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  Mystery Photo Album from the 1890s

  This is a small photo album that Special Collections acquired from a dealer. We know nothing about it, except what it discloses about itself: namely that it covers territory south of Cleveland, Ohio — in the Kent/Akron area along the Cuyhoga River, Ohio & Erie Canal and nearby towns — and that the photos were shot around 1897. Where something had been penciled in next to any of the photos, we have added it here in italics.

  If you know this area well, you might be able to help pinpoint the locations of the photos better and perhaps even solve the mystery of who the family is, shown in these photos. Any documented information will be added to the site.

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  Neighbors on the North Coast: Cleveland's Connection to the Mentor Shoreline

  Edith Serkownek

  Lying less than an hour to the east of the city, the Mentor shoreline has long beckoned Clevelanders to it with promises of nature, recreation, and expanding industrial opportunities. Through photographs, maps, blueprints, video clips and documents this site highlights the development of the Lake Erie shoreline along Mentor for both public and private uses. The material on this site resides in CSU Special Collections, The Lake County Historical Society and the Mentor Harbor Yachting Club archives.

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  Oral histories of Fenn College notables

  William G. Becker

  Listen to interviews with Fenn College notables most of them recorded back in 1976 by Millard Jordan, Fenn College Department of Sociology, 1925-1965, CSU Archivist, 1965-1977.

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  Oral histories of the women of Fenn College

  Mary Joyce Green Women's Center

  Listen to recorded interviews* conducted through CSU's Mary Joyce Green Women's Center with Fenn College alumnae, as well as Professor Jane Pease, as they talk about their experiences as co-eds at a private urban college during the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties.

  *All recordings are in MP3 format.

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  Parmadale Children's Village of St. Vincent de Paul

  Brenna Reilly

  At the time of its dedication in 1925, Parmadale Children's Village of St. Vincent de Paul led the way for a new style of how orphanages operated. It was the first orphanage to move away from the institutional type of care and to implement a cottage residential plan. Parmadale was a non-profit organization, established with planning and funding from the Catholic Charities Corporation, a fundraising agency focused on charities in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. The Catholic Charities Corp. purchased 180 acres of land and constructed Parmadale at the location of 6753 State Road Parma, Ohio (see Google Map). It is still there to this day under the name of Parmadale Family Services.

  The construction company chosen to build Parmadale was John Gill & Sons Co., a firm well-represented in Cleveland by its previous work on such noteworthy buildings as the Terminal Tower and the Federal Reserve Bank. The architect for this project was George S. Rider. Initially there were only 12 cottages, a school, central dining hall, kitchen, power house, and laundry room. Future additions included an athletic field and gymnasium in 1926, a pool in the 1930s, and a new administrative building in 1953, all necessitated because of the facility's gowth in population due to mergers and the closure of other orphanages.

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  Parrish and Bingham Company

  Erin J. Bell

  Founded in 1894 as a trolley and bicycle frame manufacturer, the Parrish and Bingham Co. quickly grew to become an important part of Cleveland's expanding industrial economy. Located at the corner of Madison Avenue and West 106th Street (41.476758,-81.759833), the Parrish and Bingham plant changed ownership several times, first in 1923, when it was merged with Detroit Pressed Steel Co. to form Midland Steel Products Co., a forerunner to Midland-Ross.

  By the 1930s, with an expanded line of products that included steel automotive frames and axle housings for cars, trucks and buses; the Madison Avenue plant became one of the central suppliers of automotive manufacturing components in the country, and the largest producer of automotive frames.

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  Patterson-Sargent Paint Company

  Kylie Carpenter

  The Burtis, Patterson, Sargent Company was formed in 1890 by former associates of Sherwin-Williams. In 1895, Benjamin Patterson, Sr. bought out his partners and the firm thereafter did business as The Patterson-Sargent Company. Operating under the logo "B.P.S.: Best Paint Sold," the firm manufactured paint, lacquers, stains and vanishes from their building at 1325 East 38th Street, at Hamilton Avenue. BPS was purchased by H.K. Porter Company of Pittsburgh in 1959.

