Welcome to Cleveland! This loop starts on Public Square, the city's historic center, and visits a record-setting skyscraper, the square's oldest building, a grand library, a Victorian glass arcade, a marble bank with a giant vault door, City Hall, and the Rock Hall on the lakefront.
Each stop's audio starts by itself when you're within about 100 ft (free and unlocked stops only). Keep this page open with the screen on. Distances are straight-line, so follow the streets and watch for traffic.
Welcome to Cleveland! This is Public Square, the city's central plaza. It was part of the original 1796 town plan overseen by General Moses Cleaveland of the Connecticut Land Company, laid out on a New England model. At first it was a common pasture for settlers' animals.
Less than a century later, in 1879, it became the first street in the world lit by electric street lights, arc lamps designed by Cleveland native Charles F. Brush. On April 28, 1865, part of Abraham Lincoln's state funeral took place here. The square used to be split into four pieces by Superior Avenue and Ontario Street.
A 2016 redesign moved most traffic around it and made it friendlier for people on foot. The southern half has a cafe and a water feature beside the 125-foot Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument and a statue of Moses Cleaveland. The northern half is mostly green, with a statue of reform mayor Tom L. Johnson.
The city's four tallest buildings all face this square.
🚶 Walk to the next stop (570 ft · ~2 min walk): Walk to the south side of the square. The tall tower rising above Tower City Center is Terminal Tower. About 2 minutes.
This is Terminal Tower, 52 stories and 708 feet tall. When it was completed in 1927, it was the second-tallest building in the world. Until 1953 it was the tallest building in the world outside New York City, and it held the title for North America outside New York until 1964. It was Ohio's tallest until Key Tower was finished in 1991, and it's still second.
The Van Sweringen brothers built it as an office tower on top of the city's new rail station, the Cleveland Union Terminal. It was first planned at just 14 stories. The design, by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, was modeled on the Beaux-Arts Municipal Building in New York, and the tower rests on caissons that reach down 280 feet. Today it's part of Tower City Center, and in 2016 new owners converted 11 of the lower floors into 293 apartments.
There's an observation deck on the 42nd floor, reached by changing elevators on the 32nd. It has opened on weekends, so check ahead.
🚶 Walk to the next stop (850 ft · ~3 min walk): Cross back through the square to its northwest corner, on Ontario Street, to the dark stone church. About 3 minutes.
Enjoying this?
That was the last free stop. The full tour continues with 6 more stops: Old Stone Church, Cleveland Public Library, The Arcade, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Cleveland City Hall, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, each with narration, audio and walking cues.
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The first person to use code FIRSTCLEVE at checkout gets the full tour free.
