Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland has at various times been known as an industrial bastion, incubator for Rock 'n Roll music, and as Connecticut's "Western Reserve." The last name come from the areas founding as a parcel of land in the Northwest Territory slated for Connecticut's expansion. It was a surveyor named Moses Cleveland, working for the Connecticut Land Company, who founded the city in the late 18th century. By the mid-19th century the shore of Lake Erie was lined with factories, shipping yards, and iron smelting opperations.

The completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1832 insured Cleveland a place in America's industrial backbone. By the end of the century the city was a major oil refiner, shipping hub, and manufacturing center; it was here that Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller made his fortune. By the 1920s what had been a small town had grown into a sprawling city, the fifth largest in the country.

After World War Two the city experienced another boom period. Manufacturing jobs attracted many to the city; hometown teams like the Indians and the Browns dominated professional sports, and brash young disk jockeys began to experiment with a sound called rock 'n roll. At the end of the 1940s the city's population reached its peak of 900,000 people, and it was one of the first cities in the nation to be named an All-America City by the Civic League. However, this heyday was short lived and by the early 1960s the Cleveland experienced a slump in heavy industry, racial strife, and increased out-migration.

The nadir of Cleveland probably occurred in 1969 when the city was facing financial woes and an environmental crisis when the heavily-polluted Cuyahoga river repeatedly caught fire. Since then the city has worked hard to dispel some of the negative attributes that were attached to its name in the 1960s and 70s. In the late 20th century it became a model for public-private partnerships and downtown revitalization. In the early 1990s it campaigned hard to get the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, outdoing New York, Memphis, and Cincinnati. The museum opened in downtown Cleveland on September 2, 1995.