History · Cleveland

Cleveland has 282 places on the National Register, 2 of them National Historic Landmarks

Among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns · #10 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it

Dated to 1796 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history), with 49% of its homes built before 1940 and 45 historic districts holding 7,197 contributing buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, the census since 1820, and every listing on the Register.

1796founded

282on the National Register

49%homes built before 1940

4old photos & papers

31famous people

Add an old photo Share a memory

From Cleveland’s archive · credits on each photo

Quick answers

How Cleveland began

When was Cleveland founded?

1796

Cleveland dates its founding to 1796 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1820.

First census: 606 in 18202020 census: 372,624230 years

How historic is Cleveland?

A⁺

Among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓

Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1805.The full story ↓

History grade

What drives Cleveland’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cleveland is among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, #10 of 993 in Ohio. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.

A⁺

HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cleveland’s overall grade.

Founding era1796, from Wikidata: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA⁻Homes built before 194048.6% of homes (±0.8) · typical OH town 14.5% · U.S. 8.4%A⁺National Register282 listings, 7,197 historic buildings, 197 per 10,000 residents · typical OH town 2.9 · U.S. 2.4A⁺

All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Among the top 1%

NewerOlder

Ohio towns of 2,500+ (993)#10 of 993

Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Cleveland ranks #20 on History.

Ohio towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Ohio town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cleveland’s 197 sits above most of its state (96% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 7,197 historic buildings outnumber those of 100% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would still be A+. The pre-1940 share (±0.8 points) is firm at this size. Two sources give 1796.

Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Cleveland’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A National Historic Landmark282 places on the National Register, 2 of them National Historic Landmarks.A historic districtThe Brooklyn Centre Historic District takes in 2,006 historic buildings.Lost villages19 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Cleveland, and 48 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenOnly 4 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.

★ What stands out · On the National Register

282 listings protect 7,197 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. 2 are National Historic Landmarks, the highest tier. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.

places listed

282

National Historic Landmarks

Cleveland Arcade

historic buildings protected

7,197

each building in a district counts

first listed

1973

University Hall, Cleveland State University

BuildingsDistrictsStructures★ landmark

Architectural styles listings

Italianate15

Commercial Style15

Queen Anne15

Unknown14

Classical Revival11

Colonial Revival10

★ Landmark

Cleveland ArcadeRichardsonian Romanesque · Built 1890

★ Landmark

USS COD (submarine)Fleet-type Submarine

University Hall, Cleveland State UniversityTudor · Built 1910

Old Stone ChurchRomanesque Revival

St. John's Episcopal ChurchEarly English Gothic Revival

Cleveland Grays ArmoryRichardsonian Romanesque

Garfield, President James A., MemorialBuilt 1890

Charles Schweinfurth HouseArt Nouveau

All 284 listings

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Cleveland’s post office has been open since 1805. 19 other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Cleveland

1805–today

Columbia

1810–1818

Brooklyn

1826–1905

Doans Corners

1834–1835

Ohio City

1836–1854

Nottingham

1863–1914

Kamms

1866–1920

Glenville

1869–1904

Linndale

1873–1873

North Linndale

1873–1899

18001910today

Hamlets and corners on the map

Ashbury TowersBeulah ParkBig ItalyBroadview GardensBrook Park Mobile Home ParkBrooklyn HeightsCoitsCollinwoodCudellDoans CornersDutch AlleyEuclid Beach Mobile Home ParkFive PointsFour PointsGarden ValleyGlenvilleGreshamHoughIdeal Mobile Home ParkJosephatowaKamms CornerKarlinLakeview TerraceLinndale

Gone or out of use

Academy of MusicschoolAdams High SchoolschoolAlmira TheatrebuildingAmbassador TheatrebuildingAnthony Wayne Elementary SchoolschoolApostolic Church of GodchurchArchwood Avenue Congregational ChurchchurchBeth Haknesseth Anshe GrodnochurchBethany German Evangelical Lutheran ChurchchurchBethel Evangelical Free ChurchchurchBethlehem Congregational ChurchchurchBethlehem Evangelical Lutheran ChurchchurchBlessed Sacrament SchoolschoolBolton Avenue Presbyterian ChurchchurchBosworth Road Presbyterian ChurchchurchBoulevard HospitalhospitalBrooks Military SchoolschoolBrooks School for Young Ladies and Missesschool

24cemeteries and burying grounds inside Cleveland

AlgerAnshe EmethBrooklynBrooklyn HeightsBrookmereDenisonEast Cleveland TownshipErie StreetGlenvilleHarvard GroveImmanuelLake ViewLansing JewishLutheranMonroeRiversideSaint JohnsSaint JosephsSaint MarysSaint PatricksWest ParkWillettWoodlandWoodland Cemetery Soldiers' Lot

See all 24

Alger Cemetery · Anshe Emeth Cemetery · Brooklyn Cemetery · Brooklyn Heights Cemetery · Brookmere Cemetery · Denison Cemetery · East Cleveland Township Cemetery · Erie Street Cemetery · Glenville Cemetery · Harvard Grove Cemetery · Immanuel Cemetery · Lake View Cemetery · Lansing Jewish Cemetery · Lutheran Cemetery · Monroe Cemetery · Riverside Cemetery · Saint Johns Cemetery · Saint Josephs Cemetery · Saint Marys Cemetery · Saint Patricks Cemetery · West Park Cemetery · Willett Cemetery · Woodland Cemetery · Woodland Cemetery Soldiers' Lot

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Cleveland came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cleveland.

