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History · Cleveland

13% of Cleveland’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1949 on and the census since 1990.

0on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory

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 history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Cleveland are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · 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
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Cleveland came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cleveland.

Read it all →

The six-mile squares that would become Cleveland were first surveyed in summer of 1847 by a crew working for the U.S. government. In September 1852 a different crew marked all the section corners of the township, walking through the woods and wading the swamps, measuring with chain and compass. When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description of the six by six mile square which overlays the middle-east of the modern township:

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Cleveland, 1889 to 1949

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1889Post officeThe Keystone post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1907Post officeThe Keystone post office closes
  5. 1949On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Cleveland, decade by decade

Today2 recent
MapHighlightingTownOfClevelandChippewaCtWI2013MapHighlightingTownOfClevelandChippewaCtWIWIMap-doton-Cleveland2004WIMap-doton-Cleveland
On the map

Cleveland on the map, 1949 to 1975

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

Cleveland on the 1949 USGS mapCleveland on the 1951 USGS mapCleveland on the 1975 USGS map1949Bloomer sheet · 1:62,500

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

People over time

Cleveland, census by census

02004006008001,0002000Peak: 900

Between 758 and 900 people in every census since 1990.

3 censuses, 1990–2010.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Cleveland

Nobody well known was born in Cleveland itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Seymour CrayApplied mathematician, computer scientist, and … · b. 1925
Alexander WileyAmerican politician · b. 1884
Eddy WallerActor · b. 1889
J
Judy HenskeAmerican singer-songwriter · b. 1936
N
Nate DeLongAmerican basketball player · b. 1926
Edward O. ShawAmerican fighter ace · b. 1920
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Keystone, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Gone or out of use
Bob Lake SchoolschoolCleveland Center SchoolschoolFairview SchoolschoolKeystone SchoolschoolPoint View Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Cleveland
Cleveland

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

EstellaIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBloomerIts storyC+Eagle PointIts storyCLake HolcombeIts storyCBirch CreekIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCornell1 historic placeB−

Questions about Cleveland’s history

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.