I grew up in Bedford . Loved Downtown Cleveland since I was kid I lived in Ohio City and Owned Art Attack in 1999 in 2001 moved to FLorida but Finally I am moving back and I am looking forward to a new life here again.
This video is so touching to me. My family has been in Cleveland, to my knowledge, since at least 1907. My ancestors came here and found a living within the industrial powerhouse of Cleveland. Without this history this video shows. I would not exist.
Thank you for posting this. My grandfather owned Gentilly Garage on Woodland somewhere near where the ballpark is now, I dont have much info but it was apparently across from a nut factory. I keep looking through these old videos desperately hoping to find a picture of the garage.
I absolutely love rust belt cities. Wonderful grimy pre WWII buildings, bridges, and infrastructure. Best settings for noir films IMO. They are also the places upon which most authentic, detailed model railroad layouts are based. This period, or just sightly later, perhaps late 1940's to early '50s, is the choice for most since it legitimizes use of both steam and diesel.
My Dad briefly worked at that Sunoco station right at the beginning of the video pumping gas in the mid 1970s. I visited a few times there is a kid living in Cleveland. Very cool video.
My grandpa moved up to Cleveland from Uniontown, PA in the early 50s looking for work. He ended up working in a steel plant here. It's really sad what Cleveland is now compared to back then...
Thank you for the video on Cleveland's industrial history, what made the city what it was. It looks like the film was shot around 1938, or so, during the late Depression years. At the beginning, the cars appear to be going over the Detroit-Superior bridge with views of the city skyline in the background, and views of the Flats and the factories that once thrived there, along with the shacks standing across the way, gave Cleveland that blue collar image. Just another revelation I discovered about the city's heritage.
A left to right pan shot of the now long gone, Cleveland SOHIO (Standard Oil Ohio), oil refinery at 2:43 - 3:00. Interesting vintage industrial Cleveland film footage and thanks for sharing!
My grandfather worked as a engineer at the terminal towers. I also remember Macy's department store. I loved the smells of hot nuts and candy as grandma would get a small selection. Thank you for this video brings back times when our country actually made things and families were actually together. Warm and fuzzy moments of fresh snow love and the warmth of the fireplace with laughter.
That pall of smoke that hung in the air was added to by the fact that until the 1950s most homes had coal furnaces. I worked in the Ohio Bell Telephone building in the mid seventies. You had a perfect view of the smoke belching from the steel mills. Once a day you could see a huge orange cloud of smoke emanating from one of the mills. The surrounding neighborhood homes were covered with orange dust until emissions regulations and equipment went into effect.
The orange smoke was from the iron oxide particulate. They have special filters these days to scrub that out before it gets into the surrounding atmosphere.
All big, industrialized cities in the United States looked like this - my dad told me one time when he worked in an office in downtown Indianapolis Indiana that no one had air conditioning and the city was run by burning coal. At the end of the day because the windows were open he'd have dirt around his collar and his nostrils were a sooty black color from breathing in the coal dust.
The steel mills glowing at night, the soot creeping into the house and the constant smog, progress and employment. Cleveland was a working stiff city and proud of it.
You have a funny definition of what ‘progress’ means. Maybe for the owners of the steel mills, but where were they found? In some exclusive enclave where they remained segregated from everyone else, including those who worked miserable jobs in their factories which made them ever richer. Nothing more than exploitation over people who are desperate
@@steveb7429 Remember this was after the Great Depression and WW II, people wanted jobs and to enjoy a good life. No one thought of the environment, such as the Cuyahoga River going up in flames.
Ive lived in cleveland my whole life, its crazy seeing how it used to look, the steelyard doesnt look much different today except they put a bunch of stores at the foot of it
Whoa cool collection of film. I was just down around the mill this afternoon and interesting to spot buildings that still exist. And all the area that's been gentrified.
A lot of people are commenting on the air pollution viewed in these vintage films of Cleveland. Seeing that this appears to have been shot in the mid to late 1930s (based on the cars and trucks seen) imagine how bad the pollution was a few years later as the country was geared up for the massive industrial production as a result of WWII.
