Greater Cleveland Aquarium
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| Date opened | January 21, 2012 |
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| Location | 2000 Sycamore Street Cleveland, Ohio 44113, USA |
| Coordinates | 41°29′47″N 81°42′14″W / 41.4963°N 81.7039°WCoordinates: 41°29′47″N 81°42′14″W / 41.4963°N 81.7039°W |
| Website | greaterclevelandaquarium |
The Greater Cleveland Aquarium is an aquarium in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Occupying the historic FirstEnergy Powerhouse building located on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River in the city's Flats district, the aquarium which opened in January 2012 consists of approximately 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2) of exhibition space and features exhibits representing both local and exotic species of fish. The facility is the only free standing aquarium in the state of Ohio and ends a 26-year period that the city has been without a public aquarium.
The former Cleveland Aquarium opened on February 6, 1954, and was located on the city's near-east side in Gordon Park. It was created by the Cleveland Aquarium Society, a group formed in the 1940s, the City of Cleveland and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, which operated the facility. The aquarium was housed in a building constructed in the 1930s that previously served as bath house. In 1943, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History converted it into a trailside museum, displaying local flora and fauna as well as exhibits of freshwater fish of Lake Erie. That museum closed in 1953 when the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway cut Gordon Park in two.
In the early 1950s, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, which had previously had aquatic exhibits on its second floor of former home, moved to its own new building and consolidated its aquatic collection into the Cleveland Aquarium. The old Gordon Park trailside museum was renovated by Cleveland Aquarium Society volunteers for about $25,000.
The aquarium had 50 freshwater and marine exhibits including sharks, swordfish, sawfish, seahorses, eels, squid, octopus, and coral. It acquired a pair of Australian lungfish in 1966 and a school of red-bellied piranhas in 1970. Under the Natural History Museum's direction, the aquarium often drew more visitors than the building could handle. A $300,000 gift from the Leonard C. Hanna Foundation financed the construction of a new octagonal wing in 1967 that tripled the aquarium's size and increased its tank capacity from 8,000 to 82,000 US gallons (30,000–310,000 l).
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