In the mid-twentieth century, Cleveland, Ohio’s University Circle exemplified an emerging trend in which urban universities and other private institutions engaged in urban renewal. Situating the story of University Circle within the context of contemporary concerns about urban decay, deindustrialization, and suburbanization, the author argues that University Circle institutions were not simply trying to facilitate their own expansion. Rather, they were equally determined to create a setting appropriate to their regional, national, and even international reputations, as well as to advance the idea that an educational, medical, and cultural district could help reposition and rebrand a sagging industrial city. To do so, institutional leaders sought to make University Circle a bulwark against urban problems, which endeared them to suburbanites while constraining their relations with surrounding urban neighborhoods.
A Plan for the University Circle Community: A Proposal to University Circle, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, July 15, 1970 (White Plains, NY: Raymond, Parish and Pine, Inc., 1970), container 10, folder 251, University Circle Inc. Records (hereafter cited as UCI), Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio (hereafter cited as WRHS).
2.
On urban decline and deindustrialization, see Beyond the Ruins: The Meanings of Deindustrialization, ed. Jefferson R. Cowie and Joseph Heathcott (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003); Howard Gillette Jr., Camden After the Fall: Decline and Renewal in a Post-Industrial City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005); Colin Gordon, Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008); Steven High, Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt, 1969-1984 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003); Guian A. McKee, The Problem of Jobs: Liberalism, Race, and Deindustrialization in Philadelphia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008); Jon C. Teaford, The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940-1985 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990) and Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994).
3.
Some key works on urban renewal include Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983); Teaford, Rough Road to Renaissance; Joel Schwartz, The New York Approach: Robert Moses, Urban Liberals, and the Redevelopment of the Inner City (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1993); and June Manning Thomas, Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997). On urban renewal in Cleveland, see especially William D. Jenkins, ‘‘Before Downtown: Cleveland, Ohio, and Urban Renewal, 1949-1958,’’ Journal of Urban History 27 (May 2001): 471-96.
4.
Few historians have explored the dimensions of urban universities and educational, medical, and cultural districts as economic development engines in the postwar period. See Margaret Pugh O’Mara, Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Next Silicon Valley (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005); Michael Carriere, ‘‘Between Being and Becoming: On Architecture, Student Protest, and the Aesthetics of Liberalism in Postwar America’’ (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2009); and LaDale Winling, ‘‘Building the Ivory Tower: University Development and the Politics of Urban Space’’ (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2010).
5.
Teaford, Rough Road to Renaissance, 120, 146.
6.
See especially Thomas J.Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996); and Matthew J. Countryman, Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia ( Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).
7.
John R.Stilgoe, Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, 1820-1939 ( New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990); James Borchert and Susan Borchert, ‘‘Downtown, Uptown, Out of Town: Diverging Patterns of Upper-Class Residential Landscapes in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, 1885-1935,’’Social Science History26 (Summer 2002): 311-46.
8.
Preliminary Technical Report on a General Plan for the University Circle Area (Cambridge: Adams, Howard & Greeley, City Planning Consultants and Anderson, Beckwith and Haible, Architects , 1957), container 50, folder 99, UCI.
9.
On the Cold War’s impact on universities, see O’Mara, Cities of Knowledge.
10.
See, for example, list of Mount Sinai Hospital of Cleveland Board of Trustees, 1965-1966, container 4, folder 30, UCI. Of fifty board members, forty lived in Shaker Heights, and three each in Cleveland Heights, Pepper Pike, and Gates Mills, also on the east side. Only one board member, a resident of Wade Park Manor overlooking Wade Lagoon, lived in University Circle and, thus, in the city of Cleveland.
11.
The First Five Years (Cleveland: University Circle Development Foundation, 1962), 3, Vertical File, Department of Special Collections, Cleveland State University (hereafter cited as CSU); Alfred A. Benesch, interview by Maurice Klain, May 22, 1962, transcript, pp. 385-88, container 1, folder 28, Maurice Klain Papers (hereafter cited as MK), WRHS; Oliver Brooks, interview by Maurice Klain, June 21, 1962, transcript, pp. 364-65, container 2, folder 55, MK.
12.
John S. Millis to Harold T. Clark, January 2, 1952, container 50, folder 81, UCI; John S. Millis, minutes of first meeting of University Circle Conference Committee, September 20, 1952, container 50, folder 80, UCI.
13.