True. My mom’s family moved to cle in 1943 for better opportunities (she graduated from West Tech 1945). Despite that, She said Cleveland was cleaner than their old place next door to Weirton Steel! My Das grew up in Youngstown and said the same. Industrial America had quite an air about it
Man its crazy to see how much Cleveland has changed over the years, and people are saying that this newer generation is causing mlre pollution on this earth but back then there was alot more pollution
At :55, it shows the former Upson Nut Co, but by that time it was Republic Steel Nut and Bolt Division. Too bad that there wasn't any footage from the Carter Rd. end of the property.
Thanks for this video. I remember the street car going across the high level bridge! My family and my wife's also were part of the people that made it great. And I remember the smog. Good times and bad. My grandchildren will never know but the insults leveled on our city. I will subscribe.
The orange dust from the mills, the stench from McGeen Chemical at the bottom of Harvard Ave. Harvard Dennison Bridge rotting from the chemical plants, Dworkin Trucking hauling rollstock from Republic Steel 94" strip mill the largest in the world at the time. Everyone worked and earned a paycheck, then the other countries took all the jobs away.
As a Clevelander, I'd like to point out the fact that no other country took jobs away. Politicians and Corporations collaborated and agreed to outsource the jobs to other countries in order to lower labor costs and increase profits.
Nobody "took our jobs". As it was said, our political and business leaders sold us out to the cheapest bidders. I guess that's the Free Market at work.
Same Cleveland I remember from the 60s and 70s just different cars. Thanks for uploading this. There is one thing, a lot changed after 1963 and LBJs great new society b.s. 1964 the city was dead after 5 pm because of the federal housing projects and the rampant crime it brought. There was no more Christmas Story downtown, just danger. On the bright side the pollution is gone, the river is cleaner and the air doesn't smell like sulphur. You could see Cleveland 20 miles away back in those days by the fire and orange shroud it cast over the flats at night. Stay sick and turn blue !
Unfortunately LBJ's program (and continuing similar programs) have destroyed and bankrupt countless big cities. Many like Cleveland used to have a population of nearly one million. Of course these are facts that tend to get people upset as they defend their brand of political Kool-Aid despite the obvious results. All that being said I always thought Pittsburgh was the outlier in the Midwest. While they will always be our football rival they seemed to transition their economies better than most other cities.
I immigrated to the US from the UK in 1975 directly to Cleveland, a major industrial hub back then. For a skilled trained person willing to work, a lot of opportunities.
@@paulbroderick8438 From what my dad tells me, you didn't even need to be skilled. You just walked into a factory, said "I'd like a job", and by lunch time you were already on the floor. And if you had a job but didn't like it, you would walk outside, walk across the street, walk into that factory, and say you wanted a job. And again, you'd be working by lunchtime. Back then if you were unemployed in Cleveland, you were just lazy. These days, if you're unemployed, it's because all the jobs have moved overseas, and the ones that are left don't pay a living wage.
The EPA really put a lot of these industries out of business. I remember when we were a powerhouse of industrial jobs, but working in those conditions had to be very hard. We are much better off with clean air and water.
Those were the days when Americans called themselves Americans and were very proud of it. Them were the days when America was a power house; an industrial might that was only second to none! And yes those were the days when people cared about what they made and how they made it. We had such iconic companies like Pratt & Whitney, TRW, and Jones & Loucklin steel just to name a few. Power houses that gave its all in the war effort in WW11 and beyond. It wasn't until the very late 70's and earily 80's that our politicians were the very ones that sold out our country to the Mexicans and the Chinese and gave away our jobs and our way of life in exchange for money. Those very politicians who sold us out call themselves Americans! Yea, right! They are just as much of a trader to this country as the trader who sells our secrets to foreign governments. I only wished that we had the America that we used to have, but that will never happen unless we all stick together, and I know that will never happen. I will be retiring soon, it's your world now PAY ATTENTION!
Incredible to see! This was a time when men and women dressed modestly - had more dignity. None of this ridiculous, woke, gender ideology garbage we have today in our culture, where young people have no idea what sex they are. Insanity!
I think your comment shows how insane you are. You came to this depressing footage of a poisoned, toxic city and somehow bring in modern talking points to it. Kinda sad how much brain rot you have from cable news.
