Warehouse District, Cleveland

The Warehouse District is a nationally recognized historic district located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It is roughly bound by Front Avenue, Superior Avenue, West 3rd Street, and West 10th Street.On September 30, 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Cleveland Warehouse District. On February 21, 2007, its boundary was increased to include 1384 to 1410 West 10th Street.HistoryIn the first half of the 19th century, this neighborhood was part of Cleveland’s original residential area. Later in the century, it became the center of Cleveland's wholesale commercial area, and was occupied by warehousing and distribution terminals for more than 100 years. But after warehouse traffic moved elsewhere, it fell into serious disrepair with empty, run-down warehouses. The area is historically anchored by major skyscrapers that echo Cleveland's industrial past, most notably the Rockefeller Building (Cleveland).After the late 1980s, the Warehouse District became a hot night spot for twenty-somethings and urban professionals, following a pattern pioneered in Cleveland by the Flats entertainment district, which it ultimately supplanted as the city’s premier weekend place-to-be.Recent developmentsThe metamorphosis to the Warehouse District’s current state began with the opening of Hilarities Comedy Club in the late 1980s . The transformation of the district initially sought to attract artists in live-work spaces, but rent and popularity became too high, and drove artists to nearby Cleveland neighborhoods of Tremont or the St. Clair Superior.