‘‘Mather Gift Spurs Master Plan for Enhancing University Circle,’’ Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 21, 1956, 1; ‘‘Circle Plans Backed by Mrs. Mather,’’ Plain Dealer, October 16, 1957, 50; Mrs. William G. Mather to Keith Glennan, May 6, 1957, container 50, folder 81, UCI. Mather’s interest in strengthening the city’s cultural heart also grew out of her longtime engagement in the Circle. She had founded the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland (now Cleveland Botanical Garden) and also worked tirelessly on plans to beautify Wade Park as a fitting campus for the Cleveland Museum of Art.
14.
Brooks interview, pp. 376-77.
15.
T.K. Glennan , interview by Maurice Klain, September 25, 29, November 13, 1961, transcript, p. 76, container 5, folder 239, MK.
16.
University Circle: A Plan For Its Development ( Cambridge: Adams, Howard & Greeley, 1957), 3-5. For more on Lynch’s role in shaping the modernist design principles that suffused the University Circle plan, see City Sense and City Design: Writings and Projects of Kevin Lynch, ed. Tridib Banerjee and Michael Southworth (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990), 701-2. Other American universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania, embraced plans that created inward-looking, pedestrian-oriented campuses. See Judith Rodin, ‘‘The 21st-Century Urban University: New Roles for Practice and Research,’’Journal of the American Planning Association71 (Summer 2005): 238.
17.
University Circle: A Plan For Its Development , 16-18, 59-60.
18.
Glennan interview, pp. 54-55; Brooks interview, p. 380.
19.
‘‘Pick Carothers to Head Circle Development,’’Cleveland Press, June 11, 1958, 23; Bob Reeves, interview by Matthew Ferraton, March 18, 2008, #920005, Cleveland Regional Oral History Project, digital file available from Center for Public History and Digital Humanities, CSU.
20.
Eugene Segal , ‘‘Circle Plan Gets Its Start Today,’’Plain Dealer, October 16, 1957, 1; Robert Bordner, ‘‘Director to Spur Circle Plan Is Sought,’’Cleveland Press, October 17, 1957, 81; Grant Anderson, ‘‘University Circle Looks to the Future,’’Case Alumnus, December 1957, 11, container 50, folder 79, UCI.
21.
John E. Bryan, ‘‘University Circle a $500 Million Asset,’’Plain Dealer, November 29, 1963, 34.
22.
‘‘Weather Cuts Circle Open House Crowd,’’Plain Dealer, May 271962, 2-AA; Allen Fonoroff to Will Burtin, March 31, 1966, container 20, folder 632, UCI.
23.
See, for example, Neil J. Carothers to Donald M. Lynn, June 19, 1958, container 15, folder 444, UCI.
24.
Anthony J.Celebrezze, transcript of remarks to Cleveland Engineering Society Tuesday Luncheon Club, October 24, 1961, container 3, folder 26, UCI; Neil J. Carothers to T. Keith Glennan, October 31, 1961, container 3, folder 26, UCI.
25.
Neil J. Carothers to Mrs. T. Wingate Todd, January 26, 1960, container 15, folder 444, UCI; University Circle: A Plan for Its Development, 51; ‘‘University Circle’s Future,’’Plain Dealer Pictorial Magazine, April 19, 1959, 2; The First Five Years, 6.
26.
Raymond Q.Armington, memo to Neil J. Carothers, December 6, 1967, container 2, folder 158, UCI.
27.
The First Two Years: A Progress Report on the University Circle Development Foundation (October 15, 1957 to October 15, 1959 ) (Cleveland: University Circle Development Foundation, 1959), 7-8, container 2, folder 180, UCI.
28.
Ibid.; Neil J. Carothers to Harold T. Clark, March 10, 1960, container 20, folder 640, UCI; Paul Lilley, ‘‘Tudor Arms Sought as Dormitory,’’Cleveland Press, July 28, 1960, A1; Brooks interview, 361.
29.
Todd M. Michney, ‘‘Race, Violence, and Urban Territoriality: Cleveland’s Little Italy and the 1966 Hough Uprising,’’Journal of Urban History32 (March 2006): 410.
30.
‘‘University Circle Acts Hit in Council,’’Plain Dealer, February 10, 1959, 1.
31.
Ibid.; ‘‘Testimony Set Tonight on University Circle Land Bill,’’ Plain Dealer, March 24, 1959, 21; ‘‘‘Little Italy’ Rallies Again to Fight Eminent Domain Bill,’’ Plain Dealer, April 1, 1959, 28; Murray Seeger, ‘‘University Circle Developers Get a Costly Political Lesson,’’ Plain Dealer, March 30, 1959, 17; Paul J. DeGrandis, interview by Maurice Klain, n.d. [ca. 1959], transcript, pp. 2-4 [pagination starts over after p. 44], Folder 138, Container 2, MK; ‘‘Circle’s ‘Domain’ Bill Dies,’’ Cleveland Press, April 2, 1959; ‘‘Land Right for U. Circle Withdrawn,’’ Plain Dealer, April 3, 1959, 16.
