Irishtown Bend Archeological District
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Irishtown Bend Archeological District
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Historic view of Irishtown Bend, c. 1922
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| Nearest city | Cleveland, Ohio |
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| Coordinates | 41°29′22.2″N 81°42′17.65″W / 41.489500°N 81.7049028°WCoordinates: 41°29′22.2″N 81°42′17.65″W / 41.489500°N 81.7049028°W |
| Area | 6.9 acres (2.8 ha) |
| NRHP Reference # | 90000757 |
| Added to NRHP | May 25, 1990 |
The Irishtown Bend Archeological District is an historic site located in the old Irishtown Bend neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. To protect the site while it is being excavated, its exact location has not been made public.
In the second half of the 19th century, this river flats district was a distinctly Irish neighborhood. The wealth of historical data available for this neighborhood, including census records, tax archives, city directories, church records and archeological evidence, provides an unusual opportunity to develop a comprehensive picture of this community. First generation Irish-immigrant laborers lived here from the 1850s through the 1880s. Beginning in the 1820s, Irish immigrants moved to the Ohio City area and were initially employed digging the Ohio and Erie Canal. Malaria was common at the time, but drainage was improved during the 1830s as Cleveland evolved into a major lake shipping port. The 1830s and 1840s brought continued prosperity to the port of Cleveland, but communicable diseases such as cholera were widespread in the low-lying Flats. As a result, low cost land was available for housing the workers who walked to the jobs on the docks.
The number of Irish immigrants increased after the 1848 Irish potato famine, and many worked as unskilled laborers and dockworkers, and on the excavation of a new channel and mouth for the Cuyahoga River. In the 1850s, the area of Irishtown Bend 41°29′22.2″N 81°42′17.65″W / 41.489500°N 81.7049028°W was established and dominated by the winding Cuyahoga River with its swampy flood plain. Houses were primarily one or two stories and built of wood.
As the second generation of Irish families obtained better-paying work, and dock work was increasingly mechanized, the Irish began moving out of the Flats. By 1900, more than half of this area's residents were of Eastern European origin, although the Irish families still owned many of the properties. Irishtown Bend was gradually abandoned; by 1910, more than a third of the homes had been torn down. In 1952, only 5 of the original 80 buildings were left standing.
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