A Brief History of Cleveland State University A one-page history of CSU, tracing its beginnings as a free YMCA program in the 1870s, through accreditation as Fenn College in 1929, the incorporation of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and the eventual maturation of Cleveland State University into "a student-centered institution of academic excellence and a leader in innovative collaborations with business, industry, government, other educational institutions, and the community”.

Disasters in Cleveland History
Images of the fires, explosions, floods, and other calamities that have left their mark on the city over the years. Includes the infamous mid-20th century Cuyahoga River fires, the Collinwood School Fire of 1908; the Cleveland Clinic Disaster of 1929, the Waterworks Tunnel Disaster of 1916, and the East Ohio Gas Co. explosion and fires of 1944.

Fenn College On-Line
On September 1, 1965 Fenn College became Cleveland State University. This site, our vision of what an early Fenn College Web site might have looked like had the Internet been around in the 1960's, is in recognition of the many contributions of Fenn College and its graduates to the Greater Cleveland community.

Irish Americans of Cleveland
Over 200 images from our Special Collections, along with a sketch of Irish American life with excerpts from The Irish Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland by Nelson J. Callahan and William F. Hickey. Links to websites of contemporary Irish American organizations and culture will help acquaint you with Irish Americans today. And finally, to help you grab a piece of the past, we've selected artifacts found in an archaeological dig at the "Angle", or the old Irishtown Bend neighborhood.

First of a series of Cleveland Memory collections exploring the ethnic influences that helped shape the history and development of Cleveland.

Notable Blacks of Cleveland
Photographs of hundreds of individuals who made a significant contribution beyond their own personal and family lives to the history and development of Cleveland. Some of these people are or were famous, but many more have touched the lives of many others in relative anonymity.

Photographs from the Berea Children's Home 100 photographs from the Berea Children's Home and Berea Historical Society documenting the home's first 100 years of caring for neglected, dependent and abandoned children.

Postcards of Cleveland
Dr. Walter C. Leedy, Jr. began his comprehensive collection of Cleveland postcards, now numbering nearly 8,000 in earnest in 1989. Leedy realized the unique value picture postcards could have to him as an architectural historian, permitting him to observe the changing urban environment, or to visually recreate what a neighborhood looked like. As Leedy puts it, "I don't really collect postcards-I collect images of life, moments in time. Nostalgia glues people to postcards. There is something intimate and direct about them. As an art historian, I think of postcards as a vehicle to introduce art to the millions-people aren't intimidated by postcards the way they might be by paintings or other "fine" art."

Yesterday's Lakewood
Situated between Cleveland to the east and the Rocky River on the west, Lakewood, Ohio occupies 5.6 square miles along the southern shore of Lake Erie. Named for its natural setting along the lake, Lakewood's development was closely tied with that of Cleveland. This site contains images dating between 1909 and the building of the Rocky River Bridge through the early 1980's.