Update:
The City of Cleveland now maintains a public, current of numerous boundary files: https://data.clevelandohio.gov/search?q=boundaries
When this repository was created and maintained, the City of Cleveland Boundary files when they weren't publicly available or easily accessible.
I had hoped that this repository would become (mostly obsolete) one day and that day has finally come.
The only data here that I plan to maintain (which isn't yet publicly available elsewhere) is the historical Cleveland annexation boundaries.
To download the GEOJSON Files, you may need to right-click on the URL and choose 'save link as'.
For data where I didn't specify the license, I don't what know it is (I didn't make the data set), assume your own risk.
Wards/
Cleveland's current ward boundaries; most recently revised by Cleveland City Council in April 2013 and went into effect January 2014. Available as SHP and geoJSON.
Download the Ward Boundaries as geoJSON
Download the Ward Boundaries as SHP (shapefile)
These boundaries were obtained from the City of Cleveland's Planning Department.
Changes to Cleveland's ward boundaries were first proposed in March 2013 in Cleveland City Council but were later amended to what was passed in April 2013 and went into effect January 2014.
Download the proposed ward boundaries (March 2013) as geoJSON
Download the proposed ward boundaries (March 2013) as SHP The changes between the proposed ward boundaries and what went into effect were mostly within ward 3 and ward 14.
neighborhoods:
Neighborhood boundaries of Cleveland - these are purely subjective from me and are incomplete! Visit https://skorasaurus.wordpress.com/cleveland-neighborhood-map/ for a background. These are not official; the city of Cleveland does not have official boundaries of neighborhoods.
License of neighborhoods, CC BY 4.0
landmarkdistricts:
Obtained from City of Cleveland's Planning Department
policedistricts:
Cleveland Police Department's Districts
cdc_service_boundaries:
Community Development Corporations play an important role in the city of
Cleveland. They are non-profit organizations that provide services (economic development,
community organizing, )
and public programming in a specific neighborhood or area.
These files are geographic service areas for each of the recognized CDCs within
the city of Cleveland, Ohio, as of the respective years, as
noted in the folders.
Download 2017 CDC Service Boundaries as SHP
Download 2019 CDC Service Boundaries as SHP
Source: Cleveland Neighborhood Progress License: Attribution (TO VERIFY)
voting_precincts:
These are county-wide for Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
Download as GEOJSON used for the November 3, 2020 elections
Source: Cuyahoga County Board of Elections
Geographic polygons that represent the land that the City of Cleveland (Ohio) annexed ('acquired') in its history. These were mostly derived from two secondary sources, what I call: the 1968 map and the Volkmann/1941 map.
I claim no copyright to this work although attribution is greatly appreciated.
(metadata from the Cleveland Public Library)
Title: : Annexations to the city of Cleveland
Author: : Cleveland Dept. of Public Service, Div of Engineering and Construction;
Date: : 3-20-74/1814-1954
Subject: : Territorial expansion
Call number: : (qG 4084. C5F35 1954aa . C5) at the Cleveland Public Library
Map states in lower right hand corner, "Drawn April 1968" originally issued as 1 sheet;
This is a hand-drawn map of the annexations through the mid 20th century. It is one sheet originally; but I received a scan of this in two parts, as two files from the Cleveland Public Library's Map Collection and I didn't sew/merge them together).
This is NOT IN the Cleveland Public Library public catalog, it's only in the Cleveland Public Library's Map Collection's catalog; only browsable in person at CPL's Map Collection. Tom Edwards of the CPL Map Collection said that there are many items in the map collection in the paper card catalog that are NOT listed yet in the public catalog.
Digitally view the 1968 map (on flickr):
- Sheet A of the Annexations to the city of Cleveland annexation map
- Sheet B of the Annexations to the city of Cleveland annexation map
The following are also available as accompanying documents to the aforementioned source. I need to confirm that these documents supplement the above
- Sheet C lists the dates of annexations
- Sheet/Supplement D is a a more generalized map of Cleveland annexations
Download the original, uncompressed (as TIF, each are up to 130mb) images:
- Annexations to the city of Cleveland map - Sheet A
- Annexations to the city of Cleveland map - Sheet B
- Annexations to the city of Cleveland - Supplement C
- Annexations to the city of Cleveland - Supplement D
There is a separate item similar to this 1968 annexation
map
in the CPL catalog.
Its call number is: G4084.C5F7 1974 .C5X
(I don't have a copy of this digitally; and as of 2018-05, I'm unsure if i've seen it; I'm near certain it is the same item that I mention above because it's listed as being only in the public administration library and its metadata is extremely similar to the "1968 map"..
Title: : Annexations to the city of Cleveland
Author: : Volkman, William F.
Publication Information: : [s.l.] : [s.n.], 1941.
Physical Description: : 1 map ; 89 x 96 cm.
General Note: : Outline map. Cleveland Documents Microfilm Project. In PAL and Microform Center. Reel 4.53.
Call numbers (yes, there are 3): : G4084.C5F35 1932 .V6X REEL 4.53 : 422.77132 V885A : G4084.C5F35 1932 .V6X
View the the Volkman map on flickr or download the original, uncompressed TIF of the Volkman map
After initially relying upon the Volkman and 1968 maps, I realized that I could use historic plat maps from Sanborn and Hopkins some which are available from the Cleveland Public Library's Digital Map Collection and The Library of Congress published some of them online. The Sanborn and Hopkins maps represent property-level maps of historic Cleveland from the early 20th century and late 19th century. They are not georeferenced but are still a good secondary source to obtain the boundaries.
