Cleveland IQ: Forest City Fun Facts

Forest City Fun Facts Cleveland IQ

Famous Firsts

• Alan Freed’s Moondog Coronation Ball, held at the Cleveland Arena on March 21, 1952 is regarded as the first ever rock concert.

• Cleveland was the world’s first city to be fully lighted by electricity in 1879.

• Cleveland was home to the first traffic light which began operating on August 5, 1914.

• East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland was the site of the first pedestrian button for the control of a traffic light in 1948.

• John Lambert of Ohio City made the first automobile in the US in 1891.

Photo Information: Top left to right: First Traffic Light; Severance Hall; Superman; Hope Memorial Bridge; Marblehead Lighthouse; The Lombardi Trophy at The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH;

• The Arcade, located downtown on Euclid Avenue, was the first large-scale indoor shopping mall in the United States. It first opened in 1890 and was financed in part by two of Cleveland’s most prominent citizens, John D. Rockefeller and Louis Severence among others.

• Cleveland hosted the first Monday Night Football game between the Browns and New York Jets on September 21, 1970.

• The first newspaper for African Americans, The Aliened American was published here in 1853.

• The world’s first electric streetcar, invented by Charles Brush, was operated here in 1884.

• Cleveland’s 225 kW Vestas machine is the first utility-scale wind turbine to generate electricity in the heart of an American city. It was installed by the Great Lakes Science Center in June 2006.

Fun Facts

• Life Savers Candy was invented in Cleveland by Clarence Crane in 1912.

• Euclid Avenue used to be called “Millionaire’s Row” and was home to John D. Rockefeller.

• Cleveland was originally spelled “Cleaveland,” named after General Moses Cleaveland. The “a” was dropped so that the name could fit into a newspaper’s masthead.

• “Hang on Sloopy” by the McCoys, is the city’s official song.

• Nicknames for Cleveland include: “The Forest City”, “ “Metropolis of the Western Reserve”, “Sixth City”, “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Capital of the World”, and “C-Town”.

• The first unassisted triple play in a Major League Baseball World Series was in 1920 by second baseman Bill Wambsganss of the Cleveland Indians. • The NFL’s Vince Lombardi trophy is awarded to the Super Bowl Champions each year and is handcrafted by Tiffany & Co. It was initially inscribed with the words “World Professional Football Championship” but was officially renamed in 1970 in memory of legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi after his sudden death from cancer and to commemorate his victories in the first two Super Bowls. The Lombardi Trophy lives year round at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

• The Cuyahoga River, which runs through Cleveland, is also known as “The River that Caught Fire,” since it has been aflame on 13 different occasions.

• The world’s largest rubber stamp, created for the Standard Oil Company, is located in Cleveland’s Willard Park.

• Before there was Metropolis, there was Cleveland. When comic writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster first came up with their iconic superhero creation in 1933,

they were high school students at Cleveland’s Glenville High School.

• In 1898, a Clevelander and avid golfer named Coburn Haskell inadvertently came up with the wound rubber design of modern golf balls.

Historical Facts

• Severance Hall’s Grand Foyer was called “a gigantic jewel box” by journalists when the building opened in 1931.

• Cleveland serves as a destination point for iron ore shipped from Minnesota, as well as coal transported by rail.

• John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland in 1870.

• Marblehead Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the Great Lakes, has guided sailors safely along the rocky shores of Marblehead Peninsula since 1822. The beacon

was automated in 1958, making the Coast Guard’s job easier.

• Many prominent Clevelanders from the industrial era of the early 1900’s are buried in Lake View Cemetery, including President James A. Garfield and John D. Rockefeller.

• The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was formed here in 1874 and soon spread throughout the nation.

• Terminal Tower, finished in 1930, was the tallest building in the US, outside of New York City until 1964.

• The Key Tower is the tallest building in Ohio.

• Cleveland Metroparks and its ring of park reservations is commonly referred to as the area’s “Emerald Necklace.”

• One Playhouse Square was originally used as the broadcast studios of WJW. Alan Freed coined the term “Rock and Roll” while a DJ on this AM station. • The Cleveland Orchestra is one of the “Big Five” major orchestras in the US. The other four are: the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony and Philadelphia Symphony.

• Paul Simon’s One Trick Pony movie was filmed at the Agora Theater on Euclid Avenue.

• Other movies filmed in Cleveland include: The Avengers, Stranger Than Paradise, Light Of Day, The Rainmaker, Almost Famous, Welcome To Collinwood, The Deer Hunter and A Christmas Story.

• Fashion Week Cleveland, held the first week of May each year, is the third largest fashion week in the US behind New York and Los Angeles.

• Cleveland’s sister cities include: Alexandria, Egypt; Bangalore, India; Cleveland, England; Lima, Peru, and Vincenza, Italy.

• The high level Lorain-Carnegie Bridge spans across the

Cuyahoga River and connects Lorain and Carnegie Avenues. It was renamed the Hope Memorial Bridge in the early 1980’s in honor of comedian Bob Hope’s family who were stonemasons in Cleveland.

Corporate HQs

• Applied Industrial Technologies-Supports Maintenance Repair Operations (MRO) and select Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) markets throughout North America.

• Eaton- A leading provider of electrical components and systems for power quality for industrial and mobile equipment as well as the aerospace industry.

• Forest City Enterprises-A diversified real estate management and development company.

• Sherwin Williams - Founded by Henry Sherwin and Edward Willliams in 1866.