1.
1900 in architecture
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The year 1900 in architecture involved some significant events. July 19 - The Paris Métro opens, with entrances designed by Hector Guimard in 1899, antoni Gaudí begins work on the Parc Güell, which he works on for the next fourteen years. The Gare dOrsay, the modern-day Musée dOrsay, is built in Paris by Victor Laloux, the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower at the University of Birmingham, England, is completed. The OXO Tower in London, England, is completed, the Royer Printing House, designed by Lucien Weissenburger, is completed. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn, designed by Mikhail Preobrazhensky, is completed, villa Schutzenberger in Strasbourg, France, is completed. Kinloch Castle on the isle of Rùm, Scotland, designed by Leeming & Leeming, is completed, bullough Mausoleum on the isle of Rùm, Scotland, built. Royal Gold Medal - Rodolfo Amadeo Lanciani, grand Prix de Rome, architecture, Paul Bigot. English architect August 18 - Edward Habershon, English ecclesiastical architect
2.
1890 in art
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January 18 – February 23 – Seventh annual exhibition of Les XX in Brussels includes a display of work by Vincent van Gogh. Henry de Groux criticises his paintings but Albert Aurier praises them, from the exhibition, van Gogh sells The Red Vineyard to Anna Boch, said to be the only sale of his work during his lifetime. March 20 – April 27 – The Société des Artistes Indépendants show in Paris includes a display of van Gogh paintings. May 20 – Van Gogh moves to Auvers-sur-Oise on the edge of Paris in the care of Dr Paul Gachet where he will produce around seventy paintings in as many days, more than a dozen are size 30 canvases. June–July – Van Gogh develops his double-square painting technique, e. g. in the July paintings Wheatfield with Crows, July 27 – Death of Vincent van Gogh, van Gogh perhaps paints Tree Roots, then apparently shoots himself, dying two days later. September 20 – Theo van Gogh, assisted by Émile Bernard, november – Lucien Pissarro settles permanently in London. Claude Monet begins painting his Haystacks series, wellington – Eventide William R. Coats – Ypsilanti Water Tower, winner of Most Phallic Building contest Grand Prix de Rome, painting. Grand Prix de Rome, sculpture, Paul-Jean-Baptiste Gasq, Grand Prix de Rome, architecture, Emmanuel Pontremoli. Zeev Raban, Polish Jewish painter Jean Xceron, Greek-American painter Petar Dobrović, Serbian Expressionist painter
3.
Forth Bridge
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The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland,9 miles west of Edinburgh City Centre. It is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland and it was designed by the English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge to distinguish it from the Forth Road Bridge, construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. The bridge spans the Forth between the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry and has a length of 8,094 feet. When it opened it had the longest single bridge span in the world. It continues to be the worlds second-longest single cantilever span, with a span of 1,709 feet, the bridge and its associated railway infrastructure are owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Limited. Prior to the construction of the bridge, ferry boats were used to cross the Firth. In 1806, a pair of tunnels, one for direction, was proposed. Experiments in late 1864 with weighted caissons achieved a pressure of 5 tons/ft2 on the silt, encouraging Bouch to continue with the design. In August 1865, Richard Hodgson, chairman of the NBR, proposed that the Company invest GB£18,000 to try a different kind of foundation, as the weighted caissons had not been successful. Bouch proposed using a large platform underneath the piers,80 by 60 by 7 feet weighed down with 10,000 tonnes of pig iron which would sink the wooden platform to the level of the silt. The platform was launched on 14 June 1866 after some difficulty in getting it to move down the greased planks it rested on, and then moored in the harbour for six weeks pending completion. In September 1866, a Committee of Shareholders investigating rumours of financial difficulties found that accounts had been falsified, and the chairman, by mid-1867 the NBR was nearly bankrupt, and all work on the Forth and Tay bridges was stopped. The North British Railway took over the ferry at Queensferry in 1867, after the Tay Bridge collapsed in 1879, confidence in Bouch dried up and the work stopped. After the disaster, which occurred in high winds for which Bouch had not properly accounted, the Board of Trade imposed a lateral wind allowance of 56 lbs/ft2. Bouchs design was abandoned on 13 January 1881, and Sir John Fowler, W. H. Barlow and T. E. Harrison. The Forth Bridge is 8,094 feet in length, and it consists of two main spans of 1,700 feet, two side spans of 680 ft, and 15 approach spans of 168 ft. Each main span consists of two 680 ft cantilever arms supporting a central 350 feet span truss, the weight of the bridge superstructure was 50,513 long tons, including the 6.5 million rivets used
4.
