural
History Museum, the Western
Reserve Historical Society,
the Cleveland
Institute of Music, the
Cleveland
Botanical Gardens, the Cleveland
Museum of Art, with
its renowned Cinemathčque,
Case
Western Reserve University, University
Hospitals, the Cleveland
Institute of Art and the home of the Cleveland Symphonic Orchestra, Severance
Hall.
©2008
by Digital Multi Media LLC - All rights reserved
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