from Some Past Arms by Michael Ceraolo

 from    Some Past Arms, Present Locations (2020)

Colonel (later Major General) John Bradstreet

was returning to Fort Niagara

after fighting in Detroit,

                                  and

he decided to lay over in the area

on the night of October 18, 1764

The Rocky River was too dangerous

to navigate after dark,

                                 so

the sixty or so boats in his fleet

(the exact number unknown),

carrying over 1,500 troops,

moved back west of the river's mouth

almost two miles,

                           and put in

in a swale for the night

                                     Then

"a sudden surge of the lake"

probably a seiche,

                           struck the fleet,

damaging almost half the boats

(the exact number varies,

according to different reports),

necessitating a few-days-longer stay

to repair the boats

                               But

not all the boats could be repaired,

which meant that some soldiers

had to march overland back to Fort Niagara

Despite the hardships on lake and land,

only one fatality was reported

upon the return to the fort

Pieces of the damaged ships

continued to wash ashore

for most of the next century,

                                           and

buried arms were periodically found

during the same time frame

Today

Bradstreet's Landing is commemorated

in a Rocky River city park

On the January day I visited,

neither the planned repairs to the fishing pier

nor the general sprucing up have begun,

                                                           and

water is seeping up through the parking lot,

probably from a burst water main---

Sometimes the perceived enemy

was other Cleveland residents:

the Cleveland Gatling Gun Battery

was formed in June 1878

by 'prominent citizens' concerned

about the strikes of the previous year

Such citizens contributed enough money

for the purchase of two Gatling guns,

                                                       which

were stored in an armory they had built for them

at what was then East Prospect and Sibley

(today 3433 Carnegie,

part parking lot, part building)

On March 6, 1880

the state legislature retroactively approved

the Battery's creation,

                                 putting it

under the mayor's control in emergencies

and mandating it be covered

by the same regulations

National Guard units were subject to

The Battery was never called to action,

                                                          though

it was placed 'on alert' a number of times

It served as a private police

on two separate occasions:
July 8th-13th, 1885,

                              and

July 17th-July 21st, 1885,

                                       guarding

the Newburgh works during

the iron workers' strike of that year,

                                                    for which

the Battery billed the city

$242---

At the same time the lewisite was being made,

a few miles west of Willoughby,

at 340 East 131st Street

(the northwest corner of

Taft and East 131st),

there was a plant producing mustard gas

In the early 2000s,

                             when

the site was occupied by Allied Carpet,

barrels of what was believed to be mustard gas

were found buried in the parking lot

covering the southwest corner

of the intersection

The site is known,

                            in government-speak,

as a FUDS

(Formerly Used Defense Site),

                                              though

any further information,

                                   such as

whether that was actually mustard gas

that was buried,

                        and whether

any more may be buried on site,

or buried nearby,

                         or

whatever became of the gas,

is hard to come by

Today,

           in the shadow of the highway,

the building sits vacant,

                                    and

the parking lot has many weeds---

In 1893 the county built an armory,

located at Lake and Miami

(today's Lakeside and East 6th),

to house local National Guard units,

                                                     an

the building took up most of the block,

one hundred twenty-two feet wide,

stone with imposing turrets

(a style known as castellated Gothic)

There are photos of the cavalry

arrayed in front of the armory,

                                            but

it was used for many other purposes as well:

a few years later,

                          during

the city's centennial celebration,

it was home to meetings

                      a concert

                      a historical spectacle

                                                       and

                      gymnastic exhibitions

In 1909 it would be home

to additional exhibits during that year's

Industrial Exposition:

                                  it was

connected by a temporary pedestrian bridge

to the main exhibition hall

on the north side of the street

In 1916,

              during the presidential race,

candidate Charles Evans Hughes

gave a campaign speech there

There would be many meetings

and entertainment and sporting events

sprinkled throughout its life

But 'urban renewal' had no place

for anything that wasn't 'modern' ,

                                                  and

the armory was torn down in 1965

Today the site is the home

of a modern federal office building

indistinguishable from thousands of others

here and around the country---