  About the Photos

  The first set of images found here were bound together in an album discovered in the former Patterson-Sargent plant, now owned by State Chemical Solutions. They date from November 1943 to August 1946 and show expansion of the existing plant and construction of the railroad spur that would eventually run through it. They also show employees at work in the warehouse and loading area.

  In 2015, Ruth Fiordalis, granddaughter of Benjamin Patterson, generously lent Cleveland State two albums from the company, which expanded and overlapped somewhat in coverage with the State Chemical collection, and they have been added here.

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  Photographs from the Berea Children's Home

  Brian DeLuca

  In 1864, the German Methodist Episcopal Church founded the German Methodist Orphan Asylum to shelter Civil War orphans. Known today as Guidestone, but for many years as the Berea Children's Home, this private, not-for-profit, charitable organization serves children and youth needing specialized therapeutic programs. These 100 photographs from the Berea Children's Home and Berea Historical Society document the home's first 100 years of caring for neglected, dependent and abandoned children.

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  Playhouse Square

  Calvin Rydbom

  Playhouse Square came into being after World War I when local real estate developer Joseph Laronge, who had already opened the Stillman Theater on East 12th Street, formed a partnership to build a row of theaters on Euclid Avenue between East 14th and East 17th Streets, thus creating the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York City.

  Five theaters opened between February 1921 and November 1922 along Euclid Avenue between East 14th and East 17th Streets. Four of the theaters – the Allen, Ohio, State and Palace – were on the north side of Euclid, with the Hanna across the street in the Hanna Building.

  The theaters originally offered silent movies, legitimate theater and vaudeville. Later, during the Great Depression, movies became the main form of entertainment. While there were several factors to the theaters’ demise, chief among them was the post World War II change in the way people spent their entertainment dollars, with many people spending their leisure time in newly developed suburbs. Television was also a factor. While the Allen, Ohio, State and Palace theaters had opened in a 19-month span, it took just 14 months (from May 1968 to July 1969) for all four to close. The Hanna struggled to stay open for almost two more decades.

  In 1972, civic leaders stopped the planned destruction of the Ohio and State theaters. The purchase and eventual reopening of the Allen Theatre in October of 1998 meant that for the first time in over 30 years, all four marquees on Euclid Avenue burned at night. Shortly after that opening the Playhouse Square Foundation purchased the Hanna Building and the Hanna Theatre. Once again Cleveland could lay claim to the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York City. In a newspaper poll, civic leaders hailed “the saving of Playhouse Square” as the leading triumph on a list of the top 10 successes in Cleveland history.

  This Web site, a collaborative effort between The Playhouse Square Foundation and the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University, contains images of prominent figures and events from the history of Playhouse Square, as well as images of the theaters over time. This site also documents some of the productions that comprise the history of Playhouse Square from its inception to the present time.

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  Polish Americans of Cleveland

  Diane Kolosionek

  This site is currently under construction with many exhibit features planned. Please feel free to browse through features currently available and come back often to see new additions!

  If you have photographs or other historical items that you would like to donate or would allow us to scan as part of the Polish Americans of Cleveland web site, please contact Diane Kolosionek.

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  Postcards of Cleveland

  Jonetha K. Jackson, Mumtaz Mesania, Maribel Reyes, and Walter C. Leedy JR

  Walter Leedy began his comprehensive collection of Cleveland postcards, now numbering nearly 8,000 in earnest in 1989. The earliest of Leedy's postcards date from 1898, before many people traveled widely, had telephones, or saw movies or newsreels, and before newspapers ran many illustrations.

  Buying a picture postcard was an affordable treat common to all social classes, and collecting postcards often became a hobby. Even Queen Victoria was an avid collector... Read more about this collection.