32.
Neil J. Carothers to Dr. T. Keith Glennan, April 18, 1961, container 3, folder 26, UCI; Typescript report, ‘‘Alta Area,’’ January 20, 1964, pp. 1-2, 5, 15-18, container 3, folder 1, UCI; Carothers to Glennan, October 12, 1964, container 10, folder 270, UCI; Carothers to Al Alissi, February 20, 1967, container 3, folder 4, UCI.
33.
Neil J. Carothers to Lyle E. Schaller , January 30, 1968, container 20, folder 630, UCI; ‘‘Universities Join City in Improving Area,’’Business Week, September 23, 1961177-80.
34.
Neil J. Carothers, interview by Maurice Klain, n.d. [ca. 1964], transcript, p. 78, Folder 83, Container 2, MK. The Cleveland City Planning Commission and the city’s urban renewal department, likewise, deferred to UCDF for portions of the renewal plan located inside University Circle.
35.
Downtown Cleveland, 1975: The Downtown General Plan (Cleveland: City Planning Commission, 1959); Eric A. Grubb to Upshur Evans, August 29, 1959, container 25, folder ‘‘Downtown Master Plan Correspondence,’’ Cleveland Development Foundation Records (hereafter CDF), WRHS. On the shift toward privileging downtown in renewal efforts, see Minutes of Meeting of Board of Trustees, Cleveland Development Foundation, October 5, 1958, p. 3, container 1, folder ‘‘Cleveland Development Foundation Minutes of Trustee Meetings, 1954-1969,’’ CDF. On Erieview, see Kenneth L. Kolson, Big Plans: The Allure and Folly of Urban Design (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 75-88. On the need to connect downtown and University Circle, see Minutes of Sixth Annual Meeting, Cleveland Development Foundation, January 14, 1960, p. 8, container 1, folder ‘‘Cleveland Development Foundation Minutes-Annual Meeting, 1954-1969,’’ CDF.
36.
Paul Lilley, ‘‘University-Euclid Plan Gets U.S. ‘Go-Ahead,’’’Cleveland Press, February 6, 1962, A1.
37.
‘‘University Circle-A Project for Mankind; Authorities Give Views on Circle’s Aims, Responsibilities to Neighbors,’’ undated typescript in container 15, folder 444, UCI.
38.
‘‘Review of University Circle Public Relations and Outline of Program for 1962-3,’’ May 1962, 6, container 15, folder 444, UCI.
39.
Ibid.
40.
Helen Weinberg , ‘‘An Enquiry: Mostly Metaphysical,’’Circle Review, November 15, 1963, container 50, folder 96, UCI.
41.
Summary of interview with Daniel J. Silver, May 11, 1962, container 15, folder 454, UCI; Summary of interview with Marvin Barloon, May 4, 1962, container 15, folder 454, UCI; Bud Weidenthal, ‘‘Developers Are Isolating University Circle Is Charge,’’ Cleveland Press, December 2, 1967, A9.
42.
On the Stanford Research Park and University City Science Center, see O’Mara, Cities of Knowledge, 97-181.
43.
Bill Tanner and Bud Weidenthal, ‘‘Glennan Sparks Campaign for Circle Research Park,’’ Cleveland Press, November 21, 1961, C4; Paul Lilley, ‘‘Research Park Sure at University Circle,’’ Cleveland Press, October 7, 1964, A1; ‘‘The U.S. Seeks Wider Base for Science,’’ Business Week, September 3, 1966, 62, container 58, folder ‘‘University Circle Research Center I,’’ CDF; Dr. Victor J. Danilov, ‘‘The Seduction of Science,’’ Industrial Research (May 1965): 42-43, 48, container 58, folder ‘‘University Circle Research Center I,’’ CDF; R. John Griefen, ‘‘A Research Park Does Not Live By Research Alone: The Success Story of Technology Square,’’ Urban Land, 24 (March 1965): 5, 7, container 58, folder ‘‘University Circle Research Center I,’’ CDF.
44.
‘‘Ground Broken for Circle Center,’’Plain Dealer, August 31, 1966, 6; ‘‘Construction Starts on Research Lab,’’Cleveland Press, January 28, 1969, A3.
45.
Donald Sabath , ‘‘University-Euclid Job Is Renewal at Its Worst,’’Plain Dealer, February 14, 1965, 1-A; Fred McGunagle, ‘‘Planner Doubts Rehabilitation Would Help University-Euclid,’’Cleveland Press, May 17, 1967, C3.
