100 Years in Pictures

Malvin E. BankThe Board of Education building in downtown Cleveland, longtime headquarters of the system’s central administration2004: The Gathering PlaceCharles A. RatnerHomer C. WadsworthArchitectural drawing of the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority's Lakeview Tower, a senior high-rise proposed for the near west side in 1971Karamu HouseOhio governor John Kasich at the signing of House Bill 525, legislation enabling education reform, in June 2012Kent H. SmithCleveland’s well-financed and -run network of community development organizations targeted this crumbling but historic eight-unit rowhouse in the Central neighborhood for rehabilitation.1976: Sokol HallRobert E. Eckardt, Ph.D.Holsey Gates HandysideGroundWorks Dance TheaterWelcome committees were organized to greet bused students on their first day at their new crosstown schools. 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.Uptown, the Circle’s exciting, new high-density neighborhood, has all the amenities associated with urban living.Leyton E. CarterA new company that makes and installs solar-panel arrays has been created with foundation support.Cleveland Housing Network was the lead developer of Greenbridge Commons, permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals, in the Fairfax neighborhood.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.Business attraction: The Global Center for Health InnovationBarbara Haas RawsonFlotsam despoiling the beach at Gordon ParkCleveland OrchestraCleveland Museum of ArtTri-C groundbreaking, 1966MOCA Cleveland’s faceted, mirrored, four-story art gallery anchors the Uptown development.On December 15, 1978, Cleveland City Council considered and rejected Mayor Kucinich’s 11th-hour plan to avoid default.Stokes with his brother Louis (left)An owner-employee of the Evergreen LaundryAndrew 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.Halprin worksheetClean water advocates, 19681961: Benjamin Rose InstituteSherwick FundL. Dale Dorney FundGoff 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. Cleveland 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 yearsMAGNET 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. Cleveland Public Art1957: Cleveland Museum of Natural HistoryA greasy-spoon diner and flophouse at Payne and Walnut Avenues downtown, c. 1968—emblems of the City of Cleveland’s intensifying financial distress Albert Sabin (left) developed the oral vaccine given to Cleveland children.Nancy Dwyer’s Who’s on First? benchThe gallery's second home on Bellflower Road in University CircleH. Stuart HarrisonThe 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 sideGoff 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.Kucinich proclaiming victory on the eve of his election as mayor in 1977Michael D. White won voter support for “mayoral control” of the Cleveland public schools.Great Lakes Science CenterA 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.1998: Cuyahoga Valley Scenic RailroadKatharine Holden Thayer by Cindy NaegeleRalph J. Perk lends a hand to the theater restoration project, which began during his tenure as Cleveland mayor. Cleveland Institute of ArtAn assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Brook Park, 1973: manufacturing jobs on the declineMalcolm L. McBride1968: Holden ArboretumWade Lagoon, the tranquil heart of Cleveland’s cultural hub Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, Oberlin CollegeProgressive Field at Gateway1986: Cain Park2010: Case Western Reserve UniversityBy 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.Carlton K. MatsonSinging AngelsAdvocating greater reliance on clean energy: a wind farm in northwestern Ohio2013: Friends of the Cleveland School of the ArtsThe Goff home on Lake Shore Boulevard in BratenahlThe Peter B. Lewis Building, designed by Frank Gehry, is the home of Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.1982: Cleveland Institute of ArtWade Oval Wednesdays, summertime’s popular outdoor music seriesInstitute of Pathology at Western Reserve University, as it appeared at its opening in 1929Manchester 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.Cleveland City Hospital’s “iron lung” respirator, used for treating polio patients whose paralyzed muscles cause breathing difficulties, 1933Famed 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).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 The grand opening of The Avenue at Tower City, 1990Cleveland Play HouseSupport 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 passenger terminal at Cleveland-Hopkins Airport, c. 1956Richard W. PogueContaminants flowing into Lake Erie, 1965Alfred M. Rankin Jr.1973: Severance HallUniversity Circle’s cultural institutions have long been renowned for their enriching educational activities.Green City Growers Cooperative’s 3.25-acre hydroponic greenhouse in the Central neighborhood opened in 2013.  1968: Karamu HouseBarack Obama campaigns at Tri-C, 2007The Allen Theatre, originally an opulent silent movie house, c. 1938FairfaxCleveland voters expressed their hopes for the success of the reform plan by approving the Issue 107 operating levy.Leadership of a 1933 initiative to replace squalid tenements with subsidized garden apartments1976: Cleveland Play HouseEntrepreneurship: Wood Trac, an affordable, drop-ceiling system developed and marketed by Sauder Woodworking, a family-owned business in Ashland, OhioPresbyterian 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.St. Joseph's Orphanage for Girls on Woodland AvenueHalprin’s impressionist sketch of Cleveland’s “Flats,” which he praised as a “tremendous resource.”  
