EUCLID, originally part of EUCLID TWP., incorporated as a village on 14 Feb. 1903 and as a city in 1930. In 1914 a portion of the village's western edge was annexed to Cleveland, reducing its size to 10 sq. mi. A center for INDUSTRY in Cuyahoga County, Euclid is located on Lake Erie northeast of Cleveland, bounded on the east by Lake County and on the south by RICHMOND HTS and S. EUCLID. In the 19th century, the area was largely agricultural. Over 200 acres were given over to vineyards in the 1880s. However, the area's flat landscape and location on major rail lines (today's CSX and NORFOLK SOUTHERN) made it a prime area for industrial expansion. Village officials sought to hinder industrial development by enacting a zoning ordinance in 1922. Litigation by Ambler Realty Co. followed, leading to the 1926 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case EUCLID V. AMBLER, which established the constitutionality of zoning as a planning tool. Euclid's population at the time of its incorporation as a village was 1,640, and it rose more than 1,000% to 17,866 in 1940.
Euclid’s greatest industrial expansion occurred during and after WORLD WAR II in the corridor between St. Clair and Euclid Aves. Thompson Products’ (see TRW) TAPCO Plant was one of the wartime industries constructed in Euclid. As a result, Euclid’s population grew substantially, its expansion assisted by the construction of the Nottingham Filtration Plant in 1951 (see WATER SYSTEM). Between 1940 and 1970, Euclid’s population expanded by 400% to a peak of 71,552. Over 140 firms, including AM INTL., EUCLID, INC., FISHER BODY DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS CORP., LINCOLN ELECTRIC CO., PMX Corp. of Ohio, and RELIANCE ELECTRIC CO., were still located in the city in the early 1980s, but deindustrialization was taking a toll. Among the city’s large longtime manufacturing employers, only Lincoln Electric remained in the second decade of the 21st century. In some cases, industrial sites were redeveloped. The former CHASE BRASS & COPPER CO. tube mill was razed to build Euclid Square Mall in 1977, but the shopping center also closed 39 years later. After its demolition, the site was again redeveloped in 2019 as an Amazon Fulfillment Center for the online retailer that was expected to employ more than 2,000 full-time workers. The former PMX factory was redeveloped starting in 2009 as Bluestone Business Park, a speculative venture. The city’s industrial corridor became eligible for federal Opportunity Zone tax incentives in 2018.
As industrial employment declined, Euclid lost more than one-third of its population in the half century after 1970. In 2018, an estimated 46,946 people lived in the city. Among Euclid’s many ethnic groups, SLOVENES long predominated. In 1970, AFRICAN AMERICANS represented about 0.5% of Euclid’s residents. They comprised 9% of the population in 1980 and 31% by 2000. The racial transition of the city, part of a longstanding process of black suburbanization, accelerated as a result of the 2008-09 recession and foreclosure crisis that decimated central-city neighborhoods and increased the supply of affordable housing in inner-ring suburbs such as Euclid. The city, which was the largest single destination for more than 50,000 African Americans who left Cleveland and EAST CLEVELAND after 2000, became majority African American in 2009 and was 60% black by 2018. Amid the city’s demographic changes came roiling tensions over political representation and heavy policing. A federal court ruled in 2008 that Euclid’s at-large elections violated the Voting Rights Act. Allegations of police brutality followed a white patrolman’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black motorist in 2017.
The city has been governed by a mayor-council system. All city offices, as well as the police station, library, school board, and recreational facilities, are located in Memorial Park on E. 222nd St., with Briardale Greens, a public golf course, nearby. Euclid Symphony Orchestra formed in 1961 with support from the Euclid Inter-Service Club, followed by the Euclid Recreation Commission, and later by Shore Cultural Centre Corporation. In total the city offers 17 public parks ranging from small playgrounds to the 55-acre Memorial Park. In addition, 233 acres of the Euclid Creek Reservation (see CLEVELAND METROPARKS) are in Euclid. The local school system, independent of the county since 1922, had an enrollment of 5,400 students in 7 schools.
Updated by Mark Souther
Last updated: 9/2/2019
Keating, W. Dennis. The Suburban Racial Dilemma: Housing and Neighborhoods. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.
Voorhees, Leonard B. Euclid, Ohio, 1797-1847 (rev. ed., 1977).
Wiese, Andrew. Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.