Ypsilanti Water Tower
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The Ypsilanti Water Tower is a historic water tower in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. The tower was designed by William R. Coats and built as part of a city waterworks project that began in 1889. Located on the highest point in Ypsilanti, the tower was built in 1890 at a cost of $21,435.63, today the tower is frequently joked about for its phallic shape. An ordinance passed on April 14,1898, established a yearly rate schedule for residences with running water, rates were based on the number of faucets in use, the type of business that customers operated and the livestock they owned. A residence with one tap was charged $5.00 and a private bathtub cost an additional $2.00, saloon keepers paid $7.00 for one faucet, $3.00 for each additional faucet and $1.00 for each billiard table. Each cow a person owned cost $1.00, people who failed to pay their bill were subject to a $50.00 fine and ninety days in the county jail. It was completed on February 3,1890, at the cost of $21,368, the structure was the only water tower in the Ypsilanti water system until 1956. The Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority began operating and maintaining the structure in 1974 and that same year the tower was designated by the American Water Works Association as an American Water Landmark. It was also designated a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the Michigan Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the exterior was designed in the popular Queen Anne style of the period. Queen Anne design was less formal than other styles at the time. Instead it experimented with different shapes particularly towers, Queen Anne buildings also often had more decoration than this structure. The stone tower is located at the highest point of elevation of the city on Summit Street, the tower is made of Joliet limestone. The tower is 147 feet tall, has an 85-foot base, the substructure walls taper from a thickness of forty inches at the bottom to 24 inches at the top. The reservoir holds a 250, 000-gallon steel tank, when it was constructed it had a dual purpose. Not only did it store water but the water also generated electricity for the city street lamps at night. A marble bust of Demetrius Ypsilanti stands between a Greek and a U. S. flag at the base of the water tower, the city of Ypsilanti is named after this hero of Greek independence. The tower has long been a source of humor for comedians in the Ann Arbor–Ypsilanti area, in 2003 Cabinet magazine ranked the tower as the Worlds Most Phallic Building. List of towers American Water Landmark Media related to Ypsilanti Water Tower at Wikimedia Commons Ypsilanti Water Tower on LocalWiki
5.
Firth of Forth
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The Firth of Forth is the estuary of the River Forth in Scotland, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north and Lothian to the south. It was known as Bodotria in Roman times, in the Norse sagas it was known as the Myrkvifiörd. Geologically, the Firth of Forth is a fjord, formed by the Forth Glacier in the last glacial period, the Kincardine Bridge, the Clackmannanshire Bridge, the Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Bridge carry traffic across the firth. Queensferry Crossing, alongside the Forth Road Bridge, was expected to open in 2016 but has since been delayed until May 2017. From 1964 to 1982, a tunnel existed under the Firth of Forth, the shafts leading into the tunnel were filled and capped with concrete when the tunnel was closed, and it is believed to have filled with water or collapsed in places. In July,2007, a passenger service completed a two-week trial between Portobello, Edinburgh and Kirkcaldy, Fife. The trial of the service was hailed as an operational success. It was estimated the service would decrease congestion for commuters on the Forth road, despite the initial success, the project was cancelled in December,2011. Historic villages line the Fife shoreline, Limekilns, Charlestown and Culross, established in the 6th century, the firth is important for nature conservation and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The Firth of Forth Islands SPA is home to more than 90,000 breeding seabirds every year, there is a bird observatory on the Isle of May. The youngest person to swim across the Firth of Forth was 13-year-old Joseph Feeney, in 2008, a controversial bid to allow oil transfer between ships in the firth was refused by Forth Ports. SPT Marine Services had asked permission to transfer 7.8 million tonnes of oil per year between tankers, but the proposals were met with determined opposition from conservation groups
6.
