The educational institutions are of the highest order. They include the University of Cincinnati, which has associated with it the Cincinnati Hospital and the Cincinnati Observatory, the Ohio and Miami Medical Colleges, St. Joseph’s and St. Xavier’s Jesuit Colleges, the Law Theological Seminary, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Ohio Mechanics’ Institute.
Cincinnati is a center of musical and art culture, and its decorative pottery and wood-carving have a national reputation. It has a large river and canal traffic, and many railways converge here.
Among the factories are clothing factories, foundries, machine shops, coach-works, works for the manufacture of furniture, tobacco, shoes, leather, etc. There is some boat-building and printing; and the slaughter-houses, stockyards, and grain elevators are very extensive.
Cincinnati was settled by white men in 1780, was incorporated as a city in 1819, and early attained the name of “the Queen City of the West;” as also that of “Porkopolis,” from its great trade in pork. Great riots occurred in 1884, and were with difficulty suppressed by the military.
Cleveland, Ohio. [The “Forest City;” named in honor of General Moses Cleveland of Connecticut, who had charge of the surveying of this region, acting as general agent for the Connecticut Land Company.]
It is the largest city of Ohio, and is situated on the south shore of Lake Erie, three hundred and fifty miles by rail east of Chicago. The city is built mainly upon a plain from sixty to one hundred and fifty feet above the lake, and five hundred and eighty feet above sea-level. It is divided into the East and West Sides by the tortuous valley of the Cuyahoga River, which is crossed by two high-level bridges—one mainly of stone, and one of iron, three thousand nine hundred and thirty-one feet long. The former, one thousand and seventy feet long, was completed in 1878 at a cost of two million two hundred thousand dollars. There are three other similar viaducts in different parts of the city.
The chief business street is Superior Avenue, a really fine and wide thoroughfare, the west end of which is lined with substantial business blocks, such as the Perry-Payne Building. A little farther on the street expands into Monumental Park or the Public Square, containing a Soldiers’ Monument and a statue of General Moses Cleveland. The new Federal Building, at the northeast corner of the square, contains the Post Office, the Custom House, and the Court House.
This building is the first of several public buildings comprised in the so-called “Group Plan,” the others being the City Hall, County Building, Public Library, and Union Station. A broad mall connects all these buildings.
At the northwest corner is the Old Court House, adjoined by the American Trust Building. On the north side of the square, at the corner of Ontario Street, is the handsome building of the Society for Savings, established in 1849, and now having deposits of upwards of fifty million dollars. Adjacent is the Chamber of Commerce, containing a handsome auditorium, with a library and reading room. In Superior Avenue, beyond the Federal Building, is the massive City Hall, which is adjoined by the temporary building of the Public Library. A little to the north of this point is the huge Central Armory.
Euclid Avenue, which begins at the southeast angle of the Public Square, is, at its east end, also an important artery of business, and farther out becomes one of the most beautiful residence streets in America, with each of its handsome houses surrounded by pleasant grounds and shady trees. At the northeast corner of the Square and Euclid Avenue is the Williamson Building; a little farther on, also on the north side of the Avenue, is the handsome First National Bank; on the right is the tall, narrow building of the Guardian Savings & Trust Co. To the left is the Arcade, four hundred feet long, one hundred and eighty feet wide, and one hundred and forty-four feet high, with a fine five-balconied interior, running through to Superior Avenue; and to the right is the Colonial Arcade, running through to [600] Prospect Avenue. At the corner of East Sixth Street are the tall Garfield and New England Buildings. Nearly opposite the New England Building is the new Taylor Arcade, just east of which is the Hippodrome Building. Farther on, near east Ninth Street, is the Citizens Building, with the offices of the Citizens Savings & Trust Co., and at the corner is the Schofield Building. Directly opposite the latter, at the southeast corner of East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue, is the Cleveland Trust Co. At the corner of East Twelfth Street is the handsome Union Club. Farther on are several fine churches. About four and one-half miles from the Public Square Euclid Avenue reaches University Circle, with a statue of Senator M. A. Hanna by Saint-Gaudens, and one of Kossuth, erected by the Hungarians of Cleveland. To the right is the building of the Western Reserve Historical Society, to the left is the Elysium, an artificial ice skating rink. Just beyond the Circle is the entrance to Wade Park, which contains statues of Commodore Perry, and a Goethe-Schiller Monument. Opposite the Park are the buildings of the Western Reserve University (including Adelbert College, Woman’s College, Law, Medical, and Dental Schools, and a Library School, in addition to the graduate department) and the Case School of Applied Science. About one mile farther on the avenue passes Lake View Cemetery, containing the Garfield Memorial, the Rockefeller Monolith, the graves of Senator Hanna and John Hay, and the Wade Memorial Chapel.