Lynching, segregation, sexism, dangerous work conditions with very little regulation, another world war on the horizon. You know; the good ole days. GTFOHWTS.
this is evolution in action. A lot of American cities suffered this fate......Times have changed and our society is decentralized. The urban paradigm is doomed to fade away.
What? During the great depression, and the lead-up to WWII? No. No I'm happier today knowing that I don't need to work 10 hours for a loaf of bread, only to be told that I'm being shipped to Europe to fight Hitler. The city looks cooler in these videos, but overall human quality of life was in the tanker.
What an awful situation for the families who had to work at the factories and live right next to them while being exposed to the fumes, smog, acid rain, noise, unpaved streets, etc. The men probably suffered from all kinds of cancer and died young while their wives worked all day tending to the children and doing house chores! The collapsing of heavy industry was terrible for Cleveland but the consequences of keeping such a polluting system was worse! Thus, I'm glad Cleveland is recovering slowly but surely and reinventing herself!
This is propaganda.. Cleveland had good jobs and people made money then... showing smokestacks and people begging for food is not accurate .. What did happen is people from surrounding states came to Cleveland to work . Thus the housing next to the mills. West Virginia, PA, Indiana they all came to work. So when the economy crashed there were alot of unemployed. Immigrants that came from WW2 Europe came with a shoestring .. They brought massive amounts of skill. German,Polish, Italian Ukrainian, Hungarian, Serbian on and on . Highly skilled machinists and mill workers were able to move to the suburbs with new found wealth.
@@ktoth29 I think the above is one of the most insightful comments I've read here. One historian has written, "The history of America is a history of people moving west."
Horrifying. What an industrial nightmare. Thank god that most of those factories shut down and big efforts have made over the years to clean up all of the pollution that they left behind. People actually go rowing in the cuyahoga river now
I grew up in Bedford . Loved Downtown Cleveland since I was kid I lived in Ohio City and Owned Art Attack in 1999 in 2001 moved to FLorida but Finally I am moving back and I am looking forward to a new life here again.
Welcome back!
This video is so touching to me. My family has been in Cleveland, to my knowledge, since at least 1907. My ancestors came here and found a living within the industrial powerhouse of Cleveland. Without this history this video shows. I would not exist.
Me and you both brother
Dad use to tell us stories of the building of terminal tower and Carnegie bridge..and how often the river caught fire..
If this video is so touching you should keep it private and not tell the world
@@insmileyfacemur4242 no, I’ll do whatever I want, nerd.
Nobody gives a crap where your family has been. I'm just saying and it's true
Thank you for posting this. My grandfather owned Gentilly Garage on Woodland somewhere near where the ballpark is now, I dont have much info but it was apparently across from a nut factory. I keep looking through these old videos desperately hoping to find a picture of the garage.
I absolutely love rust belt cities. Wonderful grimy pre WWII buildings, bridges, and infrastructure. Best settings for noir films IMO. They are also the places upon which most authentic, detailed model railroad layouts are based. This period, or just sightly later, perhaps late 1940's to early '50s, is the choice for most since it legitimizes use of both steam and diesel.
Born and raised Cleveland tough right here!! 💪❤💕
Betta believe it 🙏🏾💯👌🏾
My Dad briefly worked at that Sunoco station right at the beginning of the video pumping gas in the mid 1970s. I visited a few times there is a kid living in Cleveland. Very cool video.
My grandpa moved up to Cleveland from Uniontown, PA in the early 50s looking for work. He ended up working in a steel plant here. It's really sad what Cleveland is now compared to back then...
Thank you for the video on Cleveland's industrial history, what made the city what it was. It looks like the film was shot around 1938, or so, during the late Depression years. At the beginning, the cars appear to be going over the Detroit-Superior bridge with views of the city skyline in the background, and views of the Flats and the factories that once thrived there, along with the shacks standing across the way, gave Cleveland that blue collar image. Just another revelation I discovered about the city's heritage.
A left to right pan shot of the now long gone, Cleveland SOHIO (Standard Oil Ohio), oil refinery at 2:43 - 3:00. Interesting vintage industrial Cleveland film footage and thanks for sharing!
I swear I saw that SOHIO sign in the 80s. When did they tear it down?
Beautiful, scenic city.