46.
List of UCDF trustees in University Circle-Ten Years, University Circle Development Foundation, 1968; biographical information in Cleveland Press Collection biographical clipping file, Department of Special Collections, CSU; Neil J. Carothers, interview by Maurice Klain, n.d. [ca. 1964], transcript, pp. 6-9, Folder 83, Container 2, MK.
47.
Unidentified document attached to: Joseph D. Pigott to Dr. James A. Norton, n.d., container 11, folder 309, UCI; Untitled typescript of speech by Neil J. Carothers, n.d. [ca. 1960], container 30, folder 325, UCI.
48.
Sidney Lewine to Neil J. Carothers, October 20, 1961, container 4, folder 30, UCI; Sidney Lewine to Neil J. Carothers, August 25, 1958, container 4, folder 30, UCI; Sidney Lewine to Neil J. Carothers, September 16, 1958, container 4, folder 30, UCI. It is not known whether UCDF complied with Lewine’s request.
49.
Editorial: ‘‘Policing the City’s Riches,’’ Cleveland Press, November 15, 1958, 6; Story Is Lukewarm on University Police,’’ Cleveland Press, November 15, 1958, 4; Typescript of speech by Neil J. Carothers to Lakewood Rotary, January 1959, p. 8, container 30, folder 325, UCI.
50.
Summary of interview with William Scheele, May 9, 1962, container 15, folder 454, UCI.
51.
Neil J. Carothers, memo to T. Keith Glennan, John S. Millis, and Stanley A. Ferguson, September 21, 1961, container 3, folder 26, UCI; Michney, ‘‘Race, Violence, and Territoriality,’’ 410-13; Roldo Bartimole and William S. Davis, ‘‘Fear Stalks Circle Area Night Workers,’’ Plain Dealer, May 28, 1965, 64. Howard’s concern was prescient, for in 1970 a white mob attacked an African student, leading the Kenyan ambassador to the United States to get involved. See Michney, ‘‘Race, Violence, and Urban Territoriality,’’ 422.
52.
Joyce B. Chapman to Gentlemen, September 22, 1958; Neil J. Carothers to Elmer J. Babin, October 1, 1958; Joyce B. Chapman to Gentlemen, January 17, 1959, container 15, folder 444, UCI. While they apparently did little in response, they remained concerned through the next decade about the further slide of the Euclid-East 105th area. The last evidence of Circle leaders seeing the area as a viable commercial district came in autumn 1960, when some of the officers of UCDF gave a small donation to some property owners who planned a Christmas lighting project for the area. See Oliver Brooks to Gerald Anderson, November 28, 1960, container 20, folder 640, UCI.
53.
Webster G. Simon to Neil J. Carothers, October 6, 1958, container 4, folder 47, UCI; Terie L. Wilson to Neil Carothers, October 29, 1960, container 20, folder 640, UCI.
54.
University Circle Development Foundation Board of Trustees meeting minutes, June 16, 1966, container 2, folder 168, UCI; Neil J. Carothers to Rabbi Daniel J. Silver, June 2, 1966, container 20, folder 632, UCI.
55.
‘‘United Freedom Movement (UFM),’’Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, ed. David D.Van Tassel and John J. Grabowski, http://ech.cwru.edu (accessed August 16, 2008).
56.
‘‘Review of University Circle Public Relations and Outline of Program for 1962-3,’’ May 1962, 1-2, container 15, folder 444, UCI.
57.
Michael Copperman, ‘‘University Circle, Public Relations, and the Surrounding Neighborhood,’’ January 30, 1964, container 5, folder 89, UCI.
58.
Oliver Brooks to George D. Beasley, October 13, 1964, container 10, folder 270, UCI; Neil J. Carothers, memo to Board of Trustees, June 8, 1967, container 2, folder 158, UCI; Oliver Brooks to Dr. John S. Millis, March 25, 1966, container 4, folder 40, UCI.
59.
Mrs. Mitsuko E. Marsh to Dr. T. Keith Glennan, May 12, 1966, and accompanying untitled document dated April 4, 1966, container 11, folder 318, UCI.
60.
Neil J.Carothers, memo to Board of Trustees, July 22, 1966, container 2, folder 159, UCI.
61.
Ibid.; Carothers to William H. Eells, September 28, 1966, container 20, folder 632, UCI.
62.
Neil J. Carothers, confidential memo to Sidney B. Congdon, Stanley A. Ferguson, John S. Millis, and Robert W. Morse, July 20, 1966, container 2, folder 159, UCI.
