Union–Miles Park is a neighborhood on the Southeast side of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. The neighborhood draws its name from Union Avenue (which bifurcates the northern part of the neighborhood), and Miles Park in its far southwest corner (originally the town square of Newburgh Village).
Union–Miles Park was originally part of Newburgh Township, which was organized in 1814. Settled by whites as an area of farms and orchards, Union–Miles Park became one of two centers in the Cleveland steelmaking industry beginning in 1856. The steel mills drew Irish, Scottish, and Welsh immigrants to the area, with the intersection of E. 93rd Street and Union Avenue becoming known as "Irishtown". After an 1882 strike at the steel mill was broken using Polish and Slovak strikebreakers, the large Irish and Welsh communities were displaced by these two new immigrant groups. Railroads cut through many areas of Union–Miles Park, defining the area. The steel industry in Union–Miles Park collapsed during the Great Depression. White flight from the area in the 1960s, and a strong influx of African Americans eager to take advantage of inexpensive housing, radically changed the demographic nature of the neighborhood. Since the mid-1970s, Union–Miles Park has been challenged by a high poverty rate, low adult educational achievement, extensive decrepit and vacant housing, high crime, and a lack of employment opportunities.
Union–Miles Park is bordered on the west by Broadway–Slavic Village, the northwest by Kinsman, the north by Mount Pleasant, the east by the Lee–Miles area, and the south by the city of Garfield Heights, Ohio.
Geography
Cuyahoga County is bifurcated along a northeast–southwest line into two distinct geographic areas. To the northwest of this line are the Till Plains of the Central Lowland physiographic section of the United States. To the southeast of this line is the Southern New York Section of the Appalachian Plateau. The Portage Escarpment forms the boundary line between these two geographic areas.
In what would become Newburgh Township, the Portage Escarpment acts as a moderately high bluff or ridge extending from Doan's Corners (located roughly at the modern intersection of Euclid Avenue and E. 105th Street) southwest, south, and southwest again to the old Newburgh Village. Northwest and west of the ridge, the terrain is relatively flat. It rises gradually in a series of sandy ancient beach ridges left by Lake Erie at a time when the lake was much larger than it is today. East and southeast of the ridge, glacial moraine covers the Allegheny Plateau as it rises gradually toward the Appalachian Plateau. This area is hilly, cut through by numerous dry ravines.
The western edge of Newburgh Township was bounded by the Cuyahoga River, whose valley lay below the surrounding land. In the north, Kingsbury Run acted as a natural border for many years between the city of Cleveland and Newburgh Township. To the south of Kingsbury Run, Burke Branch defined the route of Kinsman Avenue, and Morgan's Run that of Broadway Avenue. Mill Creek, a small tributary of the Cuyahoga River, formed the township's southern and southeastern boundary.
Union–Miles Park lies primarily east and southeast of the Portage Escarpment, with only the far southwestern part of the neighborhood on the Till Plains. Mill Creek helps define the area's southwestern border.
Early history
Early human settlers
Human beings first settled in northeast Ohio about 11,000 BCE, at the end of the Wisconsin Glaciation. The area, only recently uncovered by retreating glaciers, was initially tundra-like, but over time developed extensive evergreen forests. This highly nomadic hunting culture, known as Paleo-Indian, disappeared about 8,000 BCE, replaced by the nomadic hunter-gatherer Archaic culture. As the climate continued to warm, vast beech and maple forests (which continued to exist into the 19th century) supplanted the evergreens. About 2,500 BCE, this culture was in turn replaced by the semi-sedentary Woodland culture, which introduced ceramics and textiles to Ohio. The semi-permanent encampments of the Woodland people were usually atop high bluffs overlooking major river valleys, and consisted of low earthen walls and shallow ditches, which led early white settlers to mistakenly characterize them as "forts". Over time, these encampments were used for longer periods each year, and become more complex. Toward the end of the Woodland period, the Woodland people developed the bow and arrow. The more advanced culture of the Woodland people led to a major population increase in northeast Ohio.
A warming trend in the global climate about 800 CE created more agriculturally favorable weather in Ohio, which led to development of subsistence farming. A new society emerged, the Whittlesey culture (named for 19th century Ohio scientist Charles Whittlesey). The semi-permanent blufftop settlements of the Woodland period became small- to medium-sized permanent villages. The Whittlesey engaged in the farming of beans, corn, and squash, and developed an extensive fishing tradition.
Between 1600 and 1650 CE, the Whittlesey people disappeared. The cause—absorption into another culture, disease, emigration, low birth rate, warfare, or some combination of factors—is not known. By the time the Iroquois of what is now central New York began moving along the shore of Lake Erie into northeast Ohio in 1650 during the Beaver Wars, the area was almost uninhabited. In the early and mid 1700s, the Mingo, Odawa (or Ottawa), and Ouendat (or Wyandot) occupied the area after fleeing the Iroquois. By 1800, Native American emigration out of the area was occurring again, and few indigenous people lived anywhere in Ohio by 1850.
