Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Cleveland, Ohio

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1903 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Cleveland City. It lies in ZIP code area 44113. It stands on Cuyahoga River. The Survey maps it on the Cleveland South quadrangle. 372,624 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 653 feet above sea level.

Research this city

This curated hub for Cuyahoga County, Ohio brings together the page's documented record links, visible map or image evidence where published, and routes to related local records.

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Open the original record, preserve its repository and identifier, then use the citation tool for this page as a path back to the source.

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Cleveland within Cuyahoga County

Population over time

6 figures

Cleveland grew from 3 to 372,624 between 1796 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
1796	3
1800	7	+4 (+133%)
1821	150
2010	396,815
2019	381,009	-15,806 (-4%)
2020	372,624	-8,385 (-2%)

Then and now

1903 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 91 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Cleveland, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet of Cleveland, surveyed 1903

Topographic sheets covering this place

16 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1903 USGS Cleveland quadrangle1:62500
1903 USGS Cleveland quadrangle1:62500
1953 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:24000
1956 USGS Cleveland quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Cleveland quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Cleveland quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Cleveland quadrangle1:250000
1963 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:24000
1963 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:24000
1963 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:24000
1963 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:24000
1963 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:24000
1963 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:100000
1994 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:24000
1994 USGS Cleveland South quadrangle1:100000

In the county-history sources

23,212 words on this township

History of Cuyahoga County Ohio, published 1870 names this settlement in its chapter on Cleveland City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

At the Erie Conference M. EK. Church, in the fall of 1838, resolutions were passed dis approving any expression by the churches on the question of American slavery. This action was received with disfavor by a portion of the members of the church in Cleveland. On September 1, 1839, an organization was effected, consisting of about sixty members, who withdrew from the First Methodist Episcopal Church for that purpose. This new church stood alone until May, 1843. when it sent delegates to a convention held at Utica, New York, and there went into the organization which has ever since been known as the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America.

Passage source: History of Cuyahoga County Ohio, published 1870.

John W. Allen was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1802. He resided in Chenango county, New York, from 1820 to 1825, when he removed to Cleveland, where he has ever since lived. He was admitted to the bar the next year, and for several succeeding years was engaged in the active practice of his profession.

Passage source: History of Cuyahoga County Ohio, published 1870.

In 1831 Mr. Allen was elected president of the village of Cleveland, and was re-elected each of the succeeding four years. During this time a great amount of grading and cutting down streets was done to facilitate access to and from the river; causing loud complaints from many property-owners, who thought nature had already arranged the grades about right, In 1835 he was chosen to the State senate, in which he served two years. In 1836 he was elected to Congress, taking his seat at the extra session called in September, 1837, and in 1838 was re-elected. In 1841 he was elected mayor of the city of Cleveland.

Passage source: History of Cuyahoga County Ohio, published 1870.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Cleveland City - it names this place 82 more 82 times.

Photographs

8 photographs, 1943 to 2016

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Entrance to the Cleveland Public Library's main building in Cleveland, Ohio
Highsmith, Carol M, 2016. Library of Congress

A portion of Chester Beach's 1927 monumental "Fountain of the Waters," located adjacent to the Cleveland Museum of Art's main entrance
Highsmith, Carol M, 2016. Library of Congress

Cleveland, Ohio. Unloading iron ore from a lake freighter by means of Hewlett [i.e., Hulett] unloaders at the Pennsylvania Railroad docks
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress

Chester Beach's 1927 monumental "Fountain of the Waters" is located adjacent to the Cleveland Museum of Art's main entrance
Highsmith, Carol M, 2016. Library of Congress

Cleveland, Ohio. Unloading a lake freighter by means of Hewlett [i.e., Hulett] unloaders at the Pennsylvania Railroad iron ore docks
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress

Marble staircase inside the Cleveland Public Library's main building in Cleveland, Ohio
Highsmith, Carol M, 2016. Library of Congress

Frank Jirouch's sculpture, "Night Passing the Earth to Day," at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio
Highsmith, Carol M, 2016. Library of Congress

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 2,835 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,835 specimens collected within 10 miles of Cleveland between 1849 and 1975: 2,420 Animalia, 216 Fungi, 120 Plantae, 73 Protozoa, 5 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. D. Huryn, A. D. Selby, A. G. Newhall and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Monilia sitophila (Mont.) Sacc.	1894	Seymour, Arthur Bliss	Cleveland, O. [Ohio]
Osmunda claytoniana L.	1894	Winkler, H.J.	Cleveland.
Botrychium virginianum (L.) Sw.	1897	Winkler, H.J.	Woods, Cleveland.
Setophaga americana (Linnaeus, 1758)	1849	Jared P. Kirtland	Rockport
Boraginaceae	1850	not recorded	Cleveland.
Carex canescens L.	1850	Illegible collector name	Cleveland.
Catillaria tricolor (Lam.) Th.Fr.	1854	G. Dixon	Cleveland, Bousdale Hill
Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1854	Robert Kennicott	Cleveland
Abrothallus parmeliarum (Sommerf.) Nyl., 1869	1860	Mudd Wm.	Cleveland
Thryothorus ludovicianus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790)	1860	not recorded	Cleveland
Villosa iris (I.Lea, 1829)	1863	H. Elliott
Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs, 1898	1871	Collector(s): unknown	Cleveland

