Located on the southern shores of Lake Erie, Cleveland was founded in 1796 by General Moses Cleaveland, an agent of the Connecticut Land Company surveying the Western Reserve. The modest frontier settlement became a village in 1815 and an incorporated city in 1836. By 1896, Cleveland boasted the Cuyahoga Building, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Arcade, and the stately mansions of Euclid Avenue. Also known as "Millionaire's Row," it was home to Cleveland's industrial, commercial, cultural, and political elite, including Tom L. Johnson, a streetcar magnate and arguably Cleveland's finest mayor, and John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company and the nation's first billionaire. Native Clevelander Thea Gallo Becker takes you inside her city's rise to prominence.
Thea Gallo Becker is a native Clevelander, local historian, and author of Images of America: Lakewood. The vintage photographs presented here come from Cleveland State University Library's Special Collections.