Exploring Heights’past through maps on March 7

Take a trip back in time and explore the Heights and all of Ohio using historic maps that have been georeferenced in Google Earth, a free program that manages multiple map layers so you can easily see how locations have changed over time.

A hands-on workshop exploring these maps and the Google Earth application will be offered at the Lee Road Library on Sunday, March 7. Register in advance at www.heightslibrary.org.

Find the circle that gave University Circle its name. Locate the Euclid Railroad that served the quarries at the northeastern edge of Cleveland Heights and South Euclid. See where J.D. Rockefeller’s home was in Forest Hill. View Fairmount Boulevard when it was a street car right-of-way.

Georeferenced maps date from 1842 to the present. Cleveland Heights was formed from parts of Warrensville and Euclid Township in 1903. The 1842 map of the Western Reserve, and the 1852 and 1858 wall maps of Cuyahoga County show the land ownership and early roads before the city was developed. Detailed Cleveland atlases were published in the late 1800s and early 1900s that documented the area using large detailed pages. The 1912 Hopkins Atlas has been georeferenced, allowing these pages to be combined into one large map of the area. The United States Geological Survey maps show the land elevation contours and locate important cultural details.

Links that load these maps into Google Earth are available from www.railsandtrails.com/GoogleEarth/. The maps are provided courtesy of the Cleveland Public Library, Bedford Historical Society and other area collections.

Stephen Tichenal is a retired teacher and librarian who lives in Cleveland Heights.

Read More on Heights History
Volume 3, Issue 3, Posted 1:33 PM, 02.16.2010