  This Web site includes digital representations of over half of the postcards in Dr. Leedy's collection.

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  Praying Grounds: African American Faith Communities

  Regennia N. Williams, Crystal M.G. Johnson, Kristen Hoegler, Brian Mangol, Kathleen Marcy, Michelle Cook, Barbara Jernigan, Chaitanya Kadem, Pavan Kambhatla, Betty O'Neal, Caleb Smith, and Atul Tanawade

  "More than a century after the publication of The Souls of Black Folk...the church remains at the center of African American social life. However, like other aspects of social history, much of the history of religious institutions is “disappearing beneath our feet,” because not enough is being done to collect and preserve the primary evidence of the work of the church and to make this archival information available to established and budding 21st-century scholars. Praying Grounds: African American Faith Communities promises to help address this problem through the collection and preservation of archival material related to the history of these institutions in Greater Cleveland..." — Dr. Regennia N. Williams

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  Public Housing in Cleveland: A History of Firsts

  Caitlin Gelin-Milan

  Arguably, Cleveland is the birthplace of public housing. Ernest J. Bohn pushed for the development of public housing, which led to Cleveland being the home of many national public housing firsts. This list includes, but is not limited to, the first public housing law, first public housing authority (Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority), and the first federal housing project. See a timeline of events.

  This exhibit documents the visual history of the development of public housing in Cleveland using photographs from the Cleveland Press Collection.

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  Reed v. Rhodes

  Jacquelyn McCloud and Kevin Garewal

  The story of the desegregation of the Cleveland Public Schools spans decades. The first rumblings of discontent were voiced by African American parents in the late 1950s. The angry shouts of protesters reverberated through the city streets during the early 1960s. Against this backdrop, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) voiced its objections to the educational system in Cleveland, suing the Cleveland Public Schools and the State of Ohio in 1973. In Reed v. Rhodes, Case No. C73-1300, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendants intentionally created and maintained a segregated school system based on race in violation of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

  The controversy surrounding the racial segregation of the school system divided the community and resulted in an even more controversial decision by Judge Frank J. Battisti of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. On August 31, 1976, Judge Battisti held that the State of Ohio and the Cleveland Public Schools intentionally created and maintained a segregated school system, which violated the 14th Amendment rights of Robert Anthony Reed III and other similarly situated Cleveland school children. Reed v. Rhodes, 422 F. Supp 708, 796-97 (N.D. Ohio 1976), aff'd, 662 F.2d 1219 (6th Cir. 1981). In response to Judge Battisti's opinion, the Cleveland Public Schools implemented an integration program, which included cross-town busing and academic improvement requirements. The Cleveland Public Schools spent the 1980s and 1990s trying to achieve racial integration.

  On March 27, 1998, Chief Judge White brought the Cleveland school desegregation story to its end: "[A]ll vestiges of past discrimination and segregation have been eliminated to the extent practicable; and Defendants have demonstrated a good faith commitment to their constitutional obligations." Reed v. Rhodes, 1 F. Supp.2d 705, 757 (N.D. Ohio 1998). The Cleveland Public Schools remained under court supervision until July 1, 2000.

  Reed v. Rhodes was a victory for the NAACP and the desegregation movement in the United States, but the impact of Judge Battisti's decision on Cleveland and the public schools sparked a debate that can still be heard today.

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  Rocky River Ohio Photograph Collection

  Dori Olivos

  Located nine miles west of Cleveland at the mouth of the Rocky River, the city of Rocky River was formed as a hamlet in 1891, incorporated as a village in 1903, and became a city in 1930. When the first settlers arrived in the early 1800's they envisioned a bustling port on the Great Lakes, but instead the area remained largely rural while supporting the growth of family businesses. Clevelanders found Rocky River to be a great place for recreation and the arrival of the streetcar in the late 19th century made it an ideal location to live for those traveling to work in the city. Growing from a population of 5,632 in 1930 to just over 20,000 today, Rocky River continues to be a suburban community of beautiful homes and recreational opportunities supported by a variety of small businesses.

