Rail terminal

The 1903 Group Plan with a union station on the waterfront

The building complex was originally commissioned by the Van Sweringen brothers, prominent local railroad moguls and real estate developers. The center of the complex was Cleveland Union Terminal (CUT), a terminal for all trains coming into Cleveland via the various railroad lines in a concept similar to Grand Central Terminal in New York City.^[2]

When Cleveland Union Terminal was built, the train station allocated the northern set of tracks for interurban or rapid transit service and the southern set of tracks for inter-city rail service. The portion of the station above the interurban tracks was called the Traction Concourse and the portion above the intercity train tracks was called the Steam Concourse. The Van Sweringen brothers envisioned a network of interurban lines extending from the CUT in all directions. They even acquired right-of-way for some of the lines.

The complex was designed by the firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. Site preparation began in 1922, and approximately 2,200 buildings were demolished. Construction began in 1926, and structural work was completed by 1927. At the time, it was the second-largest excavation project in the world after the Panama Canal. The Terminal Tower opened to its first tenants in 1928. From its completion until 1964, the Terminal Tower was the tallest building in North America outside of New York City. Three other office buildings, the Medical Arts Building, Builders Exchange Building, and Midland Building, were built in addition to the Terminal Tower. The three Art Deco buildings are collectively known as the Landmark Office Towers Complex and were completed in 1929. In addition to the new buildings, the 1918 Hotel Cleveland was connected to the complex. Cleveland Union Terminal was dedicated and officially opened in 1930.

The facility included a number of retail stores and restaurants. Original designs for the complex show that at first the brothers did not plan on building an office tower within the complex. However, they eventually decided to build the 52-story Terminal Tower on the northeast side of the complex facing Public Square.

In 1931, the Higbee Company moved its main store to a new building connected to Cleveland Union Terminal. In 1934, the U.S. Postal Service moved its main Cleveland office to Union Terminal in a new building designed by the firm of Walker and Weeks. It was known as M.K. Ferguson Plaza under the ownership of Forest City Enterprises.^[3]

The Union Terminal served most rail lines: the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, New York Central Railroad and Nickel Plate Road.^[4] Exceptions were the Pennsylvania Railroad and initially the Erie Railroad.

Former departure board

Notable trains, particularly for their destinations included:

• Baltimore and Ohio Railroad:^[5]
  • Cleveland Night Express (Cleveland–Pittsburgh–Baltimore)
  • Washingtonian (Cleveland–Pittsburgh–Baltimore)
• Erie Railroad, with the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad:^[6]
  • Steel King (Cleveland–Pittsburgh, with morning and evening variations)
• New York Central Railroad:^[7][8]
  • Chicagoan (Chicago–New York)
  • Cincinnati Mercury (Cincinnati–Cleveland) (beginning in fall, 1951)^[9]
  • Cleveland Mercury (Detroit–Cleveland)
  • Empire State Express (Cleveland–New York)
  • Fifth Avenue Special (Chicago–Cleveland-New York)
  • Iroquois (Boston–Chicago; in most years operating westbound only; in some years terminating in Cleveland, in some years having New York as the eastern terminus)
  • North Star (New York–Cleveland; in most years operating westbound only)
  • Ohio State Limited (Cincinnati–Cleveland–New York; in some years stopping for east-bound trips only, in other years running through the city without stopping)
  • Pacemaker (Chicago–Cleveland–New York; in some years stopping for east-bound trips only; in latter years: Cleveland–New York)
  • Southwestern Limited (St. Louis–Indianapolis–Cleveland–New York)
• Nickel Plate Road (Norfolk and Western in final year of service):^[10][11]
  • Nickel Plate Limited (Chicago–Buffalo) [later named City of Chicago westbound/City of Cleveland eastbound]
  • Blue Arrow (Cleveland–St. Louis)/Blue Dart (St. Louis–Cleveland)

However, the station was never particularly popular with the railroads. It required deviating from the quicker route along Lake Erie. As the city would not allow trains to operate under steam power near the downtown area, trains were forced to switch from steam to electric power at a suburban rail yard when heading inbound and then reverse on the way out at another yard. As a result, some lines began to bypass the station entirely, heading along the lake route, and some trains stopped serving the city altogether (examples of the latter case: the New York Central Railroad's Lake Shore Limited and the New England States).

Several east–west routes on the circuit of trains bound east from Chicago through northern Ohio bypassed the city, traveling slightly to the south, passing through Akron and Youngstown, as in the case of B&O and Erie mainlines. In addition, national passenger rail travel had already passed its peak and was starting its gradual decline in favor of the automobile and, later, the airplane. The Erie Railroad, owned by the Van Sweringens, could not afford the electric transfer and continued to use its own nearby station until 1948, when it replaced steam with diesel locomotives and was able to serve the Union Terminal under its own power.