Catharine Monroe LewisThe restored Hungarian Cultural GardenMaster 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 Playhouse Square, c. 19692010: Hawken School27 Coltman, a luxury townhome development on the eastern boundary of University CircleFrank H. and Nancy L. Porter FundNewBridge prepares adults for careers as health care technicians.MOCA ClevelandGordon Park in its heydayGlenville High School students, 19141975: Kenneth C. Beck Center for the Cultural ArtsChester Avenue demarks the northern border of the MidTown Corridor.Commencement at Tri-C, 1975Artist’s conception of the new Regional Transit Authority station planned for Mayfield Road in Little Italy1997: Cleveland Clinic Foundation2000: Cleveland Zoological SocietyDavid GoldbergCleveland Ballet co-founder Dennis Nahat as the tsar and Nanette Glushak as the tsarina in the company’s signature holiday performance of The Nutcracker1986: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and MuseumMAGNET’s Prism program helped Cleveland-based Vitamix keep up with demand for its high-end blenders.Harry Coulby FundsJ. Kimball JohnsonAretha Franklin at the Tri-C JazzFestCarl B. Stokes at a town hall meeting, 1969: an historic but troubled mayoral administration 1984: Cleveland Department of Parks, Recreation and PropertiesThe 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.  Tri-C’s early use of computers as a teaching aid, c. 19801981: Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland1964: Garden Center of Greater ClevelandRaymond C. MoleyDancer/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.2004: Cleveland Museum of ArtBelle SherwinTreu-Mart FundFirst Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (third from left) at the 1937 dedication of Lakeview Terrace, the nation’s first public housingBusiness growth: The Greater Cleveland Partnership’s business development team2002: Shaker Lakes Regional Nature CenterGlobal Cleveland’s welcome centerProposed townhomes for East 118th StreetCharles P. BoltonThe original Free Clinic, a drug treatment center on Cornell RoadGreat Lakes Theater FestivalFirst 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.Privately developed Beacon Place Townhomes on East 82nd Street—evidence of the return of middle-class Clevelanders to the central cityJames R. GarfieldAddressing 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 1929Lake-Geauga FundEuclid Avenue, looking east, c. 1910Cleveland, Ohio, the birthplace of an entirely new concept of philanthropyThe 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 Ellwood H. Fisher1967: Blossom Music CenterRonald B. RichardFrances Southworth GoffGoff in a rare moment of leisure1991: Hathaway Brown SchoolF. James and Rita Rechin Fund2006: Cleveland Clinic FoundationFoundation 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. A burning desire to be an attorney animated Goff as a young man.  The West 25th Street retail district in Ohio City exemplifies the objective recently adopted by Neighborhood Progress, Inc. of restoring market forces in target neighborhoods.New Gallery co-founders Marjorie Talalay (left) and Nina Castelli SundellSustaining the excellence of the region’s cultural assets: a summer solstice party at the Cleveland Museum of ArtGrand opening of the Outhwaite Homes, 1937Dr. 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.After their father's untimely death, future political icons Carl (left) and Louis Stokes lived with their mother at Outhwaite Homes.Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards1985: Cleveland State UniversityInauguration ceremony of the 1975 World Conference of the International Women’s Year, Mexico CityJames A. NortonA new generation of Circle fansSold out! Heritage Lane townhomes, built within walking distance of the CircleFred S. McConnellThe RetreatThe East Central Townhomes, after a $1.2 million renovation by Burten, Bell and Carr Development CorporationThe 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.Detroit ShorewayCaptain Frank’s seafood restaurant at the end of the Ninth Street Pier once commanded downtown’s best view of Lake Erie.Kenneth W. Clement M.D.The Cleveland Trust Company’s neoclassical banking hall, which opened in 1908, was topped by an immense stained-glass dome.Sophisticated life support equipment in an air ambulance made by Nextant Aerospace, Ohio’s only aircraft manufacturer and a MAGNET clientApollo’s FireVietnamese lutist Pham Thi Hue was Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio’s artist in residence in 2013.James A. RatnerBarbecue 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.The State TheatreMayor Dennis Kucinich’s ceremonial presentation of a post-default debt paymentOn his way to building Cleveland Trust into America’s sixth largest bank, Goff occasionally took time out to indulge his passion for fishing.TremontCleveland Film SocietyR. M. Fischer’s Sports StacksThe foundation helped to draft and win passage of a clean energy law for Ohio.2002: Cleveland Institute of MusicSPACES2006: MOCA ClevelandTri-C JazzFest, 1993Palace Theatre lobbyThe bulldozer operator accidentally backed over Rev. Klunder in order to avoid hurting the protestors lying in front of him.Planning model of Cleveland, c. 1960Hunter MorrisonHough’s frustrations with its seemingly intractable problems erupted into violence during the summer of 1966.Fostering economic opportunity via college scholarships: Garment workers at Joseph & Feiss Company, makers of the $15 blue serge suitA 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.A. E. Convers Fund1999: Western Reserve Historical SocietyHarry Goldblatt, M.D.Frederick Harris Goff, humanitarian, 1858‒1923George and Janet VoinovichFrances Southworth, Goff’s bride and intellectual partnerProjects receiving recent Neighborhood Connection grants have ranged from hands-on crafts classes to the reintroduction of beekeeping.  