All 2,835 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 19 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Cleveland: 10 unknowns, 6 producers, 2 past producers, 1 plant. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Zirconium, Silica, Halite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
(Facility) Hanna Nickel Smelter/ Cleveland, Oh	Nickel	Plant
Brush Wellman/ Cleveland, Ohio	Beryllium	Producer
Cleveland Mine	Halite	Past Producer	Halite
Cleveland Mine	Salt	Producer
Cuyahoga Lime Company Plant	Calcium	Producer
Dock Number 1, Whiskey Island Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Great Lakes-St Lawrence/ Cleveland	Fluorine-Fluorite	Producer
Mcgean Chemical/ Cleveland, Ohio	Antimony	Unknown
Metallurgical Inc/ Cleveland, Ohio	Iron, Aluminum	Unknown
N. L. Industries	Lead	Unknown

Every working recorded in Cuyahoga County

Storms near this place

60 of 95 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cleveland in 95 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 51 thunderstorm wind, 26 hail, 11 flash flood, 3 lightning. The reports record 3 deaths and 6 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	2 killed, $75,000	During a sailboat race on Lake Erie, two people who were not wearing life preservers, were swept overboard by high waves and drowned. A total of four boats capsized and twelve people were swept overboard.
August 1996	Lightning	Cleveland	1 killed	no account filed
June 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	3 hurt, $5,000	Thunderstorm wind gusts of 35 to 40 mph blew down two large tents on the west side of Cleveland. Three people inside were injured when the tents collapsed. One person was hospitalized. A peak wind gust of 36 mph was measured at nearby Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
July 1996	Lightning	Cleveland	3 hurt	no account filed
August 2007	Flash Flood	Cleveland	$2,500,000	During the afternoon hours of the 2nd, a severe thunderstorms moved over downtown Cleveland. This thunderstorm remained nearly stationary over the downtown area for around an hour, and dropped as much as four and a half inches of rain. Several rainfall reports of 3.0 to 4.5 inches were received from downtown Cleveland. This rain fell in less than 90 minutes. Local streets and highways throughout the downtown area quickly filled with water. Many roads, including Interstate 90 were impassable by flood waters as much as four feet deep. Many vehicles became stranded in the flood waters. Once the rain ended, the high water receded quickly. This was a very local event in Cuyahoga County as the southern part of the county remained mainly dry. In fact, Cleveland Hopkins Airport did not receive any rainfall from this thunderstorm.
August 1998	Flash Flood	Cleveland	$275,000	Heavy thunderstorm rain caused widespread flooding of roads and low lying areas in Cleveland and surrounding suburbs. In Newburgh Heights, Interstate 77 was flooded with three to four feet of water and an elderly couple had to be rescued from their floating car. Over five inches of rain was measured in some southern and eastern sections as storms repeatedly crossed the area for several hours.
July 2000	Flash Flood	Cleveland	$250,000	Thunderstorms dumped up to three inches of rain on downtown Cleveland during the late afternoon hours. A television station located just east of downtown recorded 2.75 inches of rain in only 48 minutes. Major street flooding occurred and dozens of cars became stuck in water up to four feet deep. Several motorists had to be rescued from their vehicles.
May 2010	Hail	Cleveland	$75,000	Nickel to golf ball sized hail was reported. A few vehicles were damaged.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$64,000	Broadcast media posted a photo on social media of a large tree that fell on a house on the west side of Cleveland. The time was radar estimated. The media also reported 25,000 residents within the metropolitan Cleveland area lost power. One Giant Eagle grocery store had to throw out all of their refrigerated items after losing power. Tree limbs were also reported down on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$50,000	Entire roof was blown-off a building at an auto wrecking facility at the corner of Storer Avenue and West 65th Street in Cleveland.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$50,000	Thunderstorm winds downed many trees and large limbs along the Lake Erie shoreline.
May 2010	Hail	Cleveland	$50,000	Golf ball sized hail was reported. A few vehicles were damaged.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$40,000	Thunderstorm winds downed three large trees in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland. Two of the trees landed on houses causing some damage.
September 2020	Flash Flood	East Cleveland	$35,000	Road eroded by flood waters on Superior Ave and South Taylor Road in Cleveland Heights.
April 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	$25,000	Two trees downed in Cleveland Heights. One of these trees fell through a house.
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	$25,000	Many trees down in Cleveland Heights with some falling on homes and cars. The AWOS at Cuyahoga County Airport reported a wind gust to 58 mph.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$25,000	Thunderstorm winds downed several trees in Cleveland.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$25,000	Thunderstorm winds downed several trees.
July 2011	Flash Flood	Cleveland	$20,000	Rainfall amounts of 2 to 3.5 inches fell over Cleveland during a span of 60-90 minutes. Citywide flooding resulted as storm water systems were overwhelmed. Many roads including I 480 were flooded and closed for a brief period.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$20,000	Thunderstorm winds downed several trees.
June 1996	Flash Flood	Cleveland	$20,000	no account filed
September 2010	Hail	Cleveland	$15,000	Thunderstorms produced half dollar size hail.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$15,000	Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Cleveland and Garfield Heights.
February 2017	Flood	Cleveland	$10,000	The Big Creek in Cuyahoga County (drainage basin 35.3 square miles) cuts through parts of Brooklyn and Cleveland before draining into the Cuyahoga River. On the morning of the 7th radar estimated rainfall amounts between 1.5 and 1.75 inches over the Big Creek basin. Some roads adjacent to the creek were closed. Most notably, the Cleveland Metropark Zoo was closed as water flooded their parking lots and threatened the veterinary clinic and other buildings.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$10,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a few trees on the east side of Cleveland.
May 2011	Hail	Cleveland	$10,000	Thunderstorms produced a swath of pea to quarter sized hail.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	$10,000	Several trees were reported down.
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$10,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a few trees on the west side of Cleveland.
August 1996	Lightning	Cleveland	$10,000	no account filed
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$6,000	Large tree limbs were reported down.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$6,000	A few trees and power lines were reported down.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$6,000	Trees were downed.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a tree on West 119th Street. The tree landed on a car causing some damage.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a few trees.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$5,000	Several trees were reported down.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Cleveland and North Royalton.
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds downed three trees on the west side of Cleveland.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$5,000	Trees were downed.
August 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$5,000	no account filed
September 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$4,000	Thunderstorm winds downed several large tree limbs.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$4,000	A few trees were reported down.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$4,000	Several large limbs were reported down.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	$3,000	Local law enforcement reported trees down in Cleveland Heights. Streets impacted include Euclid Avenue, Yellowstone Road, and Hampshire Road.
September 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	$3,000	Thunderstorm winds snapped a pine tree along Wyatt Road near Forest Hill Park. A couple trees nearby were also downed.
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	$3,000	Thunderstorm winds downed two trees.
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$2,000	Tree downed onto vehicle along 2000 block of Lark Street in Lakewood.
May 2004	Hail	Cleveland	$2,000	Quarter size hail was observed.
June 2002	Hail	Cleveland	$2,000	Dime size was observed.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$2,000	Trees were downed.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$1,000	A tree was blown down on a fence on the west side of Cleveland.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$1,000	Several power lines were blown down along with large tree branches.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$1,000	A tree fell on a highway east of downtown Cleveland.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$1,000	Thunderstorm winds downed several large tree branches.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	$1,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a tree.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	-	Tree downed in South Euclid.
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Cleveland	-	Large tree limbs downed along the Detroit Shoreway in Cleveland. Location estimated.
January 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	-	Three trees downed in Cleveland Heights. Another tree was downed near the corner of Euclid Avenue and Richmond Road.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	-	Numerous trees downed in and near Cleveland Heights.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	-	Two trees downed in Cleveland Heights. One of the trees broke through the roof of a garage.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	East Cleveland	-	Two trees downed along Taylor Road, between East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights.