My grandfather worked as a engineer at the terminal towers. I also remember Macy's department store. I loved the smells of hot nuts and candy as grandma would get a small selection. Thank you for this video brings back times when our country actually made things and families were actually together. Warm and fuzzy moments of fresh snow love and the warmth of the fireplace with laughter.
That pall of smoke that hung in the air was added to by the fact that until the 1950s most homes had coal furnaces.
I worked in the Ohio Bell Telephone building in the mid seventies. You had a perfect view of the smoke belching from the steel mills. Once a day you could see a huge orange cloud of smoke emanating from one of the mills. The surrounding neighborhood homes were covered with orange dust until emissions regulations and equipment went into effect.
The orange smoke was from the iron oxide particulate. They have special filters these days to scrub that out before it gets into the surrounding atmosphere.
Every day, we would wipe that red dust from the window sills, just another day in Cleveland..
For those of us living near the steel mills, cleaning that red dust from the window sills was a daily task.
That’s sounds really disgusting.
All big, industrialized cities in the United States looked like this - my dad told me one time when he worked in an office in downtown Indianapolis Indiana that no one had air conditioning and the city was run by burning coal. At the end of the day because the windows were open he'd have dirt around his collar and his nostrils were a sooty black color from breathing in the coal dust.
I live in Las Vegas now but I’m originally from Cleveland I’m watching these videos because I’m home sick 🥲
So am I! Here in Phoenix....18 yrs now
The steel mills glowing at night, the soot creeping into the house and the constant smog, progress and employment. Cleveland was a working stiff city and proud of it.
It still is. Admittedly with less industry.
You have a funny definition of what ‘progress’ means. Maybe for the owners of the steel mills, but where were they found? In some exclusive enclave where they remained segregated from everyone else, including those who worked miserable jobs in their factories which made them ever richer. Nothing more than exploitation over people who are desperate
@@steveb7429 Remember this was after the Great Depression and WW II, people wanted jobs and to enjoy a good life. No one thought of the environment, such as the Cuyahoga River going up in flames.
Ive lived in cleveland my whole life, its crazy seeing how it used to look, the steelyard doesnt look much different today except they put a bunch of stores at the foot of it
You wanna be drinking buddies, and go to happy dog?
Very cool thank you for sharing
Our city is much cleaner today luckily
This is how I remember Cleveland growing up. Everything was dingy.
Whoa cool collection of film. I was just down around the mill this afternoon and interesting to spot buildings that still exist. And all the area that's been gentrified.
This place looks erie !, especially with the music, very very ERIE.
I'm always amazed at the growth and wealth of the black community in Cleveland. Truly a culture to admire.
Thanks 4 posting this. Amazing video. Perfect music too. I think about my grandparents.
A lot of people are commenting on the air pollution viewed in these vintage films of Cleveland. Seeing that this appears to have been shot in the mid to late 1930s (based on the cars and trucks seen) imagine how bad the pollution was a few years later as the country was geared up for the massive industrial production as a result of WWII.
True. My mom’s family moved to cle in 1943 for better opportunities (she graduated from West Tech 1945). Despite that, She said Cleveland was cleaner than their old place next door to Weirton Steel! My Das grew up in Youngstown and said the same. Industrial America had quite an air about it
Family here since 05…1905!!!!!
Man its crazy to see how much Cleveland has changed over the years, and people are saying that this newer generation is causing mlre pollution on this earth but back then there was alot more pollution
At :55, it shows the former Upson Nut Co, but by that time it was Republic Steel Nut and Bolt Division. Too bad that there wasn't any footage from the Carter Rd. end of the property.
At 2:34. I am nearly certain that one can see St. Theodosius (?sp) Russian Orthodox church in the background.
at 00:41 and 1:06 is moore ct and w17th, right next to the lorain ave bridge.
I miss those days.... Most families and friends are long gone.... Times that we'll never see again 😪
It was the 1930s.......are you even old enough to have lived back then?
just got a job at a titanium mill wonder if it’s pretty much the same type of work as a steel mill I’ll find out soon ig
Thanks for this video. I remember the street car going across the high level bridge! My family and my wife's also were part of the people that made it great. And I remember the smog. Good times and bad. My grandchildren will never know but the insults leveled on our city. I will subscribe.