By the end of 1965, the B&O and the Norfolk and Western (the successor to the Nickel Plate) had terminated their last trains that had served Cleveland. By the end of 1967, the New York Central had discontinued all named trains that had run through Cleveland. All that remained as passenger trains were unnamed successors to trains #51 (westbound Empire State Express), #90 (eastbound successor to the Chicagoan), #27/28 (successor to the New England States) and #63/#64 (Chicago–New York) trains.^[12]

In the lead-up to the arrival of Amtrak, in 1970 the Erie Lackawanna ran an unnamed train to Youngstown.^[13] The Penn Central (successor to the New York Central) Chicago-bound trains stopping at the terminal included an unnamed remnant of the Empire State Express and another unnamed train. East-bound, there was an unnamed successor to the New England States, as well as two other unnamed trains. Southwest-bound there was an Indianapolis-destined remnant of the Southwestern Limited and an Ohio State Limited remnant bound for Columbus.^[14]

Amtrak's short-lived Lake Shore served Union Terminal for seven months in 1971, but the railroad found the rents prohibitive. When the new Lake Shore Limited began in 1975, Amtrak chose to construct a new station near Lake Erie adjacent to the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway.^[15] The new Amtrak station is located near the former Cleveland Union Depot, once served by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The former Erie Railroad commuter service, ultimately inherited by Conrail, was discontinued on January 14, 1977, ending the facility's use as a railroad station.^[16]

However, in 2021, a rail advocacy group by the name of All Aboard Ohio, voted in favor of returning Amtrak service to Union Terminal, in the anticipation of a proposed dramatic increase in rail service.^[17]

• 
  Concourse in 1987
• 
• 
• 
• 
  Platforms converted into parking decks

Diagrams of former Cleveland area railroad stations

New York, Chicago and St. Louis LS&MS (New York Central) - AMTK ERIE (Erie Lackawanna Railway) - CR CT&V (Baltimore and Ohio) - CVSR to Fostoria Lorain Avon Lake Bay Village Rocky River NYC to Toledo West 25th Cleveland Union Terminal Cleveland (Broadway) Euclid Avenue (Until 1930) East Cleveland (After 1930) NYC to Buffalo Euclid Wickliffe Willoughby Mentor Painesville to Buffalo to Toledo Elyria (Oberlin) (PC) Shawville Olmsted Falls Berea West Park Linndale Cleveland Union Depot Cleveland Union Terminal (AMTK) East 40th (formerly Case Ave.) East 55th (formerly Willson Ave.) East 105th East Cleveland Coits (formerly Coit) Collinwood Nottingham (formerly Euclid) Noble Wickliffe Willoughby Reynolds Mentor Heisley Painesville (PC) to Buffalo All stations are NYC unless noted otherwise: Amtrak (AMTK) Penn Central (PC) Cleveland Union Terminal East 55th Street East 93rd Street Corlett Lee Road–Shaker Heights North Randall Solon Geauga Lake Aurora Mantua Jeddoe Garrettsville–Hiram Mahoning Phalanx Leavittsburg Warren Niles Youngstown Main Line to points east Cleveland Union Terminal (B&O) Brooklyn (B&O) Willow (B&O) South Park (B&O) Rockside Canal Exploration Center Alexanders (B&O) SR 82 / Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge Brecksville (B&O) Jaite (B&O) Boston Mill (B&O) Peninsula Depot (B&O) Everett (B&O) Indigo Lake Ira (B&O) Botzum (B&O) Old Portage (B&O) Big Bend Akron Northside (B&O) to Akron CT&V Depot (B&O) to Akron Union Depot (B&O) Akron Junction (B&O) East Akron (B&O) Krumroy (B&O) Myersville (B&O) Aultman (B&O) North Canton (B&O) Canton Lincoln Highway Canton (B&O) North Industry (B&O) East Sparta (B&O) Sandyville (B&O) Mineral City (B&O) Valley Junction (B&O) Key: CVSR B&O

Shopping mall

Most of the platform area was demolished in the late 1980s renovation of the building. The station area itself was converted by Forest City Enterprises into a three-story, 367,000 square foot^[18] shopping mall and food court known as The Avenue, which opened on March 26, 1990. As part of the renovation, RTA rebuilt its rapid transit station beneath the center. The rest of the platform area was turned into a parking garage for the new complex. When the already renamed Tower City Center reopened, the mall housed many high-end retailers, including Bally of Switzerland, Barneys New York, Fendi, Gucci, Versace, and even had a letter of intent from Neiman Marcus to build a 120,000-square foot anchor store in 1992.^[19][20][21] Over the following 25 years, many of those shops were replaced by more-modest stores, some of them local retailers.^[22]

In 1991, two new 11-story office towers, the Skylight Office Tower and the Chase Financial Plaza, were added. The Chase Building houses Cleveland's Ritz-Carlton Hotel and The Skylight Office Tower housed the former Hard Rock Cafe. After the completion of the nearby Gateway project in 1994, RTA built an indoor walkway connecting Tower City to the complex. A second walkway was built in 2002 to connect Tower City with the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Courthouse.