Every storm recorded in Cuyahoga County

Newspapers printed here

0 digitised pages

16 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues, 0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

Newspaper	Published
The Cleveland Leader	1865 to 1865
Cleveland Tri-Weekly Leader	1854 to 1885
Siebenbürgisch-Amerikanisches Volksblatt	1917 to 1971
Echo : Wochenblatt Der Vereinigten Deutschen Socialisten Clevelands	1911 to 1920
The Cleveland Gazette	1883 to 1892
The Aliened American	1853 to 18??
Jednoc Polek = Unity of Polish Women	1923 to Current
Enakopravnost	1918 to 1957
Dirva = Field	1915 to Current
America	1905 to Current
Svt = World	1911 to 1939
Cleveland Daily Leader	1865 to 1873
Cleveland Plain Dealer	1885 to 1961
Cleveland Morning Leader	1854 to 1865
The Toiler	1919 to 1922
L'araldo = the Herald	1938 to 1959

What the paper printed

33,800 words

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 8 issues spread across its run from 1853 to 1883, 33,800 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

Issue	Paper	Length
1865-05-01	The Cleveland Leader	3,301 words
1865-10-03	The Cleveland Leader	3,908 words
1861-08-03	Cleveland Tri-Weekly Leader	4,987 words
1864-02-06	Cleveland Tri-Weekly Leader	2,646 words
1883-09-15	The Cleveland Gazette	4,127 words
1883-10-20	The Cleveland Gazette	3,337 words
1883-11-17	The Cleveland Gazette	4,169 words
1853-04-09	The Aliened American	7,325 words

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
The Angle	0.6 miles	16
Lakeview Terrace	0.9 miles	16
Old Chinatown	1.1 miles	14
Ohio City	1.3 miles	16
Tremont	1.5 miles	16
New Chinatown	1.5 miles	14
Josephatowa	1.7 miles	14
Big Italy	1.7 miles	16

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Cleveland	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q37320	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1066654. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.