The Early Years

The Early Years. Warehouse District Anthology. , The Warehouse District of today is arguably the best physical remnant of 19th-century Cleveland. Although none of the residences built in that century remain, the early settlers’ street network is mostly intact. , In Cleveland's development and history, the thought of moving to higher ground, to "the heights," has always been associated with prestige and grandeur. Lorenzo Carter (1767-1814), one of Cleveland's most notable early citizens and its first permanent settler, followed this pattern when he moved from his original cabin in the Flats to a "house on the hill" at the northeast corner of Union Lane and Superior Street in the Warehouse District. , By 1815, all of today's streets, including Bank (West 6th), Seneca (West 3rd), and St. Clair, had been laid out. These complemented the earlier development of Water (West 9th), Superior, Lake, Front, and Union streets. , In 1816, six years after his arrival in Ohio, Alfred Kelley (1789-1859), who, as the "father of the Ohio and Erie Canal," was perhaps Cleveland's most important early leader, built the city's first brick residence near the southwest corner of Front and Water streets. With commanding views of both Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River, its setting was impressive. Also in 1816, Cleveland's first bank, the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, was established in the parlor of a house at the northeast corner of Bank and Superior. The construction of the canal, which was begun in 1825 and completed in 1832, spurred more population growth, and Cleveland's "first neighborhood" prospered.