South Queensferry
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Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply The Ferry, is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland, traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian. It lies some ten miles to the north-west of Edinburgh city centre, the prefix South serves to distinguish it from North Queensferry, on the opposite shore of the Forth. Both towns derive their name from the service established by Queen Margaret in the 11th century, which continued to operate at the town until 1964. Its population at the 2011 census was 9,026 based on the 2010 definition of the locality, the Gaelic name Taobh a Deas Chas Chaolais means Southern Side of Steep Strait. The name Cas Chaolas is older than the English name, it can be applied to either North or South Queensferry, the queen referred to is Saint Margaret of Scotland who is believed to have established a ferry at this point for pilgrims on their way north to St Andrews. She died in 1093 and made her final journey by ferry to Dunfermline Abbey and her son, David I of Scotland, awarded the ferry rights to the abbey. A local fair dates from the 12th century, the Fair also has a dedicated radio station, Jubilee1, which in May 2007 was awarded a licence to evolve into a full Public Service Community Station for North and South Queensferry. Queensferry hosts the annual procession of the Burry Man during the Ferry Fair. This unique cultural event is over three hundred years old, and likely pagan in origin, a local man is covered from head-to-toe in sticky burrs which adhere to undergarments covering his entire body, leaving only the shoes, hands and two eye holes exposed. On top of this layer he wears a sash, flowers and his ability to bend his arms or sit down is very restricted during the long day and his progress is a slow walk with frequent pauses. The key landmarks on the tour are the Provosts office and each pub in the village, the name Loony dook is a combination of Loony and dook, a Scots term meaning dip or bathe. It is sponsored by porridge maker Stoats and it is a recently instituted event whereby people dive into the freezing waters of the Firth of Forth on New Years Day, often in fancy dress. In recent years the event has attracted people from all over the world, a proposal to charge people to participate in this event was recently announced, the proceeds of which will benefit RNLI Queensferry. The event was conceived in 1986 as a suggestion by three locals for a New Years Day hangover cure. The following year it was decided to repeat the event for charity and it has grown to become part of the official Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations. A charge is now levied to cover the increased cost of organisation, the event has inspired similar, though smaller in scale, annual New Year Loony Dooks, such as in North Berwick in East Lothian and Kirkcaldy in Fife, both also on the Firth of Forth. Queensferry has a community band that evolved from being a school brass band to a youth band. It came third in the 2006 Scottish Brass Band Championships 4th section contest, St Marys Episcopal Church, also known as the Priory Church is the towns oldest building, built for the Carmelite Order of friars in the 1450s
7.
North Queensferry
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North Queensferry is a village in Fife, Scotland, on the Firth of Forth, between the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge, and 10 miles from Edinburgh. According to the 2008 population estimate, the village has a population of 1,150 and it is the southernmost settlement in Fife. The Scottish Gaelic name Taobh a Tuath Chas Chaolais means Northern Side of Steep Strait, the name Cas Chaolas is older than the English name Queensferry and older than the Scottish Gaelic equivalent of the English name, which is Port na Banrighinn. Cas Chaolas can be applied to either North or South Queensferry, Margaret is said to have made her arrival in Scotland here in 1068, and to have regularly used the ferry crossing when travelling between the then capital Dunfermline, and Edinburgh Castle. From around this time, the became known as the Queens Ferry. Margaret died in 1093 and made her final journey by ferry to Dunfermline Abbey and her son, David I of Scotland, awarded the ferry rights to the abbey. However, it is likely there was a settlement around the present site of the village long before the time of Margaret. North Queensferry over the centuries remained a community, with a population of probably no more than 600. Yet the numbers passing through the daily were huge. From noblemen to commoners, from Kings to cattle, all had to use the Queens Ferry to cross the Forth and it is recorded that Mary, Queen of Scots used the ferry on the day she was transported to Loch Leven Castle where she was imprisoned in 1565. The battle gave Cromwell control of Fife and the Firth of Forth, troops of the New Model Army under Major-General John Lambert crossed the Forth from Leith over several days. They landed at Cruickness, the point to the south of Inverkeithing Inner Bay, on 20 July as they moved north across the isthmus they were attacked by the royalist forces under David Leslie. Lambert was victorious and claimed his men had killed 2000 and taken 1,400 prisoners and it is believed that the destruction of the Chapel of St James by Cromwells men took place at this time. In the 18th century, the ground became a cemetery for members of the North Queensferry Sailors’ Society. The Town Pier, the ferry terminus for many years, was designed by John Rennie. The Harbour Light Tower was built in 1817, until then, ferries berthed both at the Town Pier and at the Battery Pier. To accommodate the deeper draughts of the new, larger steam-powered ferries, the Railway Pier, on the far side of West Bay, was the terminus of the new Dunfermline-North Queensferry Railway which opened in 1877. The Railway Pier was used as one of the ferry terminals from 1877 to 1890
8.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
9.
Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet
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Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet, KCMG, LLD, FRSE was an English civil engineer specialising in the construction of railways and railway infrastructure. In the 1850s and 1860s, he was engineer for the worlds first underground railway, Londons Metropolitan Railway, in the 1880s, he was chief engineer for the Forth Railway Bridge, which opened in 1890. Fowlers was a long and eminent career, spanning most of the 19th centurys railway expansion and he was the youngest president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, between 1865 and 1867, and his major works represent a lasting legacy of Victorian engineering. Fowler was born in Wadsley, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, to land surveyor John Fowler and he was educated privately at Whitley Hall near Ecclesfield. He trained under John Towlerton Leather, engineer of the Sheffield waterworks, from 1837 he worked for John Urpeth Rastrick on railway projects including the London and Brighton Railway and the unbuilt West Cumberland and Furness Railway. He then worked again for George Leather as resident engineer on the Stockton, Fowler initially established a practice as a consulting engineer in the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire area, but, a heavy workload led him to move to London in 1844. He became a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1847, the year the Institution was founded, on 2 July 1850 he married Elizabeth Broadbent, daughter of J. Boadbent of Manchester. Fowler established a practice, working on many railway schemes across the country. In 1853, he became engineer of the Metropolitan Railway in London. Constructed in shallow cut-and-cover trenches beneath roads, the line opened between Paddington and Farringdon in 1863, Fowler was also engineer for the associated District Railway and the Hammersmith and City Railway. Today these railways form the majority of the London Undergrounds Circle line, for his work on the Metropolitan Railway Fowler was paid the great sum of £152,000, with £157,000, from the District Railway. Other railways that Fowler consulted for were the London Tilbury and Southend Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Highland Railway, following the death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1859, Fowler was retained by the Great Western Railway. His various appointments involved him in the design of Victoria station in London, Sheffield Victoria station, St Enoch station in Glasgow, Liverpool Central station and Manchester Central station. The latter stations 210-foot wide train shed roof was the second widest unsupported iron arch in Britain after the roof of St Pancras railway station. Fowlers consulting work extended beyond Britain including railway and engineering projects in Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Egypt, France, Germany, Portugal and the United States. In 1870 he provided advice to an Indian Government inquiry on railway gauges where he recommended a narrow gauge of 3 feet 6 inches for light railways and he visited Australia in 1886, where he made some remarks on the break of gauge difficulty. As part of his projects, Fowler designed numerous bridges. In the 1860s, he designed Grosvenor Bridge, the first railway bridge over the River Thames, both remain in use today carrying railway lines across the River Severn
10.
Benjamin Baker (engineer)
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Sir Benjamin Baker KCB KCMG FRS FRSE was an eminent English civil engineer who worked in mid to late Victorian era. He helped develop the underground railways in London with Sir John Fowler. He made many notable contributions to civil engineering, including his work as an expert witness at the public inquiry into the Tay Rail Bridge disaster. Later, he helped design and build the first Aswan dam and he was born in Keyford, which is now part of Frome, Somerset in 1840, the son of Benjamin Baker, principal assistant at Tondu Ironworks, and Sarah Hollis. He was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School and, at the age of 16, became an apprentice at Messrs Price, after his apprenticeship he spent two years as an assistant to Mr. W. H. Wilson. Later, he associated with Sir John Fowler in London. He took part in the construction of the Metropolitan Railway and he was also a key expert witness in the Tay rail bridge disaster of 1879. He designed the vessel in which Cleopatras Needle, now standing on the Thames Embankment. He published a book on Long Railway Bridges in the 1870s which advocated the introduction of steel. The book is remarkably prescient for the way the properties of steel could be exploited in structures, in 1880, he was called as an expert witness to the inquiry into the Tay Rail Bridge disaster. Although he was acting on behalf of Thomas Bouch, the builder of the first railway bridge across the Tay, he performed his role with independence and his testimony was against the theory that the bridge was simply blown over by the wind that fateful night. He made a survey of structures at or near the bridge. Such smaller structures included walls, ballast on the track on the bridge and it was an almost unique design as a large cantilever bridge, and was built entirely in steel, another unprecedented development in bridge engineering. Stiffness was provided by hollow tubes which were riveted together so as to make sound joints, Baker promoted his design in numerous public lectures, and arranged demonstrations of the stability of the cantilever by using his assistants as stage props. With Sir John Fowler, he designed and engineered the Forth Bridge after the Tay bridge collapse and it was a cantilever bridge and Baker gave numerous lectures on the principles which lay behind his design. Thomas Bouch had originally been awarded the contract but he lost it after the Tay Bridge Inquiry reported in June 1880, the bridge was built entirely in steel, much stronger than cast iron. He used hollow steel tubes to create the cantilever, and it was then the largest bridge of its kind in the world, the bridge is regarded as an engineering marvel. It is 8,296 ft in length, and the track is elevated 151 feet above high tide
11.
