100 Years in Pictures

Addressing the changing socioeconomic needs of the African-American community: 20th anniversary convening of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, hosted by Cleveland in 1929Ellwood H. FisherMaster planner I. M. Pei (right), Cleveland’s urban renewal director James Lister (center) and chief architect Jack Hayes at the Erieview Tower construction site, 1954 Halprin’s impressionist sketch of Cleveland’s “Flats,” which he praised as a “tremendous resource.” Harry Goldblatt, M.D.On December 15, 1978, Cleveland City Council considered and rejected Mayor Kucinich’s 11th-hour plan to avoid default.Flotsam despoiling the beach at Gordon ParkThe West 25th Street retail district in Ohio City exemplifies the objective recently adopted by Neighborhood Progress, Inc. of restoring market forces in target neighborhoods.2006: Cleveland Clinic FoundationRichard W. PogueInnovation: CleveMed’s wireless sleep monitorThe Palace, the flagship of the Keith chain of vaudeville theaters, reinvented itself as a wide-screen movie house in the 1950s.Frances Southworth GoffJohn SherwinMalcolm L. McBrideJames A. Ratner1972: Huron Road MallThe State TheatreOhio governor John Kasich at the signing of House Bill 525, legislation enabling education reform, in June 2012Belle SherwinMAGNET consultants helped Nextant Aerospace of Richmond Heights, Ohio, apply lean principles to its specialty business of remanufacturing corporate jets for an under-$5 million market. Presbyterian minister Bruce W. Klunder died while protesting the construction of three public elementary schools that Cleveland’s civil rights community believed would perpetuate a system of segregated and inferior education for African-American students.The formal entrance to the Judson Park retirement community, an independent living facility erected in 1974 next to the traditional nursing home established by the Baptist Home of Ohio in the former Bicknell mansion on Cleveland’s east side2001: Cleveland Botanical GardenMalvin E. BankBarbecue restaurant owner Al (Bubba) Baker received a microloan that enabled the former Browns football player to begin local distribution of his proprietary de-boned baby-back ribs.1982: Cleveland Institute of ArtFrank H. and Nancy L. Porter Fund1985: Cleveland State UniversityTreu-Mart FundKaramu HouseFirst Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (third from left) at the 1937 dedication of Lakeview Terrace, the nation’s first public housingHarry Coulby Funds1996: Dunham Tavern Museum1968: Holden ArboretumRaymond C. MoleyH. Stuart HarrisonSlavic VillageDetroit ShorewayUniversity Circle’s cultural institutions have long been renowned for their enriching educational activities.Linking city kids to life-enriching programs: Duffy Liturgical Dance teaches children to perform and thus preserve songs and dances created by African slaves in America.Ronald B. RichardManchester Bidwell, the Pittsburgh model on which NewBridge is based, has instilled a love of learning in teens who previously did not fare well in school.1984: Cleveland Department of Parks, Recreation and PropertiesWade Oval Wednesdays, summertime’s popular outdoor music seriesCleveland voters expressed their hopes for the success of the reform plan by approving the Issue 107 operating levy.1999: Western Reserve Historical SocietyMAGNET’s Prism program helped Cleveland-based Vitamix keep up with demand for its high-end blenders.Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and MuseumA “City Canvases” mural by graphic designer John MorellTom L. Johnson, a reformer who served as Cleveland’s mayor from 1901 to 1909, helped to shape the city’s progressive climate. Proposed townhomes for East 118th StreetMOCA ClevelandMayor Dennis Kucinich’s ceremonial presentation of a post-default debt paymentCleveland Film SocietyGoff in a rare moment of leisureAn owner-employee of the Evergreen LaundryLAND Studio’s proposed redesign of Public SquareFred S. McConnellDancer/choreographer Kapila Palihawadana of Sri Lanka, 2012 artist in residence with the Inlet Dance Theatre, conducts a master dance class at the Beck Center for the Performing Arts.Graduation day at Cleveland Early College High School, 2012FairfaxThe Goff home on Lake Shore Boulevard in BratenahlCleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Housing Network assisted the Mt. Pleasant Now nonprofit development corporation with the construction of the Union Court senior apartments.The original Free Clinic, a drug treatment center on Cornell RoadThe foundation helped to draft and win passage of a clean energy law for Ohio.1982: The TempleCool Cleveland editor and publisher Tom MulreadyAlfred M. Rankin Jr.Members of the African-American Philanthropy Committee: Reverend Elmo A. Bean, Doris A. Evans, M.D., David G. Hill, Lillian W. BurkePlanning model of Cleveland, c. 1960Wade Lagoon, the tranquil heart of Cleveland’s cultural hub Palace Theatre lobbyHolsey Gates HandysideJames R. GarfieldAretha Franklin at the Tri-C JazzFestVice President Hubert H. Humphrey showed his support for Stokes’s Cleveland: NOW! initiative on a visit to the city in 1968.Charles P. Bolton27 Coltman, a luxury townhome development on the eastern boundary of University CircleThe cast of Nicholas NicklebyA new company that makes and installs solar-panel arrays has been created with foundation support.1956: Cleveland Institute of ArtMAGNET incubator tenant Tom Lix, the founder and CEO of Cleveland Whiskey, which has developed a proprietary process for accelerating the aging of distilled liquorsGroundWorks Dance Theater1961: Benjamin Rose InstituteCleveland Institute of Art1975: Kenneth C. Beck Center for the Cultural ArtsThe Cleveland Foodbank’s LEED-certified distribution centerThe East Central Townhomes, after a $1.2 million renovation by Burten, Bell and Carr Development CorporationCleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon and Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson stumping in 2012 for the passage of the first operating levy to be placed on the ballet in 16 years1967: Blossom Music CenterBy 1929, when Cleveland laid claim to having the tallest skyscraper in the country—the Terminal Tower, evocatively captured here by famed photographer Margaret Bourke-White—the community foundation movement had spread across America.Donald and Ruth GoodmanSustaining the excellence of the region’s cultural assets: a summer solstice party at the Cleveland Museum of ArtRobert E. Eckardt, Ph.D.1973: Severance HallCarl B. Stokes at a town hall meeting, 1969: an historic but troubled mayoral administration Jacqueline F. Woods1997: Cleveland Clinic FoundationJohn Sherwin Jr.Captain Frank’s seafood restaurant at the end of the Ninth Street Pier once commanded downtown’s best view of Lake Erie.Andrew Carnegie, the “king of steel,” created a private foundation to carry out his philanthropic activities. Goff invented a simpler, more affordable mechanism to serve the charitable impulses of caring individuals of all means.Nancy Dwyer’s Who’s on First? benchCleveland OrchestraStanley C. PaceUnder the leadership of former CEO Baiju Shah, BioEnterprise created, recruited or helped to grow more than 170 local biotechnology companies.Green City Growers supplies Bibb lettuce, green leaf lettuce, gourmet lettuces and basil to institutional and commercial customers.1996: Old Stone ChurchSophisticated life support equipment in an air ambulance made by Nextant Aerospace, Ohio’s only aircraft manufacturer and a MAGNET clientLeyton E. CarterGeorge and Janet VoinovichGlenville High School students, 1914Commencement at Tri-C, 1975To date, 100 percent of the student body at the School of Science and Medicine goes on to college.The multitude of organizational nameplates on the door to the Cleveland Foundation’s offices in the 1970s testified to its rebirth as a nexus of progressive philanthropy and an incubator of social-action programs. MOCA Cleveland’s faceted, mirrored, four-story art gallery anchors the Uptown development.TremontStokes and his wife, Shirley, on election day, 1968 Lexington VillageGlobal Cleveland’s welcome centerGordon Park in its heydayTri-C’s early use of computers as a teaching aid, c. 1980Katharine Holden Thayer by Cindy NaegeleA burning desire to be an attorney animated Goff as a young man. Great Lakes Science CenterApollo’s FireCleveland’s well-financed and -run network of community development organizations targeted this crumbling but historic eight-unit rowhouse in the Central neighborhood for