I spent the day at Cleveland Public Library, and have copies of maps to prove it. Part of the history trail is hitting the usual hotspots — libraries, genealogical records. But the other part is talking to people.
Today at the library I talked with a man who told me about the Cuyahoga County Archives, where they keep records of everyone who has owned any given property. He also told me about a professor at Cleveland State University who has done studies of the various ethnic neighborhoods in Cleveland.
I stopped in at the information booth in the Terminal Tower and a woman named Joyce gave me the scoop on Cleveland’s warehouse district and a local historian.
I was struggling along wishing I could make a copy of EVERYTHING in the Cleveland Public Library maps collection, and the gentleman mentioned I was welcome to take photographs. Aha. Here’s a sample pic of a brewery in Cleveland, owned by Paul Schmidt back in the day, that was tucked into the Sanford Insurance map.
