What to See in Cleveland - Top Sights and Attractions

Large open city plaza and events hub. Public Square is the central plaza of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. Based on an 18th-century New England model, it was part of the original 1796 town plat overseen by Moses Cleaveland, and remains an integral part of the city's center. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

The 10-acre (4.0 ha) square is centered on the former intersection of Superior Avenue and Ontario Street. Cleveland's three tallest buildings, Key Tower, 200 Public Square and the Terminal Tower, face the square. Other landmarks adjacent to Public Square include the 1855 Old Stone Church and the former Higbee's department store made famous in the 1983 film A Christmas Story, which has been occupied by the Jack Cleveland Casino since 2012.

Originally designed as four separate squares bisected by Superior Avenue and Ontario Street, the square was redeveloped in 2016 by the city into a more pedestrian-friendly environment by routing most traffic around the square. The section of Ontario Street through the square was removed, while the section of Superior Avenue was rebuilt to only allow buses with stops for multiple bus lines of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. The northern half of the square is mostly green space and includes a statue to reformist mayor Tom L. Johnson. The southern half is mostly a paved plaza area with a cafe and water feature adjacent to the 125-foot-tall (38 m) Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument and a statue of city founder Moses Cleaveland.^[5]

Kid-friendly park with animal exhibits. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo aka Cleveland Zoological Park is a 183-acre zoo in Cleveland, Ohio. The Zoo is divided into several areas: Australian Adventure; African Savanna; Northern Wilderness Trek, The Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building, Waterfowl Lake, The RainForest, and the newly added Asian Highlands. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has one of the largest collections of primates in North America, The Zoo is a part of the Cleveland Metroparks system.

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo was founded in 1882. It is one of the most popular year-round attractions in Northeast Ohio by attendance with a 2% increase from the previous year to 1.2 million visitors in 2007, compared to the Cleveland Indians who were the most popular attraction in Northeast Ohio in 2007 with a total attendance of over 2.2 million.^[6]

Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. The Great Lakes Science Center is a museum and educational facility in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Many of the exhibits document the features of the natural environment in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The facility includes signature and traveling exhibits, meeting space, a cafe, and an IMAX Dome theater.

Great Lakes Science Center is funded by the citizens of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, grants, funds, and corporate and individual gifts.

The museum opened in July 1996. The center's exhibits support STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) with exhibits including the BioMedTech Gallery, advanced energy, science phenomena and space. The Science Center is home to the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, one of only 11 such Visitor Centers in the country. Also, Science Center staff conduct daily science demonstrations.

Throughout the school year, the Science Center provides STEM education to field trip students each year with programs and exhibits supporting classroom curriculum by meeting Ohio Revised Standards in Science. It also provides educator professional development programming. Homeschool workshops and programs are offered October through February. During the summer, the Science Center offers educational and fun camps for preschoolers through 12th graders that occur in various locations throughout Northeast Ohio. Year round, the Science Center provides classes, workshops, sleepovers and scout programs, as well as seasonal events for families, kids and adults.

The Science Center installed a wind turbine in its front yard in summer 2006. The wind turbine provides approximately 7% of the Science Center's annual electrical needs. A year later, it completed the installation of a 300-foot solar array canopy featuring 156 photovoltaic panels that provide enough power to light all of the Science Center's 65,000 square feet of exhibition space for one hour. During the course of a year, the solar array produces an average of 100 kWh per day, the equivalent of the average electrical usage of four homes. The Science Center also offers alternative energy exhibitions for guests to interact with a touch-screen kiosk displaying both real-time and historical data.

The Great Lakes Science Center is located between FirstEnergy Stadium and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at North Coast Harbor on the shore of Lake Erie. Discounted parking is available for guests in the attached 500-car garage.^[7]

Canal in Ohio. The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio River near Portsmouth. It also had connections to other canal systems in Pennsylvania.

The canal carried freight traffic from 1827 to 1861, when the construction of railroads ended demand. From 1862 to 1913, the canal served as a water source for industries and towns. During 1913, much of the canal system was abandoned after important parts were flooded severely.