63.
Carothers memo to Trustees, July 22, 1966; Neil J. Carothers, confidential memo to President or Executive Director-U.C.D.F. Member Institutions, July 22, 1966, container 3, folder 23, UCI. For scholarly accounts of the riots, see Marc E. Lackritz, ‘‘The Hough Riots of 1966’’ (BA thesis, Princeton University, 1968); Michney, ‘‘Race, Violence, and Urban Territoriality.’’
64.
‘‘Cleveland: Promise Denied,’’ Time, June 9, 1967, http://www.time.com (accessed June 27, 2010); ‘‘Cleveland’s Urban Renewal Mess,’’ Plain Dealer, November 15, 1966, 14. For statistics on the availability of new housing units on Cleveland’s East Side by census tract prior to the riots, see Family and Housing Characteristics (Cleveland: Cleveland Real Property Inventory, 1950-1967), WRHS.
65.
Neil J.Carothers, memo to Board of Trustees, September 1, 1966, container 2, folder 159, UCI.
66.
Neil J. Carothers to Harry H. Stone, February 1, 1968, container 20, folder 630, UCI. The most complete account of the Glenville Shootout is Louis H. Masotti and Jerome R. Corsi, Shoot-Out in Cleveland: Black Militants and the Police: A Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969).
67.
Neil J.Carothers, memo to Board of Trustees, November 4, 1966, container 2, folder 159, UCI.
68.
‘‘Copter to Light Area of Slaying,’’Cleveland Press, November 10, 1966, A2; ‘‘Vapor Lights Ordered for University Circle,’’Cleveland Press, November 9, 1966, A1; Bud Weidenthal, ‘‘Brightest Lights Yet Set for Circle Area,’’Cleveland Press, December 26, 1968, A15. The re-lighting project was completed in 1971. See ‘‘New Lights Brighten University Circle,’’Cleveland Press, November 26, 1971, D6.
69.
Sidney Lewine to Neil J. Carothers, March 8, 1967, container 4, folder 30, UCI.
70.
Sidney Lewine to Neil J. Carothers, March 9, 1967, container 4, folder 30, UCI.
71.
William E. Scheele to Mrs. Harold T. Clark, July 30, 1969, container 4, folder 31, UCI. His statement suggests that would-be visitors from Cleveland’s largely white ethnic West Side would fear going to University Circle museums.
72.
Raymond Q. Armington, draft letter to Chas. Spahr, March 19, 1969, container 2, folder 156, UCI; Walker & Company, Public Relations (Cleveland, Ohio), memo to Murray M. Davidson, July 17, 1969, container 2, folder 156, UCI.
Countryman, Up South, 162; Donald Sabath, ‘‘Action Unit for U. Circle Seen as ‘Catalytic Force,’’’ Plain Dealer, April 26, 1970, 8-A.
75.
‘‘U. Circle Inc. Joins Hough Estate Plan,’’Plain Dealer, April 26, 1973, 11-A.
76.
Emanuel Hughley Jr., ‘‘Residents Vow to Delay New Road in the Circle,’’ Cleveland Press Community Weekly-Cleveland East Side, June 16, 1976, 1; Dale Maharidge, ‘‘University Circle: Remaining Housing Endangered,’’ Plain Dealer, September 21, 1977, 13-A; Roldo Bartimole, ‘‘UCI Memo Shows Just How Shabby Institutions Are to Citizens Who Want Better Neighborhoods,’’ Point of View, May 21, 1977, folder ‘‘University Circle-General-1976-1977,’’ Cleveland Press Collection, Department of Special Collections, CSU.
77.
Maharidge, ‘‘Remaining Housing Endangered;’’Tim Joyce, ‘‘University Circle Tenants Picket,’’Cleveland Press, April 4, 1977, D8.
78.
Dale Maharidge , ‘‘University Circle Begins to Fade Out,’’Plain Dealer, September 20, 1977, 3-B.
79.
‘‘Widening University Circle,’’ Cleveland Press, March 28, 1972, A8; Raphael Schlesinger, ‘‘Electronic Vigil Guards U. Circle,’’ Plain Dealer, July 28, 1972, 1-A. On the privatization of public space, see especially Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (London: Verso, 1990); and Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space, ed. Michael Sorkin (New York: Hill and Wang, 1992).
80.
Destination: University Circle (UCI Annual Report 2009), http://www.universitycircle.org/annual2009/uci-annual-website-2009.pdf (accessed June 27, 2010); Rodin, ‘‘The 21st-Century Urban University,’’239-46.
