A dramatic front-page photograph by the Plain Dealer's David I. Andersen showed the lift span section of the West Third Street Bridge being towed downriver on a barge, framed by other monumental Cuyahoga River bridges, as part of a rehabilitation project. (May 7th)
On May 8th, Joan Mazzolini reported that the Cuyahoga County Commissioners have selected the empty Ameritrust Bank site as the new centralized headquarters building for county workers. The site, at East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue includes the landmark Cleveland Trust rotunda building, the 28-story tower next door and a parking garage. The rotunda building is a fabulous historical property in Cleveland and many preservationists have been holding their breaths for fear that something bad would happen to it before a new use for it could be found.
On a related note, historic preservation consultant Steven McQuillin wrote a letter to the editor on May 13th, stating that the planned demolition of the Ameritrust tower was unwise and he thought the former Higbee building was the better choice for the County's offices. (page B-8)
"A Day to Remember" was reporter Brian E. Albrecht's Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine story on local VE Day celebrations in Cleveland, as Nazi Germany surrendered in 1945. (May 8th, page 7).
The Cleveland-Akron area contributed greatly to the effort in World War II and with the end of the war, great adjustments were necessary to return to peacetime production. In "The workshop of democracy," the Plain Dealer's Thomas W. Gerdel writes of this period and its effects on local firms (May 8th, page G-4).
As part of its reporting on VE Day, 60 years later, the PD followed up the previous day's two stories with one about the contribution of women to the home front effort: "WWII's industrious women," by Janet H. Cho (May 9th, page E-6).
The old Warner & Swasey Observatory made it into the news again, as reporter Michael O'Malley wrote of retired Beachwood businessman Mort November's creation of a committee to study potential uses the building which might benefit East Cleveland. The May 10th article, "Drive aims to save old observatory: Domed building in East Cleveland endures ravages of time, neglect," (page B-3), picks up where his story in April's Plain Dealer, left off.
Teachers Becky and Bret Johnson spent a weekend living in the historic Dunham Tavern recently, to illustrate how life in 19th century Cleveland was really like, reported Angela Townsend, in a May 14th story (page B-1)
- We're always glad to hear about historical figures who are still among us, long after the events of their day have passed. On May 16th, Alana Baranick reported on one such person, Frank Joseph Leonardi, who died at 97 on April 4th, and was one of the stone masons who carved the giant Guardians of Transportation figures, on the pylons at both ends of the Lorain-Carnegie (Hope Memorial) Bridge. What was especially interesting was the photo which accompanied the page B-5 story, from the Western Reserve Historical Society's collections, showing Mr. Leonardi and the other workmen, posed on one of the Guardian statues, before it was installed on the bridge. It really brought history alive to see this photo and realize that there are still people around (his recent death notwithstanding) who were personal participants or witnesses to events from Cleveland's past.
Robert C. Klaiber, the Cuyahoga County Engineer, has been opening the lower level of the historic Veterans Memorial Bridge (a.k.a. the Detroit-Superior Bridge) to citizens, so they may be able to enjoy the former streetcar station and sights of the river from this fascinating vantage point. On May 28th, 1,400 Clevelanders took advantage of one such open-house, as reported by James Ewinger, in his article the next day, "Hundreds retrace Cleveland history." (May 29th, page B-1)
Little did most of us know that Lake Erie has its own version of a tsunami, called a "seiche," caused by rapid changes in wind direction. One such seiche drowned at least six people on Memorial Day in 1942, according to a front page article by Michael Scott on May 29th. That article, "Death from the lake: giant wave of 1942," reports that other killer waves have struck in Lake Erie in years past, killing 78 Buffalo residents in 1844, for example.