Read it all →

Cleveland was established on July 22, 1796, by surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company when they laid out Connecticut's Western Reserve into townships and a capital city. They named the settlement "Cleaveland" after their leader, General Moses Cleaveland, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. Cleaveland oversaw the New England–style design of the plan for what would become the modern downtown area, centered on Public Square. The town's name was often shortened to "Cleveland", including by Cleaveland's original surveyors. A myth emerged that the spelling was altered by The Cleveland Advertiser to fit the name on the newspaper's masthead.

ChaptersFounding Mid to late 19th century Early to mid 20th century Late 20th and early 21st centuries

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Cleveland in 1918

Passages that mention Cleveland, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The firm of Strong, Cobb & Company is a lineal successor of the pioneer drug house ot Cleveland, Handerson & Pundersou, who began selling drugs in the Village of Cleveland in 1833. A few years before the Civil war the business became known as Strong & Armstrong and in 1870 this was succeeded by Str… — **A history of Cleveland and its environs**1918 · page 54Read the page →
Read the text
The firm of Strong, Cobb & Company is a lineal successor of the pioneer drug house ot Cleveland, Handerson & Pundersou, who began selling drugs in the Village of Cleveland in 1833. A few years before the Civil war the business became known as Strong & Armstrong and in 1870 this was succeeded by Strong, Cobb & Company, which has there-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Cleveland, 1796 to 1966

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

18th century
1796
FoundingCleveland is established
19th century
1805Post officeThe Cleveland post office opens
1810Post officeThe Columbia post office opens
1818Post officeThe Columbia post office closes
1826Post officeThe Brooklyn post office opens
1890BuiltCleveland Arcade is built
1890BuiltGarfield, President James A., Memorial is built
1895In the archiveColonial Hotel
20th century
1900In the archiveCleveland, Ohio
1905BuiltRockefeller Building is built
1905Post officeThe Brooklyn post office closes
1910BuiltUniversity Hall, Cleveland State University is built
1925Born hereHal Holbrook is born here
1926Born hereDonald Arthur Glaser is born here
1950On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1950CensusPopulation peaks at 914,808
1956Born hereJudith Butler is born here
1966Born hereHalle Berry is born here

By decade

Cleveland, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s–1900s4 items

1895Colonial Hotel

1900Cleveland, Ohio

1900Central armory, O.N.G. [Ohio National Guard]

1900Cleveland, Ohio, lift bridge

1910s–1990snothing yet

Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Add from your album

On the map

Cleveland on the map, 1950 to 1962

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cleveland. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1950Cleveland sheet · 1:250,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cleveland.

Every building

Cleveland, building by building, 1886–1903

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Cleveland fire insurance map, 1886, sheet 2

1886Sheet 2 of 83

Edition

Sheets

+82 more at the Library of Congress

BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewColonial Hotel, 1895

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Cleveland’s page.

Retake this view · +15

People over time

Cleveland, census by census

Peaked at 914,808 in 1950; 372,624 people lived here in 2020.

21 censuses, 1820–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cleveland’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

31 famous people were born in Cleveland

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →

Halle BerryAmerican actress · b. 1966

Hal HolbrookAmerican actor · b. 1925

Judith ButlerAmerican feminist gender studies philosopher · b. 1956

Donald Arthur GlaserAmerican physicist and neurobiologist · b. 1926

Philip JohnsonAmerican architect · b. 1906

Tracy ChapmanAmerican singer-songwriter · b. 1964

Help out

Start Cleveland’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cleveland’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Retake an old viewColonial Hotel: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Brook Park1 historic placeC⁻Shaker Heights5 historic placesA⁻Cuyahoga Heights1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town East Cleveland6 historic placesA⁺Fairview Park2 historic placesC⁺BrooklynIts storyC⁺Lakewood14 historic placesA Cleveland Heights21 historic placesA⁻Bratenahl4 historic placesB⁺Euclid2 historic placesB⁺

Questions about Cleveland’s history

What year was Cleveland founded?

In 1796, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Cleveland’s post office opened in 1805, and the census of 1820 counted 606 people here.

How does Cleveland rank for history?

Cleveland is among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, #10 of 993 in Ohio. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Cleveland?

282 listings, 2 of them National Historic Landmarks: 227 buildings, among them the Cleveland Arcade (a National Historic Landmark since 1975) and the University Hall, Cleveland State University (listed 1973, the first), 46 historic districts with 6,551 contributing buildings, and 11 structures. 7,197 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Cleveland?

49% of Cleveland’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1941.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From the Library of Congress (4), Wikidata (24), the National Register of Historic Places (284), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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