Most of the remaining portions are managed by the National Park Service or Ohio Department of Natural Resources. They are used for various recreational purposes by the public, and still provide water for some industries. Parts of the canal are preserved, including the Ohio and Erie Canal Historic District, a National Historic Landmark.^[8]

Fitness center in Cleveland, Ohio. Wade Park is a park in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Wade Park today largely serves as the campus for the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Botanical Garden, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, as well as Wade Lagoon, which faces the Museum of Art from the south end of the park. Though not technically a historical landmark itself, the park falls within the eponymous Wade Park historical district and serves as a backdrop for most of its registered buildings.

The site's early owner, Jeptha Wade, began to develop it into a park in 1872; in 1882, he donated the 63-acre plot to the city government, which later purchased additional land to expand it. As Wade had envisioned, the park became the home of an art museum in 1916 with the opening of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The park also contains the Wade Park Fine Arts Garden, where a number of sculptures from the CMA's holdings are showcased. The bulk of this collection are located between the original 1916 main entrance to the building and the lagoon. The collection includes a large cast of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, which sits atop the museum's main staircase. Partially destroyed in a 1970 bombing (allegedly by The Weathermen), the statue has been left largely unrestored both because of Rodin's personal involvement in its original casting and his own willingness to exhibit damaged versions of his works during his life. Today, the damage—which is notated on the plaque mounted at the base of the statue's pedestal—has come to define the casting as unique among the more than twenty original large castings.

Other prominent sculptures in the garden include Gaetano Trentanove's 1904 monument to the Polish expatriate and American Revolutionary War-hero Tadeusz Kościuszko; Chester Beach's 1927 Fountain of the Waters, and a 1928 bronze statuary sundial by Frank Jirouch, Night Passing the Earth to Day, which sits across Wade Lagoon from the museum, near the park's entrance on Euclid Avenue.

Wade Park also borders two sections of the city's larger Rockefeller Park. One lies on Wade Park's northwestern border along Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and the other directly across University Circle to the southeast on Euclid Ave.^[9]

Amusement park in Brooklyn, Ohio. Memphis Kiddie Park is an 11-ride amusement park located in Brooklyn, Ohio, designed specifically for children and families.

Memphis Kiddie Park opened on May 28, 1952. The park was one of several designed and opened by Stuart Wintner, who eventually closed all but the Memphis Kiddie Park to focus on his chain of indoor movie theatres. Though Mr. Wintner has since died, the park remains in operation and is owned by his son.

The park is home to the "Little Dipper" roller coaster—the oldest operating steel roller coaster in North America.

The 11 rides at Memphis Kiddie Park are:

• Comets (Allan Herschell "Skyfighter" that moves up and down) HL
• Jeeps (Cars that spin around)(Allan Herschell) HL
• Ferris Wheel (originally San Antonio Roller Works, significantly rebuilt and updated)HL
• Boats (Floats around in circles) (Allan Herschell) HL
• Pony Carts (Chariot-style cars that travel in a loop) (Allan Herschell) HL
• Merry-Go-Round (Allan Herschell, 36-cast aluminum horses)
• Train (Travels around the perimeter of the park and Miniature Golf) (Allan Herschell)
• Hand Carts (The children power themselves on little carts around a track)(original ride: Hodges Handcar; replaced ca.1995 with Alter Amusements version) HL
• Speedway (Motorized race cars that travel around inside the Little Dipper) " HL
• Little Dipper roller coaster (Allan Herschell)
• Space Shuttles (Smaller version of the Comets, doesn't elevate)(Allan Herschell "Airplanes") HL

Rides that have a HL after them mean that the ride has a height limit. The height limit for those rides is UNDER 50".