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  Roldo Bartimole -- Point of View

  Jodie Lyons and Vern Morrison

  Cleveland Magazine called him "the poor man's Tom Paine." John Wicklein in the April 1, 1993 issue of Progressive referred to him as "Cleveland's Gadfly." Whether you consider him to be Cleveland's conscience or "Cleveland's curmudgeon," from 1968 to 2000 iconoclastic journalist, Roldo Bartimole, rocked Cleveland's political boat with his biweekly newsletter, Point of View.

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  Settlement Houses of Cleveland

  Ryan DePretis

  The settlement house movement began in England in the late 1800's. These houses strived to educate the community, while trying to solve urban problems. Many settlement houses offered education classes, health care, and even served as a meeting place for the community.

  The first settlement house to open in Cleveland was Hiram House. It was followed shortly afterwards by Alta House, Goodrich House (now called the Goodrich-Gannett Neighborhood Center), Merrick House, and the Friendly Inn Social Settlement. Each of these houses served a particular community in Cleveland. The Alta House served the Italians in Little Italy, while the East End House initially served the local Hungarian population at that time.

  Settlement houses helped Clevelanders by not only bringing communities together, but by changing the community from within. Serving as a centerpiece for its neighborhood, the settlement house provided a local meeting spot for various groups and organizations. Some settlement houses, like Karamu House, founded in 1915 and dedicated to interracial theater and the arts, have achieved national renown. Settlement houses also offered vocational classes for the local workers, daycare for children, and worked with labor unions for better working standards in an effort to improve the lives of everyone in their respective communities.

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  Sheppard v. Maxwell

  Carolyn Hersch

  Some time after midnight on July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard was murdered in her Bay Village home. The home overlooked Lake Erie and had beach access. She was pregnant at the time. Her husband was an osteopathic doctor who worked at his family's hospital. They had a seven year old son, Sam Sheppard, Jr., who went by Chip. The husband, Sam Sheppard, claimed to have seen a "bushy haired" man, whom he tried to unsuccessfully fight off, and eventually passed out on the Lake Erie beach, after receiving a nasty blow to the head. At 5:45 am he called his neighbor, Bay Village Mayor Spencer Houk, stating that someone had killed Marilyn.

  Studying the crime scene, the coroner and some of the police had problems believing Sam Sheppard's story. They did not do their best work: they did not try to determine if Marilyn Sheppard had been raped, they let the media traipse through the crime scene, and they may have come to their conclusion before they processed all the evidence.

  The local media had a field day with the story. It was a slow summer for news, and the murder of a pretty doctor's wife held the public's attention. The media jumped to the same conclusion as the police did. Bay Village was a small suburb and needed the help of the Cleveland police to help with the case. The pressure by the media and the public to arrest Sheppard was high. In late July, Coroner Gerber held an inquest at Normandy Elementary School in Bay Village to get some answers. He did this after a headline in a local paper appeared, demanding to know why "someone was getting away with murder."

  During the inquest when Sheppard was questioned, he denied having an affair or ever thinking of divorcing his wife. This was untrue. During the early part of their marriage, Sam had thought of it. He also had a few affairs. The most notable one was with Susan Hayes, a lab technician from Cleveland who worked at the hospital. She later moved to Los Angeles. She was brought back and questioned about her relationship with Sheppard. Many people felt that this was the damning evidence to prove that Sheppard killed his wife.

  Shortly after the inquest, Sheppard was arrested for the murder of his wife. He hired attorney Will Corrigan and assembled a defense team which included Fred Garmone, Arthur Petersilge (who was already the family's attorney before the murder), and Will Corrigan Jr. who had recently graduated from law school.

  The prosecution team consisted of Saul Danaceau, John Mahon, Frank Cullitan, and Thomas Parrino. Notably, Mahon was also trying to get elected to be a judge in November 1954. Judge Edward Blythin presided over the court. He told Dorothy Kilgallen, a famous journalist who covered the case, that he was certain of Sheppard's guilt before the case started.