rehabilitation.1964: Garden Center of Greater ClevelandSinging AngelsFrances Southworth, Goff’s bride and intellectual partnerAfter their father's untimely death, future political icons Carl (left) and Louis Stokes lived with their mother at Outhwaite Homes.John J. DwyerCleveland Housing Network was the lead developer of Greenbridge Commons, permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals, in the Fairfax neighborhood.2007: Great Lakes Theater FestivalCleveland, Ohio, the birthplace of an entirely new concept of philanthropyGrand opening of the Outhwaite Homes, 1937Goff wisely decided that an independent citizen’s committee should determine how a community foundation’s income should be distributed, rather than the directors of the foundation’s trustee bank. Dispersed by police, the protesters did not succeed in halting construction, but Klunder’s martyrdom inspired the civil rights community to continue what was ultimately a victorious fight against segregation of the Cleveland public schools.The Ohio Department of Natural Resources invested more than $40 million in capital improvements to the band of green spaces renamed the Cleveland Lakefront State Park. Ohio CityF. James and Rita Rechin FundChurch Square Commons, offering affordable apartments for adults 55 and older, is one of the Famicos Foundation’s most recent projects in Hough.On his way to building Cleveland Trust into America’s sixth largest bank, Goff occasionally took time out to indulge his passion for fishing.Clean water advocates, 1968The Allen Theatre, originally an opulent silent movie house, c. 1938Contaminants flowing into Lake Erie, 1965An east-side Cleveland elementary school, 1963: growing frustration with what appears to be systematic segregationThe Cleveland Trust Company’s neoclassical banking hall, which opened in 1908, was topped by an immense stained-glass dome.1968: Karamu HouseSold out! Heritage Lane townhomes, built within walking distance of the CircleThe passenger terminal at Cleveland-Hopkins Airport, c. 1956Halprin worksheetCleveland mayor Ralph S. LocherWelcome committees were organized to greet bused students on their first day at their new crosstown schools. Famed urban planner Lawrence Halprin (right) presented his ideas for downtown Cleveland’s redevelopment at a public forum in 1975 attended by Cleveland mayor Ralph J. Perk (center) and May Company department store president Francis Coy (left).John L. McChordBarack Obama campaigns at Tri-C, 2007The Peter B. Lewis Building, designed by Frank Gehry, is the home of Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.Homer C. WadsworthCharles A. RatnerHarold T. ClarkArtist’s conception of the new Regional Transit Authority station planned for Mayfield Road in Little ItalyCarlton K. MatsonKenneth W. Clement M.D.2003: Hanna Perkins Center for Child DevelopmentR. M. Fischer’s Sports StacksCleveland Orchestra1981: Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater ClevelandJames D. WilliamsonThe Great Lakes Science Center’s wind turbineSPACESSteven A. MinterGoff did not believe that philanthropy should be the exclusive province of wealthy individuals such as Standard Oil Company founder John D. Rockefeller, a client of Goff’s former law firm.Progressive Field at GatewayUptown, the Circle’s exciting, new high-density neighborhood, has all the amenities associated with urban living.The March on Washington, August 28, 1963, at which Martin Luther King Jr. called upon the nation to make good on democracy’s promise of social and economic freedom for all citizens Albert Sabin (left) developed the oral vaccine given to Cleveland children.2002: Shaker Lakes Regional Nature CenterCatharine Monroe LewisLeadership of a 1933 initiative to replace squalid tenements with subsidized garden apartmentsCleveland Public Art2000: Cleveland Zoological SocietyThe gallery's second home on Bellflower Road in University CircleNewBridge prepares adults for careers as health care technicians.Sherwick FundThe Board of Education building in downtown Cleveland, longtime headquarters of the system’s central administrationTitle VIII (the “Federal Fair Housing Act”) of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, signed by President Johnson a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., advanced