Cleveland 1969: 50 vintage photos from that seismic year (2024)

Laura DeMarco, The Plain Dealer

Cleveland 1969: 50 vintage photos from that seismic year (and where to party like it's 1969)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – 1969: A seminal year in Cleveland. A year that changed the city, and country, forever.

The year the river infamously burned on June 22. Though this was actually the 13th fire and not the largest, it made Cleveland the laughing stock of the nation.

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It was the year Euclid Beach Park, open since 1895, closed after years of decline.

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1969 was the year of the terrible Fourth of July storm that killed 42 Northeast Ohioans.

A year of job loss, population loss, suburban flight and racial tensions that were still flaring in the aftermath of the Hough Riots and 1968 Glenville Shootout. It was a year of great decline for downtown Cleveland. A year when areas like the Warehouse District were ghost towns and Playhouse Square was crumbling.

Cleveland Memory Project

And yet, this lowest point was a changing point. The fire of 1969 led to the creation of the EPA and the Clean Water Act, thanks to the heroic efforts of Mayor Stokes. His election one year earlier made him the first African-American mayor of a major American city.

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It was also a year of great music, as acts like Janis Joplin, at Music Hall, and the early superstars of rock ‘n’ roll made their way through town. It was a year with legendary clubs like La Cave and Leo’s Casino bringing in rising rock and R&B greats.

It was the year of the first moon landing.

Hessler Road Museum

In Cleveland, it was the year of the first Hessler Street Fair.

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And the year the Cavs, who started playing in 1970, were born. (And the last good year for the Browns for many years.)

(Pictured, the new scoreboard installed at Cleveland Arena)

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It was a year of youthful activism, against racism and poverty and the Vietnam War. It was a year of change – and hope.

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Editors Note: The Cleveland History Center event scheduled for Saturday has been cancelled due to "unforseen circ*mstances." If you had already purchased tickets, contact the museum.

So it was a no-brainer when the staff at the Cleveland History Center had to choose a year to celebrate for their annual Somewhere in Time gala Saturday, Feb. 2.

“We thought, if we’re going to do 1969, and we are, this is the year to do it,” says Angie Lowrie, Director of the Cleveland History Center. “It’s obviously the 50th anniversary of the river burning and Euclid Beach Park closing, but of so many more moments in history, too.”

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The History Center has some big local connection to many of those moments: the restored 1912 Euclid Beach Carousel and a NASA lunar descent module made in Cleveland.

“The year was a low point in some ways, but our goal is to talk about where were we have come from there, such as cleaning up the waterways.”

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Not that there will be too much talking going on at the party - always a blast for the ages. Sure, there will be tours of the collections. But there will also be dancing and dining all night to 1960s music and flavors.

Those include some Euclid Beach treats.

“We’ll have Weber’s Euclid Beach vanilla custard and Humphrey’s popcorn balls and kisses,” says Lowrie.

See Also

1960s Cleveland: Vintage photos of Northeast Ohio

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There will also be “munchies” in the Lava Lounge; Peace, Love & Little Donuts; carousel rides; a costume contest for the most funkadelic 1969 looks and much more.

Even the tours, which will touch on the history of Hessler and Playhouse Square, will have a laid-back ‘60s vibe.

(Pictured: Coventry Road)

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“There will be pop-ups tours throughout the galleries, so guests can enjoy the evening at their own pace,” says Lowrie.

“The goal of this event is it’s a fun way to engage with different moment in history, to tie back to Cleveland and how we are a part of the national story.”

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Tickets

Contact the Cleveland History Center at 216- 721-5722 for more information on the cancellation and refunds.

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More photos

What a storied year 1969 was … in honor of its 50th here’s a trip back in time, from big events and famous people to neighborhood photos of a changing city.

Pictured: the new Halle's at Severance Center in Cleveland Heights.

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Cleveland Browns vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Browns made it to the NFL Championship Game in 1969, losing to the Minnesota Vikings. It was the end of their dominance. Following the 1970 AFL-NFL merger the Browns did not make it to the title game again until 1986.

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Mayor Carl Stokes and his wife, Shirley, during is Nov. 10, 1969 inauguration.