  Jurors were selected in October 1954. Their names, photos, and addresses were printed in the local newspapers. The jurors received mail from people, telling them to convict Sheppard.

  The trial started in late October. The media had unprecedented access to the case. People lined up to get a seat in the courtroom. Sheppard initially felt that he would be found innocent. His extended family was extremely supportive. His two brothers and father came to court every day, alternating their times so that someone could be at the hospital. His sister-in-laws came every day. Marilyn's family believed he was innocent as well.

  The trial went until mid-December. On December 21, 1954, the jury convicted Sheppard. Sheppard received a sentence of life in prison. Shortly after the conviction, his mother committed suicide, his father died of a bleeding ulcer, and Marilyn's father committed suicide in 1963. Chip Sheppard went to live with Steve and Betty Sheppard.

  Corrigan died in 1961. F. Lee Bailey took over as counsel. In 1964, after several attempts to appeal the decision, one was granted. In 1966, the Supreme Court heard the case Sheppard v. Maxwell, and came to the conclusion that Sheppard was denied due process and had an unfair trial, mainly due to the media circus that permeated the original trial. The court also found that blame lay with Judge Blythin who had refused to sequester the jurors and did not tell them to disregard the media.

  Sheppard was released and married, Ariane Tebbenjohanns, a German divorcee who had corresponded with Sheppard while he was in prison. He went back to the hospital, but was sued for malpractice after two patients died. He tried to make it on the wrestling circuit, going by Sam "The Killer" Sheppard. He later divorced Tebbenjohanns, and married the daughter of his wrestling partner, Colleen Strickland who was 20. Sam was penniless and an alcoholic. In 1970, he died of liver failure.

  His son has made many efforts to clear his father's name. During the 1990s, he tried to get prosecutor Stephanie Tubbs-Jones to reopen the case. She refused. In 1999, he filed suit against the state of Ohio, where he tried to have his father declared innocent, instead of not guilty. He also filed charges of wrongful imprisonment. The prosecution argued that Sheppard committed the crime. The defense tried to highlight Richard Eberling, a man who had washed the windows at the Sheppard's home days before the murder, and had been convicted of other murders. Susan Hayes, now a grandmother, was brought back to testify. The bodies of both Marilyn and Sam Sheppard were exhumed. Sheppard was found not guilty, but was not found to be wrongfully imprisoned.

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  South Euclid: City of Beauty and Contrast

  Jay Haarburger

  Incorporated as a village in 1917 and later into a city in 1941, South Euclid is a community that is situated in the Northeast corner of Cuyahoga County, Ohio (see Google map). The area was originally part of Euclid Township, which, in 1796, stretched from Lake Erie south to current Cedar Road, and from current E. 140th St. east to the Mayfield Township line. South Euclid was recognized as a population center by 1828, when it became one of Euclid Township's nine school districts.

  South Euclid's economy began with agriculture and, in the 1860s, expanded to include the quarrying of the area's sandstone beds. Circa 1860s-1910s, the northern portion of the town grew around quarrying and was called, Bluestone, after one of the two major beds. South Euclid's bluestone became a favorite material for use in the sidewalks in Cleveland and beyond. However, the invention of cement decimated sandstone quarrying and Bluestone village was absorbed into the rest of South Euclid when it became a village in 1917.

  The village experienced great growth after its incorporation in the early twentieth century. However, the Great Depression of the 1930s caused the town great economic damage. In 1941, South Euclid officially became a city. This new found city united together and worked as a community to support the war effort. Directly after WWII, the city experienced a tremendous amount of growth and prosperity. This rapid development continued until the mid-1970s when the city reached almost full development. Since that time, South Euclid has undergone major geographical and demographic changes, resulting in a city that contains a unique mixture of the historical and the modern, the old and the new, and allows residents to enjoy all aspects of mainstream American culture.

