Cleveland on Foot: Public Square
Family Fun and History in a Multi-Part Summer Series

Like many others, I emerge into downtown each workday morning at Public Square and feel the energetic bustle of people walking across the Square to go to work or to catch a train in Terminal Tower. I purposely walk across the Square on its west end, then along the north to Key Tower because of the hint of history along that corridor.

A walk around Public Square is a living history lesson for every Clevelander at every age. This is the center of Cleveland, the place at which east meets west. Viewed from high up in Key Tower or the Terminal Tower, the major east-west roads—St. Clair, Superior, Euclid, and Carnegie--spread out from this epicenter. The original 1796 survey of Cleveland was mapped out with the Cuyahoga River on the west, Lake Erie to the north, fourteenth street on the east, and Ohio street on the south. Ten-acre Public Square was at its heart...

My tour begins on Superior Avenue near the car port of the grand old Renaissance Cleveland Hotel where properly-attired valets with white gloves greet guests and passers-by. The Hotel, today attired with ovalled blue awnings over its tall windows, was built in 1918. The southwest corner of Public Square has been a site of lodging since 1815 when Phinney Mowrey’s Tavern stood on the site. Over the years, the Cleveland House, the Dunham House, and the Forest City House were places where visitors to the city spent the night. Built by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, which many of us remember as Stouffer’s, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 as part of the Union Terminal Group.

Welcoming in its breadth and height, a mother hen with arms held wide, the Terminal Tower/Tower City Complex is one of Cleveland’s most familiar landmarks. The 52-floor office tower was the tallest building outside New York City from its opening in 1927 until 1967. It was developed as a combined railroad terminal and 52-floor office tower by Cleveland’s van Sweringen brothers. Under the shadow of the Tower, we gather for fireworks, concerts, and public demonstrations. During the miraculous interior renovation of the dark and cavernous train station in the 1980s, I remember wandering through a plywood maze to get to the Rapid Station. The light-filled open three-story retail and restaurant space and connected hotel and office tower are beautiful urban spaces today.

Crossing Superior Avenue on the western side of Public Square, the sidewalk passes large open parking lots where in the Ameritrust Center was to be built by The Jacobs Group. The building was to be one of the tallest buildings in the United States, but when Society Bank acquired Ameritrust, then merged with KeyBank, the project was disappointingly cancelled. This parcel of land has been waiting patiently for its future, but for now, it’s an inexpensive place to park my car when I drive into downtown rather than taking the bus.

Past the parking lots and at the northwest end of Public Square is 55 Public Square, which was constructed in 1958 on the former site of Cuyahoga County’s fourth courthouse, constructed in 1875. The bricked sidewalk pathway from 55 Public Square towards Ontario is lined with trees and has a European feel to it with the one-way street lined with cars and alleyways. The red-bricked building of Sky Financial Center at 75 Public Square has the characteristic Prairie School roof overhang style of Hubbell & Benes; with its white trim, this 1915 building is different from any other on Public Square.

The Old Stone Church (First Presbyterian Church), which was completed in 1857, is the oldest structure on Public Square. The church is gray sandstone again after a good cleaning in 1998—before that it was blackened by years of pollution. A new steel and aluminum spire topped by an 8-foot high cross was lifted into place in 1999 and a plaque commemorates its dedication. The interior of the church suffered two major fires, but the interior today is beautifully decorated with Tiffany stained glass designed by Cleveland architect Charles F. Schweinfurth. The old church bell is memorialized on a cement block outside the entrance and near a placard that announces public hours and the availability of a labyrinth during Lent.

It is here where one can stop and contemplate Cleveland as it was in 1857. Residential development had begun around the square in the 1820s; old pictures and maps show a public space in a rural town, where dirt roads intersected and horses drew carriages. When the church was built, it looked out over a tree-filled square, which was surrounded by a thriving commercial district by 1870. The church has been there for the passing of Lincoln’s funeral bier in 1865 and the lighting of America’s first streetlamps in 1879. Residential living was ousted by commercial development by the end of the 19th century. The Old Stone Church has remained the neighborhood church even as the neighborhood has moved away.

The Society for Savings Building is an 1889-90 structure of red sandstone (sandblasted about the same time as the Old Stone Church) is the most important remaining John Wellman Root building in Cleveland. It contains an intricate stained glass skylight designed in the Arts and Crafts style by Wm. Crane. The large windows and big blocks of stone lend an elegance to the northeast quadrant across Ontario from the Old Stone Church. When the Key Tower project was conceived, this building was preserved by connecting the old structure with the new office tower, and inside the building, large arches lead from the old building to the new, as shown on the Drew Carey show.

Turning south toward the Terminal Tower, one passes the Metzenbaum Courthouse, donned by beautiful statues at either end of the front of the building and fake balconies beneath its windows. Across the street, on the east side of Public Square, is the BP Building, the controversial building that competed with the Terminal Tower in height. In the end, the top of the building was lobbed off the plans, so the building originally conceived as a fountainhead tower is now flat on top. The front of the building with its glass atrium faces Public Square and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

The white May Company building will always remain the May Company Building with its name permanently prominent at the top of the building; most Clevelanders regret the demise of major department stores from Public Square. Next to the May Company building is the Park Building at the corner of Euclid and Ontario—it is now draped with a banner announcing the opening of condominiums. The future of Public Square is brightened with the prospect of downtown living, a return to its original roots as a residential district.

The Soldiers & Sailors Monument on the southeast quadrant is a major Civil War monument designed by prominent Cleveland architect Levi T. Schofield, who donated his architectural, sculptural, and engineering services for this public work. The monument was dedicated on July 4, 1894, after 15 years of planning. The black column topped by a statue rises high above the ornate block building flanked by stairs and globed streetlights. Each of the four sides of this square is crowned by a statue of active soldiers or sailors on casket-like boxes. The quaintly-dark and Victorian museum inside is open to the public during the day.

The southeast quadrant is unique because the Monument fills up the entire square. The others are more park-like with benches, two of them with fountains, and all four are approached by entrances at its corners. The southwest quadrant outside Tower City is sunken with a raised stepped fountain. A reflective statue of the great Cleveland mayor Tom Johnson graces the northern end of the northwest quadrant.

A loop walk around Public Square plus the indoor Tower City loop is .8 miles, according to the Clevelanders in Motion Complimentary Walking Map. A small heaping of Cleveland history goes well with a short walk from the office buildings and residential buildings near and around Public Square. Public Square—it’s the heart of our city.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller. Taller loves Cleveland and wants everyone to know it. She can be reached at ctallerwritesATwowway.com.
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