Ohio City Preservation District (Boundary Increase)

This boundary increase enlarges the Ohio City Preservation District on Cleveland's west side, adding about 244 contributing buildings west, east and north of the original 1974 boundaries. Most are modest residences built between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, many small vernacular houses with late Greek Revival or Italianate details. Queen Anne, Stick Style and Carpenter Gothic houses appear as well, along with Neo-Classical commercial and apartment buildings, two Gothic Revival churches, a Second Renaissance Revival Chamber of Industry Building on Franklin Avenue and two 1930s schools. The street pattern shifts from the old Ohio City grid to a compass-oriented grid near West 44th Street, which created unusual angled intersections. Siding changes and conversions to multi-family use are common, but the houses keep recognizable period detail. The added area was judged to relate closely to the original district, and most of its buildings survive with few intrusions.