Higbee's (by then bought by Dillard's) closed its department store in the complex in January, 2002. Positively Cleveland (formerly the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland) and the Greater Cleveland Partnership (the local chamber of commerce) opened offices in the Higbee Building in 2007. Until late 2010, the Cleveland Plus Visitors Center occupied the first floor.^[23][24][25] The building was opened on May 14, 2012, as the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland.^[26] After Rock Gaming LLC took over management of the Horseshoe, the casino was transformed into Jack Cleveland Casino and reopened on May 11, 2016.^[27]

In 2001, Time Warner Cable Amphitheater opened as an outdoor stage along the Cuyahoga River near the Tower City Complex. A site on the Cuyahoga River side of the complex was proposed as a location for a new Cleveland convention center, but in January, 2009 the Cuyahoga County Commissioners decided to redevelop the existing facility.^[28]

In July, 2021 businessman Dan Gilbert's company Bedrock announced plans to convert the mall into a "retail marketplace" with a blend of retail and entertainment.^[29] After renovations were completed in 2022, the main atrium was renamed to "Skylight Park".^[30]

Former Red Line station

Public Square
Red Line platforms
General information
Owned by	Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Construction
Structure type	Underground
History
Opened	March 15, 1955 (1955-03-15)
Closed	1980s-1990s
Previous names	Cleveland Terminal
Original company	Cleveland Transit System
Key dates
Interurban platforms built	July 20, 1930
Platforms rebuilt	1955
Former services Preceding station Rapid Transit Following station Lorain–West 25th toward Airport Red Line East 34th–Campus toward Windermere

The Red Line took the place of a never-completed interurban line. An additional vault for that line was located at Mayfield Road, now the Little Italy–University Circle station.

Former Shaker Rapid station

Tower City
Temporary platforms in August 2016
General information
Owned by	Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Construction
Structure type	Underground
History
Opened	July 20, 1930 July 31, 2016 December 28, 2020
Closed	1980s-1990s November 26, 2016
Previous names	Public Square, Downtown Terminal, Cleveland Terminal
Original company	Cleveland Interurban Railroad
Former services Preceding station Rapid Transit Following station 2016 West 25th–Ohio City toward Airport Red Line also 2020 East 34th–Campus One-way operation through to Waterfront Line Blue Line Green Line Settlers Landing toward South Harbor Waterfront Line through to Blue and Green Lines Until 1980s Terminus Blue Line East 34th–Campus toward Warrensville–Van Aken Green Line East 34th–Campus toward Green Road

These platforms opened with the extension of the Cleveland Interurban Railroad from just east of the ramp at East 34th Street and Broadway in 1930.

Connected components of Tower City Center

• Tower City station
• Chase Financial Plaza
• Jack Cleveland Casino
• Renaissance Cleveland Hotel
• Skylight Office Tower
• Terminal Tower

Sources

• Herrick, Clay (1987). Cleveland Landmarks. Cleveland: Cleveland Restoration Society. ASIN B000KCXJSS.
• Johannesen, Eric (1979). Cleveland Architecture 1876-1976 (Digital edition–2007). Ann Arbor, Michigan (Cleveland–Digital): University of Michigan (Western Reserve Historical Society–Digital). ISBN 978-0911704211.
• Rarick, Holly (1986). Progressive Vision: The Planning of Downtown Cleveland 1903-1930. Mishawaka, Indiana: Better World Books. ISBN 978-0910386869.
• Van Tassel, David; Grabowski, John (1987). The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, 2nd edition (1996). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253330567.
• Toman, Jim; Hayes, Blaine S. (1996). Horse trails to regional rails: the story of public transit in greater Cleveland. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. pp. 280, 295, and 297. ISBN 978-0873385473.
• Electric Railway Journal, 1918, Volume 51 (Classic Reprint) Paperback – September 27, 2015. New York City (Leicestershire): McGraw-Hill Publishing (Forgotten Books). 1918. p. 895. ISBN 978-1330512098.