J. D. Sedding
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John Dando Sedding was an English church architect, working on new buildings and repair work, with an interest in a crafted Gothic style. He was a figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, many of whose leading designers including Ernest Gimson, Ernest Barnsley and Herbert Ibberson. The German architect and critic Hermann Muthesius said that he formed the first bridge between the camp and that of handicraft proper. Sedding was born in 1838, at Eton in Berkshire and he was the son of a village schoolmaster, who spent much of his youth in Derbyshire. He was fifteen when The Nature of Gothic first appeared in John Ruskins Stones of Venice, in 1858, like William Morris, Philip Webb and Norman Shaw before him, Sedding became a pupil of the Gothic Revival architect, George Edmund Street. His elder brother, Edmund Sedding, had trained as an architect with Street. Street had studied in the office of Sir Gilbert Scott, Sedding left Street in 1863 and by about 1865 he had joined his brother Edmund, who had set up as an architect in Penzance, Cornwall. The brothers shared an interest in music, and Edmund is remembered as the composer of the music for the hymn. Edmund suffered from tuberculosis and died young in 1868, Sedding moved first to Bristol, and then to London, though he always retained an affection for Cornwall, the West Country and country life. One of his first churches was the Anglo-Catholic St Martins at Marple in Cheshire completed in 1872, the interior was designed by William Morris with contributions from Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones and William Holman Hunt. In 1873 Sedding designed St Clements Church Boscombe, Bournemouth, a grade one listed church, the reredos, high altar, candlesticks, church plate, pulpit, lectern, choir stalls, encaustic tiles, statue of St Clement and rood screen were all designed by the architect. In 1876 Sedding met Ruskin under whose influence he developed a freer Gothic style, Sedding encouraged his students to study old buildings at first hand, focusing on the practicalities of craft techniques. He was elected a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1884 and his other churches include St Clements, Boscombe, Dorset, and those at Holbeton and Ermington in Devon, and St Elwyns at Hayle in Cornwall. At All Saints Church, Falmouth, he unconventionally combined tall round-arched arcades with Gothic windows and he also gained a reputation in the West Country as a skilled repairer of old churches. His most notable work in the Bristol area is the so-called House of Charity, with picturesque detailing. He added a new vestry to St Marys Church, Stamford, in 1890, and was the architect of St Edwards Church in the Hampshire village of Netley Abbey and he carried out restorations at St. Levans Church, St. With Henry Wilson, he was commissioned by 6th Duke of Portland to create an extension to Welbeck Abbey to link the old building with the Riding School and he was also commissioned to build a Chapel, which was also completed by Wilson. Sedding died on 7 April 1891, at Winsford in Somerset, there is a memorial on the north wall of the Lady Chapel of Holy Trinity Sloane Street
12.
Cleveland
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Cleveland is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the states second most populous county. The city proper has a population of 388,072, making Cleveland the 51st largest city in the United States, Greater Cleveland ranked as the 32nd largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 2,055,612 people in 2016. The city is the center of the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, the city is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border. Clevelands economy has diversified sectors that include manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, Cleveland is also home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Residents of Cleveland are called Clevelanders, Cleveland has many nicknames, the oldest of which in contemporary use being The Forest City. Cleaveland oversaw the plan for what would become the downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning home. The first settler in Cleaveland was Lorenzo Carter, who built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, the Village of Cleaveland was incorporated on December 23,1814. In spite of the swampy lowlands and harsh winters, its waterfront location proved to be an advantage. The area began rapid growth after the 1832 completion of the Ohio, growth continued with added railroad links. Cleveland incorporated as a city in 1836, in 1836, the city, then located only on the eastern banks of the Cuyahoga River, nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two. Ohio City remained an independent municipality until its annexation by Cleveland in 1854, the citys prime geographic location as a transportation hub on the Great Lakes has played an important role in its development as a commercial center. Cleveland serves as a point for iron ore shipped from Minnesota. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland, other manufacturers located in Cleveland produced steam-powered cars, which included White and Gaeth, as well as the electric car company Baker. Because of the significant growth, Cleveland was known as the Sixth City during this period, by 1920, due in large part to the citys economic prosperity, Cleveland became the nations fifth largest city. The city counted Progressive Era politicians such as the populist Mayor Tom L. Johnson among its leaders, many prominent Clevelanders from this era are buried in the historic Lake View Cemetery, including President James A. Garfield, and John D. Rockefeller. In commemoration of the centennial of Clevelands incorporation as a city, conceived as a way to energize a city after the Great Depression, it drew four million visitors in its first season, and seven million by the end of its second and final season in September 1937. The exposition was housed on grounds that are now used by the Great Lakes Science Center, following World War II, the city experienced a prosperous economy. In sports, the Indians won the 1948 World Series, the hockey Barons became champions of the American Hockey League, as a result, along with track and boxing champions produced, Cleveland was dubbed City of Champions in sports at this time