Fun fact: This was shot in color.
Beautiful film & music
Remarkable footage
The church at 2:45 was used for “the deer hunter” filming
I really like such landscapes. Maybe there's something wrong with me. I would like to live at this time, but the joy probably wouldn't last long
The way it was .. all that steel plants were still in place in the 70s.. I was there in the 80s!!!
Very cool video
Thank you so much for video
The orange dust from the mills, the stench from McGeen Chemical at the bottom of Harvard Ave. Harvard Dennison Bridge rotting from the chemical plants, Dworkin Trucking hauling rollstock from Republic Steel 94" strip mill the largest in the world at the time. Everyone worked and earned a paycheck, then the other countries took all the jobs away.
As a Clevelander, I'd like to point out the fact that no other country took jobs away. Politicians and Corporations collaborated and agreed to outsource the jobs to other countries in order to lower labor costs and increase profits.
Nobody "took our jobs". As it was said, our political and business leaders sold us out to the cheapest bidders. I guess that's the Free Market at work.
@@joseluna1875 you can thank the powerful and corrupt unions for that.
Tremont place lofts formally known as the union gospel press.
@3:24
Looks pretty similar now
we were then where other countries are now.
Same Cleveland I remember from the 60s and 70s just different cars. Thanks for uploading this.
There is one thing, a lot changed after 1963 and LBJs great new society b.s. 1964 the city was dead after 5 pm because of the federal housing projects and the rampant crime it brought. There was no more Christmas Story downtown, just danger. On the bright side the pollution is gone, the river is cleaner and the air doesn't smell like sulphur. You could see Cleveland 20 miles away back in those days by the fire and orange shroud it cast over the flats at night. Stay sick and turn blue !
Unfortunately LBJ's program (and continuing similar programs) have destroyed and bankrupt countless big cities. Many like Cleveland used to have a population of nearly one million. Of course these are facts that tend to get people upset as they defend their brand of political Kool-Aid despite the obvious results.
All that being said I always thought Pittsburgh was the outlier in the Midwest. While they will always be our football rival they seemed to transition their economies better than most other cities.
I immigrated to the US from the UK in 1975 directly to Cleveland, a major industrial hub back then. For a skilled trained person willing to work, a lot of opportunities.
I remember knowing we were in Cleveland as soon as I could smell it,seriously,in the 60’s. Lived in Parma,Grandparents on West & East side.
@@paulbroderick8438 From what my dad tells me, you didn't even need to be skilled. You just walked into a factory, said "I'd like a job", and by lunch time you were already on the floor.
And if you had a job but didn't like it, you would walk outside, walk across the street, walk into that factory, and say you wanted a job. And again, you'd be working by lunchtime.
Back then if you were unemployed in Cleveland, you were just lazy. These days, if you're unemployed, it's because all the jobs have moved overseas, and the ones that are left don't pay a living wage.
Wow very erie depression 😢I'm glad my parents moved us to Florida in the late 60s
Cleveland looked like a much better city than it does today
There is no sky just smoke and smoke stacks, the river would burn and when it did rain it was acid rain . Nelson Algren
Cleveland was beautiful before it was carved up with freeways!
The EPA really put a lot of these industries out of business. I remember when we were a powerhouse of industrial jobs, but working in those conditions had to be very hard. We are much better off with clean air and water.
The EPA was created shortly after the Cuyahoga River caught fire in the late 60's.
Thank God for the EPA. Perhaps you and I both would be suffering from Stage IV lung cancer right now if not for the EPA
It's hard to believe that this is what home used to look like about a 100 years ago, Downtown don't look much like a downtown.
Those were the days when Americans called themselves Americans and were very proud of it. Them were the days when America was a power house; an industrial might that was only second to none! And yes those were the days when people cared about what they made and how they made it. We had such iconic companies like Pratt & Whitney, TRW, and Jones & Loucklin steel just to name a few. Power houses that gave its all in the war effort in WW11 and beyond. It wasn't until the very late 70's and earily 80's that our politicians were the very ones that sold out our country to the Mexicans and the Chinese and gave away our jobs and our way of life in exchange for money. Those very politicians who sold us out call themselves Americans! Yea,
right! They are just as much of a trader to this country as the trader who sells our secrets to foreign governments. I only wished that we had the America that we used to have, but that will never happen unless we all stick together, and I know that will never happen. I will be retiring soon, it's your world now PAY ATTENTION!
the thumbnail would be a fire album cover tbh
could you imagine with your windows open in the summer geesshhh
Now you'd just get robbed
@@goingbonkerswithmyhonkers9374 no,that's a different group.
