sensational places historic spaces a n e w e n e r g y i n d o w n t o w n c l e v e l a n d history • cleveland cuisine • shopping • things to do A Publication of Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corporation 2 0 12 - 2 0 13 OBM FINDS NEW ENERGY DOWNTOWN. Ohio Business Machines trained technicians who started in 1975 at 18th and maintain a parts inventory St. Clair. After spending the with them, they are trained past 12 years in the suburbs to integrate document they decided to move their management with your offices back downtown to company’s software and the Nine Twelve District - that’s only the beginning. at 1111 Superior. 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COON RESTORATION & SEALANTS, INC. 216.485.2000 800-542-2666 OhioBusinessMachines.com www.coonrestoration.com 1111 Superior Ave. Suite 105 Cleveland, OH 44114 Contact us for an estimate! Awarded 2012 Elite Dealer by The Week in Imaging national magazine 2 cityvisitor.com 3 sensational places Contents historic spaces a n e w e n e r g y i n d o w n t o w n c l e v e l a n d PlayhouseSquare – 2013 Downtown’s Showcase Volume 3, Issue 1 for 90 Years..................................6 An annual publication of The fascinating history of our city’s rise Historic Gateway as a national leader in historic preserva- Neighborhood Corporation tion and adaptive re-use. 812 Huron Road, Suite 417 Cleveland, OH 44115 For more information about The Gateway District 216.771.1994 Sensational Things To Do ......18 A compendium of the best events Downtown has to offer. Produced by Attractions ..................................26 5755 Granger Road, Suite 600 Plays, music, sports, parks, monuments, Independence, OH 44131 entertainment – it’s all Downtown. www.cityvisitor.com For advertising information call 216.661.6666 Members .....................................30 Copyright© 2013 Comprehensive listing of the members All rights reserved by who support the Downtown Cleveland Historic Gateway Alliance, the Gateway District and the Neighborhood Corporation. Warehouse District. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corporation. Maps .............................................34 University Circle .......................................34 Advertisements and listings in Warehouse District .................................35 this publication are provided as a Gateway District .......................................36 public service to visitors to the The Gateway District. PlayhouseSquare .....................................37 Downtown .......................................... 38-40 Neither the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corporation nor City Visitor, Inc. is responsible for errors or omissions. All information is subject to change; it is advisable to call ahead before making plans. 4 cityvisitor.com 5 sensational places historic spaces a n e w e n e r g y i n d o w n t o w n c l e v e l a n d PlayhouseSquare Downtown’s Showcase for 90 Years! Euclid Avenue, PlayhouseSquare 1928 n a cold, Cleveland November night in 1922, high atop Downtown’s Keith This November 6, exactly nine decades later, the second production of a brand Building, the largest electric sign in the world flashed the news that the new season of the KeyBank Broadway Series opened in the same Palace Theatre, Palace Theatre had opened. Built by Edward Albee in honor of his friend magnificently restored, as part of the 90th Anniversary of PlayhouseSquare. From and business partner, B.F.Keith, the Palace was billed as the “Showplace of the glitter and glamour of 1922’s first night, to the huge outdoor video screens of theO World.” Headlining the opener was America’s favorite mimic, Elsie Janis, who shared today, PlayhouseSquare is a remarkable chapter in the history and the future of billing with Eduardo Cansino, Rita Hayworth’s father. Clevelanders flocked Downtown Downtown Cleveland. to the gala in the swankiest, most incandescent vaudeville theater in the country. With the opening of the Palace, the five showcase theaters of PlayhouseSquare were now The vaudeville and legitimate theaters changed with the city over time, becoming running luminously. Millionaire’s Row was no more, but the Twenties brought lines of lavish movie showcases, nightclubs, laser-light spectacles, a casino, a “Cinerama” the- people, elegant shops and restaurants and a vitality to upper Euclid Avenue that grew, ater, and, to the dismay of most, closing down in the late 1960s. A terrifying headline then receded, and now