the struggle for integration taking place in Cleveland’s eastern suburbs and elsewhere across the nation.James A. NortonLakeview Terrace2010: Hawken SchoolL. Dale Dorney FundUpper Chester, which abuts the Cleveland Clinic, is the next Circle neighborhood slated for redevelopment.Frederick Harris Goff, humanitarian, 1858‒19231986: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and MuseumPlayhouse Square, c. 1969Carl W. BrandCleveland’s busy riverfront, south of the Superior ViaductFostering economic opportunity via college scholarships: Garment workers at Joseph & Feiss Company, makers of the $15 blue serge suitGreat Lakes Theater FestivalCleveland Play HousePrivately developed Beacon Place Townhomes on East 82nd Street—evidence of the return of middle-class Clevelanders to the central cityCleveland BalletBarbara Haas RawsonTri-C JazzFest, 1993The foundation’s vision of creating a wind farm in Lake Erie is moving closer to reality.A. E. Convers Fund2005: ideastream2006: MOCA ClevelandAdvocating greater reliance on clean energy: a wind farm in northwestern OhioA satellite photograph of Lake Erie, downtown Cleveland and the Cuyahoga River valley: The foundation has learned to take the long view in helping the community craft fresh responses to persistent urban problems.Anisfield-Wolf Book AwardsVietnamese lutist Pham Thi Hue was Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio’s artist in residence in 2013.Entrepreneurship: Wood Trac, an affordable, drop-ceiling system developed and marketed by Sauder Woodworking, a family-owned business in Ashland, OhioReinhold W. Erickson, D.D.S.Tri-C groundbreaking, 1966David GoldbergBusiness attraction: The Global Center for Health InnovationProjects receiving recent Neighborhood Connection grants have ranged from hands-on crafts classes to the reintroduction of beekeeping. Euclid Avenue, looking east, c. 1910Architectural drawing of the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority's Lakeview Tower, a senior high-rise proposed for the near west side in 1971Kucinich proclaiming victory on the eve of his election as mayor in 19771959: Cleveland Institute of MusicSt. Joseph's Orphanage for Girls on Woodland AvenueRaymond Q. ArmingtonStokes with his brother Louis (left)Michael D. White won voter support for “mayoral control” of the Cleveland public schools.Edgewater Park under state stewardshipThe RetreatThe bulldozer operator accidentally backed over Rev. Klunder in order to avoid hurting the protestors lying in front of him.The 2011 renovation of the Allen Theatre's main auditoriumGreen City Growers Cooperative’s 3.25-acre hydroponic greenhouse in the Central neighborhood opened in 2013. Ralph J. Perk lends a hand to the theater restoration project, which began during his tenure as Cleveland mayor. A new generation of Circle fans2002: Cleveland Institute of Music2004: Cleveland Museum of ArtCommunityFoundationAtlas.org website2004: The Gathering PlaceHunter MorrisonA greasy-spoon diner and flophouse at Payne and Walnut Avenues downtown, c. 1968—emblems of the City of Cleveland’s intensifying financial distress 1991: Hathaway Brown SchoolThe restored Hungarian Cultural Garden2009: Cleveland Institute of ArtAlthough the foundation’s trailblazing was a faded tradition by 1955, when this picture of the trustee bank presidents holding a replica of the foundation’s logo was snapped, its stature as the world’s first community trust remained a source of pride.1976: Sokol HallInauguration ceremony of the 1975 World Conference of the International Women’s Year, Mexico CityThe issues facing 21st-century Clevelanders—educational and economic opportunity, neighborhood and cultural vitality, and strong health and human services—are much the same as those with which earlier generations wrestled.The foundation’s 1915 public education survey resulted in sweeping reform. For decades thereafter, Cleveland’s school system was regarded as a model of excellence.Kent H. SmithFirst grants to advance serious medical research in an era still plagued with quackery: The Cunningham Sanitarium, located at East 185th Street and Lake Shore Boulevard, c. 1928. The sanitarium offered patients access to the world’s largest hyperbaric chamber, but its claims