  With a current population of close to 23,000 residents, South Euclid is a unique city that is a microcosm of the entire Cleveland area. South Euclid, along with its sister city, Lyndhurst, are cities of beauty and contrast.

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  State Chemical

  Kylie Carpenter

  Founded in 1911 by the five Zucker brothers, the State Chemical Manufacturing Co. (today known as State Chemical Solutions, a division of State Industrial Products) has been producing industrial cleaning products as part of Cleveland's industrial landscape for over a century.

  The company has occupied four different locations in its long history, three of which are documented in this collection. The first was at East 4th Street. In 1913, it moved to 2162 East 2nd Street. By 1927, the company had grown so much that it moved into a newly-constructed plant and warehouse on East Superior Street.

  State Chemical continued to grow, eventually expanding into the Superior Avenue Baptist Church next door and purchasing a warehouse on Hamilton Avenue. This location became the company headquarters in 1966, and eventually expanded to cover an entire block. Today, State Chemical continues to manufacture and sell industrial cleaning products from its headquarters at 3100 Hamilton Avenue.

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  Stereoscopic Images of Cleveland in 3D

  The following images are scenes taken from historic stereoview cards showing Cleveland and the wider Great Lakes industrial region and converted into 3-D images.

  To be able to view the full effect of the 3-D renderings, anaglyph 3-D glasses (red/cyan) are required. href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaglyphs>Find out more about anaglyph images from Wikipedia.

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  The "Akron Sound" Museum

  Calvin Rydbom and Akron Sound Museum

  The "Akron Sound" Museum was established in 2015 to celebrate, commemorate and preserve the contributions and musical history of the Akron, Ohio area. The original mission of the museum was solely focused on the era during the 1970s and 1980s when Akron, and along with Kent, were arguably the punk capital of the Midwest. But over time it has grown to celebrate all of the region's musical heritage while still maintaining and celebrating The "Akron Sound" era as it's primary mission.

  Whether the music that came out of Akron and Kent is truly punk, as it's often described, is up to opinion. As Buzz Clic, the lead guitarist of the Rubber City Rebels who also ran the They Crypt that became iconic to the local music scene, said "I don't think any of the bands sounded alike but I think the spirit was the same. We were all just sick of being spoon-fed the music of the day and it appeared that the seat assignments were already taken, so when the "punk, new wave" thing came along, well... there was a wide open door and we all just went through it". So unlike others "sounds" that have risen up in different cities over the years, the label thrown on Akron/Kent at the time had more to do with an attitude than an actual style of music. Those a bit more cynical might even say it was simply marketing, but regardless a vibrant music scene existed.

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  The Avon Lake Collection

  Gabriel Venditti and Kathy Franzinger

  Avon Lake, Ohio is a city of 23,000 in the northeast corner of Lorain County, Ohio. It is 18 miles from downtown Cleveland and follows the shore of Lake Erie for five miles. An agricultural area that became a vacation destination, an industrial powerhouse and a commuter's haven, our history goes back over 200 years, and we have photos in this collection as far back as the 1890s.

  Featuring historic photos of homes, farms, businesses, schools, churches, community events and organizations, the Avon Lake Collection includes images from the Cleveland Press Collection, as well as many donated and loaned to us by organizations, businesses, and individuals who live here or have family ties here.

  The Avon Lake Public Library and the Avon Lake Historical Society worked together to collect these photos over the past three years, resulting in Images of America: Avon Lake (Arcadia Publishing, 2011). Many photos are here that did not appear in the book, and we continue to receive further donations and loans. If you have something "Avon Lake" you would like to share with the world, or if you want to help us upload and describe photos, contact us if you are interested. We provide training, follow-up and feedback.

  In addition, we are proud to present the entirety of Milburn Walker's 1965 book, The Avon Lake Story with the kind permission of the publisher, the Kiwanis Club of Avon Lake.