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Coretta Scott-King visits Olivet Institutional Baptist Church.

Photos courtesy of Stan Kain

Photos of and flyers from La Cave, a legendary Cleveland club that was located at East 106th Street and Euclid Avenue, from 1962 to 1969. The Velvet Underground called Cleveland a home away from home thanks to this La Cave, which hosted 24 shows by the group -- back when Lou Reed and the band couldn't get booked in other parts of the country.

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Cleveland firefighters aboard the Anthony J. Celebrezze fire boat extinguish hot spots on a railroad bridge torched by burning fluids and debris on the Cuyahoga River in 1969.

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Radio Shack at Southgate shopping center.

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A Vietnam Moratorium Demonstration.

Cleveland Public Library/Official City of Cleveland Photograph

Cleveland's historic Leo's Casino played a vital role in Cleveland's cultural and racial and musical history and was an important springboard for the Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and others. It was also one of the few fully integrated clubs in America, where black and white sang together even as America was being torn apart by racial tensions. Acts that played the club in 1969 included Gladys Knight and the Pips, the 5th Dimension, Stevie Wonder, Flip Wilson and Sly and the Famliy Stone.

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A tree on Wilbert Avenue downed in the 1969 July 4th storm.

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Nick Mileti announces the creation of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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The legendary Sterling Lindner store at E. 13th Street and Euclid Avenue closed in 1968. Pictured in 1969, before its demolition.

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The Brown family visits the Zoo in 1969. Many Clevelanders remember when peaco*cks roamed the Zoo.

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Playhouse Square was a shadow of itself by the late 1960s.

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Euclid Avenue, pictured at East 14th, was past its glory days by 1969.

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S&M TV & Appliances business owned by Sammie McDaniel.

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1969 was the first Christmas since 1926 without a Sterling Lindner Christmas tree; the store closed in 1928. So a 45-foot spruce was put up by the combined efforts of the city water department, the Chas F. Irish tree service, and an crew from the Midwestern Development Corporation.

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Baseball legend Larry Doby conducts a clinic for Cleveland kids.

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Mayor Carl Stokes discusses problems of pollution in the Cuyahoga River. His efforts led to the 1969 Clean Water Act and the creation of the EPA.

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Sunbathers at Edgewater Beach.

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Fred Ahmed Evans supporters parade down East 21st Street on May 3, 1969, during his murder trial.

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Reitman Camera Exchange store in Cleveland.

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52,189 fans turned out to cheer the Indians on Bat Day at the Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Indians were terrible in 1969, finishing 62-99.

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The Hough 79th Street Theater standing in disrepair in 1969, three years after the riots that tore apart the neighborhood.

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Erosion fights back: A house off East 314th slips into the lake.

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The Central Police Station Dispatchers Room.

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The Continental Art Theater.

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The "Two World's of Italy Festival" at Halle's.

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Republican mayoral candidate Ralph J. Perk, flanked Cuyahoga County co-chairman Robert E. Hughes (left) and Rep. Robert Taft Jr., Cincinnati, spoke to a huge crowd at Euclid Beach Park in 1969.

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Vice President Hubert Humphrey rides the Cleveland Airport Red Line Rapid.

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Blossom Music Center, opened in 1968, hosted acts including Judy Collins, Ravi Shankar and Herb Alpert in 1969.

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Four boys inspect damage to a car by a falling tree at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Willoughby.

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Detective William P. Mueller checks a Mustang involved in a shooting.

Andrew Cifranic

A 1969 ceremony for slain Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy at the William Ganson Rose Memorial Shell on Public Square.

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Mayor Carl B. Stokes up roots a sign, clearing the way for Hough Development Corp.'s Homes for Hough program to begin construction of a five-bedroom house at 1393-95 E. 89th Street.

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The Plain Dealer newsroom, March 4, 1969. Seated, from left to right, Mayor Carl B. Stokes, and from The Plain Dealer, James Naughton, Robert McGruder, and Bill Barnard.

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A freight airliner from Detroit landing at Cleveland Hopkins International skidded 250 feet off the end of the main runway in 1969. No one was injured.