The Cleveland Foodbank’s LEED-certified distribution centerThe cast of Nicholas NicklebyAn east-side Cleveland elementary school, 1963: growing frustration with what appears to be systematic segregationChurch Square Commons, offering affordable apartments for adults 55 and older, is one of the Famicos Foundation’s most recent projects in Hough.2005: ideastreamRaymond Q. ArmingtonCarl W. BrandThe Frederick C. Crawford Auto Aviation Collection at the Western Reserve Historical SocietyLakeview TerraceUnder the leadership of former CEO Baiju Shah, BioEnterprise created, recruited or helped to grow more than 170 local biotechnology companies.1972: Huron Road MallJohn L. McChordMembers of the African-American Philanthropy Committee: Reverend Elmo A. Bean, Doris A. Evans, M.D., David G. Hill, Lillian W. BurkeGraduation day at Cleveland Early College High School, 2012The Great Lakes Science Center’s wind turbineCleveland’s busy riverfront, south of the Superior ViaductThe 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. Title 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.2009: Cleveland Institute of Art1959: Cleveland Institute of MusicDispersed 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.Upper Chester, which abuts the Cleveland Clinic, is the next Circle neighborhood slated for redevelopment.The Dolan Center for Science and Technology at John Carroll University incorporated green building materials and smart energy and water systems.Cleveland Ballet2000: Therapeutic Riding CenterEdgewater Park under state stewardshipNeighbors who have come together to work on improvement of their neighborhoodSteven A. MinterOhio CityThe Cleveland Foundation emerged from the crucible of the 1960s a stronger leader and more strategic grantmaker.Cleveland mayor Ralph S. Locher2003: Hanna Perkins Center for Child DevelopmentCircle institutions have invested or are planning to invest billions in capital improvements, such as University Hospitals of Cleveland’s new Seidman Cancer Center.Cleveland Housing Network financing programs have helped low- to moderate-income families become homeowners.Evergreen Energy Solution’s photovoltaic panels2007: Great Lakes Theater FestivalCleveland Institute of MusicJacqueline F. WoodsHarold T. ClarkJohn SherwinAn examination room at the Glenville Health ClinicInnovation: CleveMed’s wireless sleep monitorSlavic VillageThe 2011 renovation of the Allen Theatre's main auditoriumStanley C. PaceCommunityFoundationAtlas.org websiteJohn Sherwin Jr.Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and MuseumReinhold W. Erickson, D.D.S.MAGNET incubator tenant Tom Lix, the founder and CEO of Cleveland Whiskey, which has developed a proprietary process for accelerating the aging of distilled liquorsLexington VillageParticipants in Parade the Circle, an annual celebration of creativity The 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.The Cleveland Housing Network assisted the Mt. Pleasant Now nonprofit development corporation with the construction of the Union Court senior apartments.Dancing WheelsJohn J. Dwyer1982: The TempleTo date, 100 percent of the student body at the School of Science and Medicine goes on to college.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.1994: Great Lakes Science MuseumStokes and his wife, Shirley, on election day, 1968 MAGNET incubator graduate, DXY Solutions, makes components and software for mobile devices.Donald and Ruth GoodmanThe Palace, the flagship of the Keith chain of vaudeville theaters, reinvented itself as a wide-screen movie house in the 1950s.Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey showed his support for Stokes’s Cleveland: NOW! initiative on a visit to the city in 1968.Green City Growers supplies Bibb lettuce, green leaf lettuce, gourmet lettuces and basil to institutional and commercial customers.Tom L. Johnson, a reformer who served as Cleveland’s mayor from 1901 to 1909, helped to shape the city’s progressive climate. 1956: Cleveland Institute of ArtProtest demonstration at Cleveland State University, 1969: poverty rates in the central city on the riseMort Epstein’s Pop Art-inspired electrical outlet, a CAAC-commissioned mural, graced the Union building on Euclid Avenue.2001: Cleveland Botanical GardenLAND Studio’s proposed redesign of Public SquareIn 1967, this Cleveland Heights home, owned by an African American, was bombed in a senseless and vain attempt to halt the suburb’s integration.1996: Dunham Tavern MuseumAlthough 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.Cleveland OrchestraA “City Canvases” mural by graphic designer John MorellCommunityFoundationAtlas.org websiteCool Cleveland editor and publisher Tom Mulready1996: Old Stone ChurchThe foundation’s vision of creating a wind farm in Lake Erie is moving closer to reality.James D. Williamson