grows even more, after 90 years. continued on page 8 6 cityvisitor.com 7 sensational places historic spaces a n e w e n e r g y i n d o w n t o w n c l e v e l a n d Euclid Avenue, PlayhouseSquare Today PlayhouseSquare Downtown’s Showcase for 90 Years! continued from page 7 from the May 25, 1972 Plain Dealer moaned, “Lowe’s Ohio and State Theaters to Be The original five venues (Palace, State, Ohio, Hanna and Allen) were constructed in Razed.” the pre-Great Depression 1920s in a restrained classical style, with lavish use of ex- pensive woods, murals, tapestries, and gilded plaster relief. Vaulted ceilings, acres of The Playhouse Square Association, formed by Ray Shepardson in 1970, and aided by polished marble, even the sculpted brass drinking fountains reflect a world where a grant from the Junior League, galvanized a grass roots effort to save and support architectural detail, craftsmanship and vision meet. They’re worth a visit; there are Cleveland’s theatrical gems. The extraordinary Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living free guided tours the first Saturday of every month. in Paris opened in the State’s lobby in 1973 and, running for almost two years, acted as a catalyst in preserving the theaters, their history and offering a venue for live But there’s more to PlayhouseSquare than theater – it’s a vital, growing, vigorous entertainment – Downtown. The rebirth was heralded as a new era of downtown Downtown neighborhood, filled with restaurants, new living spaces and energetic revitalization and “one of the top 10 successes in Cleveland history.” people nearly every night. Elsie Janis and the thousands of performers and celebrities who have followed her over the past nine decades would recognize and delight in Now billed the world’s largest theater restoration project - also the nation’s largest the dynamism and brilliantly-lighted ambiance of PlayhouseSquare. performing arts center outside of New York City - PlayhouseSquare is the home to five brilliantly restored theaters – the Palace, State, Ohio, Hanna and Allen – as well as If we still had the Keith Building’s electric sign, it would glisten with the news that newer scenes like the 14th Street Theatre, Kennedy’s Cabaret, the Westfield Insurance after 90 years, PlayhouseSquare remains one of the true “Showplaces of the World.” Studio Theatre, Second Stage and the Lab Theatre, all providing a home for touring And it’s right Downtown. Broadway shows, concerts, comedy, dance and children’s programming. Hanna Theatre State Theatre Ohio Theatre Palace Theatre Allen Theatre 8 cityvisitor.com 9 Benesch Grows Downtown for 74 Years. Warehouse District A real neighborhood, steeped in history. The Benesch law firm has been headquartered in downtown Cleveland since Alfred A. Benesch, Jerome M. Friedlander and I. Robert Morris opened their doors in 1938. As Cleve- The creation of today’s Downtown neighborhoods began in the Warehouse District land thrived, Benesch thrived. The three man firm grew to in the early 1980s with the Bradley Building. The building was “taken over” by art- more than 180 attorneys in many practice groups in offices ists and became the first true artists’ loft between New York City’s Soho District and in Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Shang- Chicago’s Printers’ Row. Over the past 40 years the movement has grown to 23 loft- hai, White Plains and Wilmington. But downtown Cleveland style buildings converted to homes through adaptive reuse in a dynamic, bustling remains home. residential neighborhood. Benesch is dedicated to growth – the growth of its clients, The district’s unique history is as a hardware center, garment district and the city’s best representative of what its commercial heart looked like around the Civil War. It the growth of its colleagues, and the growth of the firm. was Cleveland’s main business district for most of the 19th century. Benesch’s core values focus on honesty, excellence, innova- tion, civility and meaningful contributions back to the com- Alva Bradley commissioned Cleveland architectural firm of Cudell-Richardson (circa munity. In fact, several of the firm’s practice groups have re- 1883) to design the Bradley Building. Bradley died in 1885, leaving the uncompleted ceived “First Tier” rankings from the US News Best Lawyers/ building to his eldest son, Morris. After the building was finished, it housed Morris Best Law Firms Survey. The Plain Dealer gave Benesch its “Top Bradley’s transit companies and real estate firms.