The Cool History of Cleveland

During my Thanksgiving Day break, if you remember, I posted a piece on the West Side Market - a Cleveland institution. It is not surprising, however, to find that the West Side Market was the only major market place to survive in Cleveland. There were, in fact, many other markets including the East Side Market, the Franklin Circle Market, the Newburgh or Broadway Market; there was even a market place in the old Gordon Square Building (home of the Capital Theater) on Detroit Avenue. But perhaps the most stately of all these markets was the Sheriff Street Market (also known as the New Market).

Sheriff Street is what we now call East Fourth, but then it was a major avenue that connected all the way from Euclid Avenue to Prospect Avenue to Huron Avenue to Bolivar Avenue. If you walked that path today you would see Quicken Loans Arena on this spot. The historical record suggests the market opened up on Christmas Eve in 1891 (although the photo above suggests 1871). The market was privately owned by the Sheriff Street Market & Storage Company. The building itself was located on the east side of Sheriff Street from Huron Avenue to Bolivar.

It is difficult to imagine these days but when the market opened there was no refrigeration so meats and vegetables had to be purchased daily. And the crowds were massive at the Sheriff Street Market. In 1929, a significant part of the market was remodeled as a bus depot. Unfortunately, most of the market was lost in a fire in 1930. The only standing part of the building was the southern most part of the building (in the foreground of the picture above and below).

That part of the Sheriff Street Market was then used for storage until 1950 when it reopened as the Central Market. The Market was a magnificent, and massive, structure especially the middle rotunda area. There are no signs today giving some rememberance to this special market which is unfortunate, but it certainly reinforces my belief of how special Cleveland is.