Description: Stone bridge spanning the East Branch of the Chagrin River. The East Branch starts in Geauga county, continues through Lake County and ends in Willoughby, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F17_032
Subjects: Bridges--Ohio; Chagrin River (Ohio); Ohio--History; Cleveland (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.--Pictorial works; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Kirtland (Ohio); Willoughby (Ohio); Lake County (Ohio); Geauga County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1941, this photograph shows a waterfall on the Chagrin River looking east from Main Street Chagrin Falls in Cleveland, Ohio. Chagrin Falls lies in a wide loop of the Chagrin River, which is said to have been named by Moses Cleaveland and his party of surveyors to express their embarrassment after having followed it for a number of miles under the impression that it was the Cuyahoga River. Noah Graves, a Massachusetts native, built a gristmill here in 1833. Abundant water power and extensive forests led to the establishment of several small factories along the river; but the village was isolated from canal, railroad, and lake transportation and became a residential community. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B04F10_38_01
Subjects: Waterfalls; Chagrin River (Ohio); Winter;
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)