for the benefits of oxygen therapy proved specious.The NAACP-Cleveland’s fight for desegregation ultimately leads in 1973 to a federal lawsuit against the Cleveland public schools: the likelihood of court-ordering busing Cleveland Housing Network financing programs have helped low- to moderate-income families become homeowners.Business growth: The Greater Cleveland Partnership’s business development teamCleveland City Hospital’s “iron lung” respirator, used for treating polio patients whose paralyzed muscles cause breathing difficulties, 1933Protest demonstration at Cleveland State University, 1969: poverty rates in the central city on the riseThe Frederick C. Crawford Auto Aviation Collection at the Western Reserve Historical SocietyMAGNET incubator graduate, DXY Solutions, makes components and software for mobile devices.Evergreen Energy Solution’s photovoltaic panels2013: Friends of the Cleveland School of the ArtsCircle institutions have invested or are planning to invest billions in capital improvements, such as University Hospitals of Cleveland’s new Seidman Cancer Center.J. Kimball JohnsonA landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision righted the injustice experienced by Clarence Earl Gideon, a drifter who was convicted of felony theft because he could not afford an attorney and had defended himself at trial.Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, Oberlin College1976: Cleveland Play HouseCleveland Institute of MusicMort Epstein’s Pop Art-inspired electrical outlet, a CAAC-commissioned mural, graced the Union building on Euclid Avenue.Institute of Pathology at Western Reserve University, as it appeared at its opening in 1929The Cleveland Foundation emerged from the crucible of the 1960s a stronger leader and more strategic grantmaker.Foundation leaders confer about how to distribute 1947 income of $614,479 to a standing list of charitable institutions and agencies. Foundation director Leyton E. Carter (third from right) is seated next to the board’s sole female member, Constance Mather Bishop. Lake-Geauga Fund1986: Cain ParkDr. King speaking in Rockefeller Park on a visit to Cleveland in 1967. The previous year he had dramatized the issue of housing discrimination by moving his family into a grimy apartment on the segregated west side of Chicago and joining in protest marches into that city’s all-white neighborhoods.An examination room at the Glenville Health ClinicDancing WheelsThe Dolan Center for Science and Technology at John Carroll University incorporated green building materials and smart energy and water systems.2000: Therapeutic Riding Center1957: Cleveland Museum of Natural History2010: Case Western Reserve UniversityChester Avenue demarks the northern border of the MidTown Corridor.CommunityFoundationAtlas.org websiteCleveland Ballet co-founder Dennis Nahat as the tsar and Nanette Glushak as the tsarina in the company’s signature holiday performance of The Nutcracker1994: Great Lakes Science MuseumSupport for humanitarian aid to the unemployed: Stone carvers responsible for the iconic pylons of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, a rare Depression-era construction project completed in 1932 with bond funds approved before the stock market crashThe reversal of downtown Cleveland’s stagnation, symbolized by the redevelopment of the Terminal Tower, is a 60-year-old work in progress in which the foundation has been steadily engaged.In 1967, this Cleveland Heights home, owned by an African American, was bombed in a senseless and vain attempt to halt the suburb’s integration.Neighbors who have come together to work on improvement of their neighborhoodNew Gallery co-founders Marjorie Talalay (left) and Nina Castelli SundellHough’s frustrations with its seemingly intractable problems erupted into violence during the summer of 1966.Ivan Lecaros (right), a master printmaker from Chile, puts the final touches on a drawing for a silkscreen print during his 2012 residency at Zygote Press.An assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Brook Park, 1973: manufacturing jobs on the declineThe grand opening of The Avenue at Tower City, 19901998: Cuyahoga Valley Scenic RailroadParticipants in Parade the Circle, an annual celebration of creativity