The City of East Cleveland - The Home of John D. Rockefeller

The Legacy of East Cleveland

Brief Overview

The City of East Cleveland, Ohio is the proud home of Standard Oil founder, the late John D. Rockefeller, “the world’s first billionaire.” John D. Rockefeller left a strong legacy behind in his home city. This legacy is shared by all city officials and constituants alike.

Incorporated in 1911 as the first suburb in Cuyahoga County, East Cleveland is a city that has the best public transportation and transportation hubs in Northeast Ohio with its access to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s (RTA) and five to 15 minute access to Interstates 90, 71, 77 and 271. These saught after commodities make East cleveland a coverted place to live.

It is our Mission to be the city of choice for ourselves and future generations - beautiful, clean and safe - with a healthy economy, strong businesses, vital neighborhoods, excellent schools, and extensive recreational and cultural opportunities. East Cleveland: A Community of Achievement

To preserve our city's unique atmosphere and celebrate the diversity of our people, we pursue innovative governance that is accessible, accountable, efficient and stable.

The City of East Cleveland is small city of 27,217 people, neighboring Cleveland's thriving University Circle.The City has a long, impressive history, including its former position as the backyard to John D. Rockefeller's estate. Today the City works hard to provide excellent services to its citizens.

East Cleveland residents enjoy less than five minute access to major educational, cultural and medical institutions such as Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, the Cleveland Art Museum, Severance Hall and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Art and the world-renown Cleveland Clinic Hospital complex. With the rising cost of fuel, East Cleveland is poised to become one of the best “live-work” communities in Northeast Ohio.

One of the city’s crown jewels is its 2.2 square mile Forest Hills Park, which was once John D. Rockefeller’s summer home. The park boasts an impressive two baseball diamonds, tennis courts and walking trails that have retained the natural green space as intended by Rockefeller when he deeded the park to East Cleveland and the City of Cleveland Heights. Forest Hill Park is also the practice site of the Cleveland State University “Vikings” baseball team.

Once considered the “Beverly Hills of the North Coast,” East Cleveland is a community with affordable and pedigreed homes along Euclid Avenue that will soon be listed on the nation’s historic registers.

With a population of 27,000 residents, major employers like Huron Road Hospital, the world headquarters of General Electric’s lighting division, and the newly-renovated $67 million McGregor Nursing Home founded by Rockefeller associate A.M. McGregor, East Cleveland is on its way to an amazing comeback as one of the best communities to live in Northeast Ohio.

Brief History

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History has the following brief history of East Cleveland:

EAST CLEVELAND, originally part of East Cleveland Twp.
(organized 1805) and Euclid Twp., was incorporated as East Cleveland
Village in 1895 and as a city in 1911. (An earlier village of the same
name formed in 1866 but was annexed by Cleveland in 1872.) A
residential city located about 7 miles from downtown Cleveland, it
occupies 3 sq. mi. It is adjacent to Cleveland on the north and west
and bounded by CLEVELAND HEIGHTS on the east and south. The oldest remaining house is that of Thomas Phillips on Eddy Rd., where it was moved from EUCLID AVE..
The name East Cleveland has been carried by at least 5 political
entities in Cuyahoga County--township, hamlet, and villages, reduced by
annexations by the City of Cleveland. A period of growth followed
incorporation: gas and water lines were installed, Euclid Ave. was
paved, and streetcar service from Cleveland began.

The population reached 10,000 in 1910; the new city first adopted the mayor-council
form of government. In 1910 and 1916 the city rejected annexation with
Cleveland. A charter was drafted in 1915, and in 1918 the city adopted
a city manager plan. The charter adopted in 1916 provided for women's
suffrage in municipal elections--then the only such franchise east of
Chicago (see WOMEN).

The majority of the city's housing was built during the 1910s and
1920s. Commercial centers developed at the Euclid Ave. intersections
with Superior, Taylor, and Lee roads. In 1920 the population was over
27,000. One of the early manufacturers was the National Bindery Co.
(1905). Beginning in 1911, the National Electric Lamp Assn., later the
lamp division of the GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., began the construction of NELA PARK on Noble Rd. Other light industries developed along the NICKEL PLATE ROAD and New York Central RAILROADS

during World War II. In 1929-30, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., began a
residential development on the Forest Hill estate that had belonged to
his father, but only 80 of the planned 600 homes were built before the
Depression. In 1938 he donated FOREST HILL PARK
to the cities of East Cleveland and Cleveland Hts. The Rockefellers
also contributed land for the East Cleveland Public Library (opened in
1916, with a donation from Andrew Carnegie), the HURON RD. HOSPITAL (moved from downtown Cleveland in 1931), and the junior high school. The A. M. MCGREGOR HOME for the elderly was built in 1908 and enlarged in 1941.

In 1986 the East Cleveland school system included 6 elementary schools, 1
junior high, and Shaw High School. The city has had many churches of
all denominations, from FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF EAST CLEVELAND (AT DOAN'S CORNERS) (est. 1807, one of the first churches in the WESTERN RESERVE)
to St. Paul Episcopal Church to the Hare Krishna Temple. In the second
half of the 20th century, small businesses and fast-food outlets
replaced many Euclid Ave. homes.

During the 1960s, East Cleveland experienced a major population shift, as AFRICAN AMERICANS constituted an increasingly larger proportion of the population. Some community agencies such as the EAST CLEVELAND THEATER (est. 1968) dealt positively with integration while cases like the CITY OF EAST CLEVELAND, OHIO V. MOORE

revealed fear and distrust. By 1984 East Cleveland was one of the
largest predominantly black communities in the county, population
36,957. In Sept. 1988 the state formed a governor's commission to
manage city finances. Throughout the 1990s, despite bond sales,
cutbacks and layoffs, East Cleveland remained in a state of fiscal
emergency. Community efforts to address these problems included the
East Cleveland Coalition for a Better City and housing renovation by
the city and the Lutheran Housing Corp. Nevertheless, in 2003 East
Cleveland was owed $7.8 million in back property taxes, over half the
city's $15 million tax base. In 1990 the population stood at 33,096 but
by 2000 was 27,217, down 30 percent from 1970.