CLEVELAND 1868 AND 1906 STREET NAME CHANGES
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CONVERTING OLD HOUSE ADDRESSES (PRE 1906) TO NEW HOUSE ADDRESSES (POST 1906)
Click on the website below and follow the directions to find the current address for a pre-1906 address.
https://cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p128201coll0/id/942/
Look at the index pages for the street name that you are interested in. Find the page number that that street is listed on and then click on that page on the left. The page that appears will show you all the addresses on that street with the new address after 1906.
Once you have the current address, why not go to www.google.com and click on maps at the top.
Type in the current address and if "street view" appears, you can see what this house looks like today.
Why were the streets renamed in 1906? See below.
CLEVELAND STREET NAME CHANGES
FROM THE CLEVELAND CITY DIRECTORY
YEAR ENDING JULY, 1906
Ordinance No. 47575A - An Ordinance providing for the renaming of streets and the renumbering of houses to conform to one general system. Whereas, on account of the great extent of the City of Cleveland and the numerous thoroughfares without any particular system of designation making their location and naming complex and difficult, it is necessary to devise and enforce a comprehensive system for designating all throughfares within the limits of the City and a complete system of house numbering in keeping with its present designation; therefore,
Section 1. Be it ordained by the Council of the City of Cleveland, State of Ohio, that the names of all thoroughfares be changed or rearranged to conform with the following general system:
Section 2. GEOGRPHICAL DIVISION. All thoroughfares in the section bounded by Lake Erie, easterly City Limits, Euclid Avenue, and Ontario Street, shall have the suffix NE, meaning northeast, added to the name of said thoroughfare. All thoroughfares in the section bounded by Euclid Avenue, the easterly City limits, southerly City limits, to the river, the river to Canal Street extended, Canal street to Huron street and Ontario Street, shall have the suffix SE meaning southeast, added to the name of said thoroughfare. All thoroughfares in the section bounded by Lake Erie, Ontario Street to Huron Street, Huron Street to the river, the river south to the Cincinnati Slip, from Cincinnati Slip west to Lorain streets, Lorain street to the city limits, the west City limits to Lake Erie, shall have the suffix NW meaning northwest, added to the name of said thoroughfare. All thoroughfares in the section bounded by Ontario street by way of Vinegar Hill to Canal street, Canal street to the river, the river south to the southerly City limits, the southerly City limits and westerly City limits to Lorain street, Lorain street to the river at Cincinnati Slip and north along the river to Huron street, shall have suffix SW meaning southwest, added to the name of said thoroughfare.
Section 3. CLASSIFICATION OF THOROUGHFARES. The term "Thoroughfare" means all ways used or opened for public travel, whatever its present designation. All thoroughfares running in a general east and west direction shall be called avenues. All thoroughfares running in a general north and south direction shall be called streets. All diagonal thoroughfares shall be called roads. All short or disconnected thoroughfares running in a general north and south direction shall be called places. All short or disconnected thoroughfares running in a general east and west direction shall be called courts. All curved thoroughfares shall be called drives.
Section 4. All existing thoroughfares sall have their present designation changed as follows:
UNDERSTANDABLE EXPLANATION by Laura Hine:
1. The NE, NW, SE, and SW will always tell you what section of the city a street is in, be it Northeast, Northwest, Southeast or Southwest.
2. If a street name was changed to a numbered street, then the second letter of NE, NW, SE, and SW will tell you what the street is called today in 2002. For instance, in the first example, Aaron Street was changed to 36th St. NE. Today, in 2002, this would be called East 36th St. For another example, Abram Street was changed to 16th St. SW. Today, in 2002, this street would be called West 16th Street.
3. The numbered streets were given their numbers based on their relationship to the Cuyahoga River. The first street to the west of the Cuyahoga River is West 1st Street. The second street to the west of the Cuyahoga River is West 2nd Street. The same applies to the east side of the river. The first street to the east of the Cuyahoga River is East 1st Street and the second street to the east of the Cuyahoga River is East 2nd Street and so on.
Al. = Alley
Ave.= Avenue
Ct. = Court
Pl. = Place
Rd. = Road
St. = Street
1868 STREET NAME CHANGES
Cleveland passed an ordinance on April 21, 1868 changing the name of certain streets. Choose the name of your pre-1868 street in the column at the left to see what the name changed to.
The table on the left side shows the OLD street name in alphabetical order with corresponding NEW street names. Keep in mind that many of the old street names were changed into multiple new names.