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  The Betty Klaric Collection

  Elizabeth A. Piwkowski

  Betty Klaric was a pioneering environmental reporter for the Cleveland Press. She began her career in 1955 as a "copy boy" at the paper, rising to reporter, assistant city editor, and first woman president of the Cleveland Newspaper Guild. Klaric's persistent and unflinching coverage of pollution in Cleveland's air, water, and soil inspired environmental legislation and community involvement, and won her national acclaim.

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  The Cain Park Theatre Collection

  Sean Dolan

  The first municipally-run, outdoor civic theatre in the country, Cain Park was the brainchild of Cleveland Heights Mayor Frank C. Cain and Heights High School drama teacher Dr. Dina Rees "Doc" Evans. Rising from the ashes of the Great Depression, Cain Park was built using finances and labor made possible by New Deal agencies, namely the County Soldiers and Sailors Relief Commission and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). From the beginning, "Doc" Evans' plans for the Park were ambitious, yet she accomplished nearly everything she set her mind on. Throughout the 1940's, Cain Park Theatre staged at least one production for each week of its ten-week seasons. These productions included works by Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen, Sardou, Pirandello, Gilbert and Sullivan, and countless others. There were dramas, musicals, period pieces, and comedies. No matter the genre, the seats at Cain Park's amphitheater were always full, during both good times and bad. The trials of a country at war and competition from the Golden Age of Hollywood did little to slow down the open-air theatre in the woods between Taylor and Lee roads.

  In fact, Cain Park Theatre, led by its co-founder and manager "Doc" Evans, did all it could to keep morale up during World War II. In March of 1942, "Army Red!", an original production written by Cain Park alumnus and serviceman John Price, showed the citizens of Cleveland Heights what it would be like if an actual air raid were to take place in their community. Cain Park Theatre was awarded a Citation of Merit by the Office of Civilian Defense for this effort. Later that same year, in August, a "Victory Sing" was held in which the community gathered at the Park to sing patriotic songs, led by the Cain Park Choral Society and the Cleveland Heights Symphony Orchestra. The following year, the Office of War Information (OWI) contacted "Doc" Evans about staging an "Industrial Show", a pageant to celebrate the contributions of Americans on the home front working in manufacturing plants to support the war effort. A "grand spectacle" titled "Flight For Freedom" was planned, in cooperation with the Jack & Heintz Co. of Cleveland, but it never came to fruition, mainly due to the U.S. Government's decision to eliminate the OWI.

  Some of the ways that Cain Park Theatre helped Americans get through World War II were more subtle, such as the Sunday Evening Community Hours that featured a guest speaker each week who would give a talk on topical issues and, often, moral and philosophical concerns of the day. However, perhaps the most telling page of the story of Cain Park's contribution to the war effort is one found towards the end of a theater program from the week of July 23, 1944. It lists the names of over eighty young men and women, all of whom had either played on the stage or worked behind it, who were currently serving overseas. Underneath it was an "In Memoriam" dedicated to three young men who would not be returning home.

  Some very big names graced the stage of Cain Park's amphitheater during its "Halcyon Years". Among them were local news legends (Dorothy Fuldheim), nationally recognized actors (Hal Holbrook), and internationally famous muses to Nobel-winning Italian playwrights (Marta Abba). Numerous theater directors, set designers, choreographers, and actors came from far and wide to take part in summer productions staged at Cain Park Theatre, making it an important and influential destination within the "Little Theatre" movement.

  Despite all this success, Cain Park never strayed from its roots as a municipally-owned venue operating with Mayor Cain's goal of providing dramatic entertainment for the community at an affordable price. It is safe to say that not only did Cain Park fulfill this mission, it also achieved "Doc" Evans' vision of becoming not just a theatre, but a school of the theatre, where those with acting talent and ambition could find an outlet. In return for this gift, the many alumni of Cain Park over the years gratefully served not just their community, but their country as well.