Incredible to see!
This was a time when men and women dressed modestly - had more dignity. None of this ridiculous, woke, gender ideology garbage we have today in our culture, where young people have no idea what sex they are. Insanity!
And soot on their houses
I think your comment shows how insane you are. You came to this depressing footage of a poisoned, toxic city and somehow bring in modern talking points to it. Kinda sad how much brain rot you have from cable news.
Lynching, segregation, sexism, dangerous work conditions with very little regulation, another world war on the horizon. You know; the good ole days. GTFOHWTS.
A lot of that stuff isn’t there anymore.
asthma rate: 78%
Wonder how many people got cancer too, with all those smoke stacks spewing only God knows what.
@@briankay4229 nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide
this is evolution in action. A lot of American cities suffered this fate......Times have changed and our society is decentralized. The urban paradigm is doomed to fade away.
Remarkable.
I bet ppl were a long happier in these days
What? During the great depression, and the lead-up to WWII? No. No I'm happier today knowing that I don't need to work 10 hours for a loaf of bread, only to be told that I'm being shipped to Europe to fight Hitler.
The city looks cooler in these videos, but overall human quality of life was in the tanker.
This is like my hometown Pittsburgh but Cleveland at that time is worse
The Northeastern United States was dynamic due to manufacturing, but all that has been vanished due to overseas competition.
Summer 2020?
The music in this video is killing me. It sounds do somber and melancholic. Why??? 😂😂
Looks like a polluted industrial hellhole.
brownfield
But it's OUR hellhole!
But everyone worked for a paycheck.
Yes, yes but a abled bodied person could find a job without too much trouble and progress.
That's called industry, we used to have that here
Never Bern to Cleveland, hope it can rally business wise.
Come to Cleveland. It's literally NOTHING like what you've heard.
What could possibly go wrong?
Someone dropping their discarded, lit cigarette in the river.
It wasn’t a cigarette it was a doobie
Grim. Some green foliage might improve it.
What an awful situation for the families who had to work at the factories and live right next to them while being exposed to the fumes, smog, acid rain, noise, unpaved streets, etc. The men probably suffered from all kinds of cancer and died young while their wives worked all day tending to the children and doing house chores! The collapsing of heavy industry was terrible for Cleveland but the consequences of keeping such a polluting system was worse! Thus, I'm glad Cleveland is recovering slowly but surely and reinventing herself!
This is propaganda.. Cleveland had good jobs and people made money then... showing smokestacks and people begging for food is not accurate .. What did happen is people from surrounding states came to Cleveland to work . Thus the housing next to the mills. West Virginia, PA, Indiana they all came to work. So when the economy crashed there were alot of unemployed. Immigrants that came from WW2 Europe came with a shoestring .. They brought massive amounts of skill. German,Polish, Italian Ukrainian, Hungarian, Serbian on and on . Highly skilled machinists and mill workers were able to move to the suburbs with new found wealth.
Yep, Cleveland's Achilles heel has always been its inability to capture success. People get rich and move out.
@@ktoth29 I think the above is one of the most insightful comments I've read here.
One historian has written, "The history of America is a history of people moving west."
At least we're not Cleveland.
The lake was flammable but you could get a job & buy a house. #Allentown
Horrifying. What an industrial nightmare. Thank god that most of those factories shut down and big efforts have made over the years to clean up all of the pollution that they left behind. People actually go rowing in the cuyahoga river now
How you think you got here? Industry is what brought prosperity, and WORK for thousands of people. Where are the jobs now?
Mmmmmmm steel
😩👌🏻
Now the whole town is a Thug love. so sad I love my city
Highly annoying music...
HORRIFIC soundtrack!
pretty soon flush handle fixed - bye bye to this smelly pile 🤧👃💩💀