In addition to the rides, the park also has a miniature golf course for both kids and adults to enjoy.^[10]

Planetarium and local prehistoric finds. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre concentration of educational, cultural and medical institutions. The museum was established in 1920 by Cyrus S. Eaton to perform research, education and development of collections in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, geology, paleontology, wildlife biology, and zoology. The museum traces its roots to the Ark, formed in 1836 on Cleveland's Public Square by William Case, the Academy of Natural Science formed by William Case and Jared Potter Kirtland, and the Kirtland Society of Natural History, founded in 1869 and reinvigorated in 1922 by the trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Donald Johanson was the curator of the museum when he discovered "Lucy," the skeletal remains of the ancient hominid Australopithecus afarensis. The current Curator and Head of the Physical Anthropology Department is Yohannes Haile-Selassie.

In 2002, the new Fannye Shafran Planetarium was built near the entrance to the museum, containing displays on the planets in the Solar System, and historical instruments of exploration, such as compasses and astrolabes.^[16]

World War II-era sub open in the summer. USS Cod is a Gato-class submarine, the only vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the cod, an important and very popular food fish of the North Atlantic and North Pacific.

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut on 21 July 1942. The submarine's five diesel engines were built by General Motors Cleveland Diesel Plant on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio. She was launched on 21 March 1943 (sponsored by Mrs. G.M. Mahoney), and commissioned on 21 June 1943 with Commander James C. Dempsey, USN; in command. Dempsey had already won fame by sinking the first Japanese destroyer lost in the war while in command of USS S-37, a tiny World War I-era submarine.

She is now a National Historic Landmark, preserved as a memorial and museum ship permanently moored in Cleveland, Ohio, and is open to visitors daily from 1 May to 30 September.^[23]

Nonprofit organization. The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes is a nonprofit organization in Shaker Heights, Ohio that works to conserve a natural area, educate visitors about nature, and promote better environmental stewardship. It was founded in 1966 as the result of a volunteer effort to preserve the Shaker Parklands from becoming the route for a new freeway connecting Cleveland's East Side to downtown.

The Nature Center offers curriculum-related school programs, including an early childhood program for several East Side school districts and the Cleveland Public Schools. Walkers, runners, and bird-watchers use the trails for exercise and recreation.

The center is home to many wildlife and plant species living in a variety of natural habitats, including marsh, brook, field, forest, and ravine.^[25]

Cemetery in the Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Lake View Cemetery is a privately owned, nonprofit garden cemetery located in the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1869, the cemetery was favored by wealthy families during the Gilded Age, and today the cemetery is known for its numerous lavish funerary monuments and mausoleums. The extensive early monument building at Lake View helped give rise to the Little Italy neighborhood, but over-expansion nearly bankrupted the burial ground in 1888. Financial recovery only began in 1893, and took several years. Lake View grew and modernized significantly from 1896 to 1915 under the leadership of president Henry R. Hatch. The cemetery's cautious management allowed it to avoid retrenchment and financial problems during the Great Depression.

Two sites within the cemetery are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The first is the James A. Garfield Memorial, erected in 1890 as the tomb of assassinated President James A. Garfield. The second is Wade Memorial Chapel, which began construction in 1898 and was completed in 1901. It honors the memory of Jeptha Wade, one of the cemetery's co-founders, and was donated by his grandson.^[29]

Bank. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is the Cleveland-based headquarters of the U.S. Federal Reserve System's Fourth District. The district is composed of Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. It has branch offices in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The check processing center in Columbus, Ohio, was closed in 2005. The chief executive officer and president is Loretta Mester.

The bank building is a 13-story 203 foot high-rise, located at Superior Avenue and East 6th Street in downtown Cleveland was designed by the Cleveland firm of Walker and Weeks and completed in 1923. Its exterior architecture emulates an Italian Renaissance palazzo, and is clad in Georgia pink marble. An extension to the building designed by HOK was completed in 1998, providing new facilities for check processing and cash handling. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building's entrances feature allegorical sculptures by Henry Hering representing Security and Integrity flanking the East Sixth Street entrance, while his Energy watches the Superior Avenue entry.

Its original 100 short tons (91 t) bank vault door is the largest in the world. The door casting itself was 20 short tons (18 t). It incorporates the largest hinge ever built. The hinge has an overall height of 19 feet (5.8 m) and weighs over 47 short tons (43 t) fully assembled. The vault's use was discontinued in 1997, though it is preserved intact for posterity.^[35]