At least two of the Woodland people "forts" still could be seen in Newburgh Township. One settlement was about southeast of the Cleveland city limits on Broadway Avenue, near the modern intersection of Broadway avenue and Aetna Road. The encampment stood on a small spit on dry land, protected on either side by deep ravines. The Woodland people had erected two parallel, low earthen walls across the neck of the spit. A high artificial mound existed near this "fort". The second "fort" was located near what is now the CanalWay Center of the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks, and consisted of earthen walls approximately high, with a ditch in front of them.
Early history: White settlement prior to the establishment of Newburgh Township
In 1662, Charles II of England, ignoring existing Native American claims to the area, granted to the Connecticut Colony all lands west of the colony between the 41st and 42nd parallels of north latitude. These rights began at the western border of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and extended to the Pacific Ocean, although they did not include lands already ceded to the Province of New York or the Province of Pennsylvania. Charles and other English monarchs had also pledged these same lands to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the province of New York, Plymouth Colony, and the Colony of Virginia. In 1786, Connecticut ceded all its land claims to the government of the United States in exchange for cancellation of its American Revolutionary War debts. Connecticut retained only those lands known as the Connecticut Western Reserve, an area bounded by Lake Erie on the north, Pennsylvania on the east, and the 41st parallel of north latitude on the south. The Western Reserve extended for exactly to the west, and came to an abrupt halt. On August 3, 1795, the state of Connecticut sold the Western Reserve to the Connecticut Land Company for $1.2 million ($ in dollars). Sales to potential settlers began immediately.
The first settlers in what would be Newburgh Township were David Bryant and his son, Whitman, who arrived in June 1797. East of the Portage Escarpment, they found dense forests of American sycamore, beech, black walnut, eastern hemlock, eastern redcedar, northern red oak, Ohio buckeye, shagbark hickory, sugar maple, and white oak. West of the escarpment were American elm, ash, beech, and black cherry. In some places, settlers would have seen artificial meadows, created by Native Americans using controlled fire. On the flats which formed the valley of the Cuyahoga River bluegrass, white clover, and wild rye grew in profusion. American bison, eastern elk, and the extremely plentiful white-tailed deer were the most common game animals inhabiting the area. Canada geese, ducks, grouse, passenger pigeon, quail, and wild turkey were the most common game fowl.
In November 1799, Wheeler W. Williams and Ezra Wyatt constructed a gristmill at what is now Mill Creek Falls. In 1800, a sawmill was erected alongside the grist mill. Anticipating great growth in the area, in 1800 the 10 families which lived in Newburgh established the first burying ground in the township, the Axtell Street Cemetery, on at what is now E. 78th Street and Krueger Avenue (adjacent to the neighborhood's western boundary). Many of Newburgh's pioneer families were buried in there, including the Ames, Burk, Edwards, Gaylord, Hamilton, Holly, Hubble, Jewett, Miles, Morgan, Hamilton, Quayle, and Wiggins families. Their faith in the township's grown proved correct. Although the mouth of the Cuyahoga River initially drew the most settlers, a great many of these families moved into the highlands of Newburgh Township after finding their original homesteads prone to malaria. Among the area's settlers was Charles Miles Sr., who moved to Newburgh from Hudson, Ohio, in 1805. The Miles family later became one of the most important in the township. The first educational opportunities for youth in Newburgh Township were private classes, which began to be offered about 1800. The first school open to the public (upon payment of tuition) was founded in 1802 near the intersection of Woodhill (now E. 93rd Street) and Kinsman Roads. A second school followed at the intersection of Woodhill Road and Union Avenue a few years later.
A significant amount of road building occurred in the area just prior to and after the township's organization. By 1806, Newburgh Street (today's Woodhill Road and E. 93rd Street) had opened on the ridge between the grist mill and Doan's Corners. This area was now well-settled, with numerous farms and orchards alongside both sides of the road. The Newburgh Road (today's Broadway Avenue below E. 34th Street; not to be confused with Newburgh Street) and Pittsburgh Street (today's Broadway Avenue above E. 34th Street) were constructed about the same time. The Newburgh Road was the most heavily traveled road between Cleveland and Newburgh, made even more so by the opening of Ontario Street in 1812 (which connected Newburgh Road to Cleveland's Public Square). The Aurora Road (now Miles Avenue and Ohio State Route 43) opened about 1812 as well, although it was abandoned by 1820.
Newburgh Township was formally organized on October 15, 1814. Its first law enforcement officer was one-legged, one-armed police constable Gaius Burke.
Newburgh township and village
Early Newburgh Township
For much of its early history, Newburgh Township rivaled Cleveland in size and importance. Newburgh was considered so much more important that it was more common for the public to say "Cleveland, the town six miles north of Newburgh" than the other way around. The neighborhood's first public school, later known as the Miles Park School, opened in 1818 near the corner of Miles and Broadway Avenues.
Newburgh Township's importance began to wane after 1826. Cleveland and Newburgh had both vied for the location of the U.S. federal courthouse in Cuyahoga County, but Cleveland won the battle—allowing that city to permanently eclipse Newburgh.