(Reference Map, what I use to base to place the actual polygons for geotra)
- Aerial imagery: "OSIP 1ft Imagery Most Current Available"
- TIGER 2017 roads A dataset containing most roads provided by the US Census; their accuracy (Accuracy "a measure of how well the data represent true values.") varies but it's liberally licensed
- Present-day Cuyahoga County Municipal Boundaries
- OpenStreetMap (referred to my notes as OSM)
annexations.shp - the geographic polygons
The data is stored in CRS WGS 84, aka: EPSG:4326.
properties of polygons in the annexations.shp (Shapefile):
id: a unique identifier for each polygon; its value does not have any significance.
annex-key: refers to the land masses on both the 1941 Volkmann map and the 1968 annex map. Use this key and aforementioned sources to identify particular areas.
start: The date which annexation had been implemented or active (this is subject to interpretation) the dates are written in ISO 8601 standard; For example; 1902-02-14 refers to Feburary 14, 1902.
end: This column will eventually have any dates for dates of land that was annexed away from the City of Cleveland. I put in 2018-12-28 a stop-gap fix so I could make this animation map of Cleveland annexations a little more easily.
These dates are from all from the 1968 MAP (PAGE C) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/skorasaurus/42359283875/) which states:
"In all cases, the dates of annexation given are those which are considered legally considered final. Up to G, the annexations were perfected by an act of the state legislature. From G to EE, the final stamp of annexation had to be placed by the county commissioners. From EE to the end of the list, the secretary of state had to be formally notified before the annexation was considered binding."
Note that 1968 map's dates are only complete through QQ/RR; about until 1917 or so); Subsequent dates were from Rose.
Further notes: (At this point in the project, we are assuming that all annexation/land changes have not resulted in cleveland losing any land; only gaining more; This is not the case in Cleveland history and will be corrected in further updates of this github repository.
Nonetheless, this provides a great starting point to see when certain pieces of land were acquired by the city of Cleveland and to my knowledge, it's the only digital source of Cleveland Annexations.
Below are additional notes regarding these polygons. These polygons are interpretations of the aforementioned maps, require further scrutiny and verification verification.
I strongly suggest to see the primary sources - the original legislation - available at the Cleveland Public Library's Public Administration Library to confirm these dates and boundaries.
The letters refer to the polygons on '1968', Volkmann maps and Rose sources.
C - see plate 3 of Hopkins, 1912, Volume 1 - ) https://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll24/id/1815/rec/11 , parkman (narrow alleyway just south of scovill)'s western point is at East 9th street; but on the 1941/volkmann map; parkman runs west of east 9th; so, not sure which is right; if the southern end is ; the 1968 map shows that southern most part extends west of parkman, so I followed the 1968 map here.
E - actually feel pretty confident in this; the georeferencing I made to the 1968 map works well here.
D - its boundaries look pretty defined on 1968 map and I had made the other polygons all around it, so I used those as a guide to draw it.
H - eastern border is the cuyahoga river;
I think the 1898 map at http://peoplemaps.esri.com/cleveland/ goes gray at a point, I'm intrepreting it to be the city boundary (post 1900, the modern-day plaza was then a railyard ) the western boundary of X was also confusing; I was just doing intepretation (intepretation, meaning, it doesn't follow any specific streets) of 1968 annex map boundary...
I - For this and H; I primarily relied on the 1968 map for these boundaries;
M - the northern part just north of lorain isn't perfect but I'm confident in it; based on plate 17 of Hopkins 1881 map (http://mapwarper.net/maps/28800); there you see that the city border is just west of chestnut ridge (w. 73rd street), and goes along gutherie ave; the western northern slinky line is just west of west 65th (per plate 16 of 1881 hopkins - http://mapwarper.net/maps/28799) and according to plate 40 of 1881 hopkins (at https://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll24/id/42); that western border is just a few feet west of west 65th...the eastern part of that northern sliver, perhaps is at west 65th, according to the 1941 annex map.
N - was the 2nd last shape that I made after everything around it was already filled in. (looked in 1886 sanborn, it doesn't appear that the eastern area of this shape was covered in it; ); the eastern edge; the 1912 hopkins map, plate 33 was very useful (https://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll24/id/1845/rec/11)... in that image, mount carmel was then known as ingersole road ; and according to that 1912 hopkins, plate 33 image; N's north east border is slightly to the east of baldwin; and I moved GG and II accordingly; also aligned eastern end of it to be west of e. 102; closer to e. 100th per
O - confident in its accuracy; also confirmed southeast end with hopkins 1881 map.
P - the eastern end; tried to verify once more in 1896 index map (sanborn)Vol. 4. (doesn't appear to be much coverage of the eastern edge of this polygon on 1896 sanborn) (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g4084cm.g4084cm_g06648189604)
S - needs to be reviewed; volkmann map has 115th at , but the 1968 maps appears to have the western border at east 118th.
T - looks to be pretty good to match the 1968 map; small place
V - the eastern border - the river east of the belt line and 022_Hopkins 1912 v2 Plate 19.TIF (hopkins 1912/1914 volume 2 - this is not on CPL contentdm publically, received via internally) is curved quite a bit in that plat; but in present-day, it's nearly straight? did they straighten out the river in the 20th century? I'll leave it curvey.
W - using the https://cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll24/id/35 (plate 33 of a 1881 hopkins map); I was able to determine that the southwestern border of 'W' was the centerline of Ansel Road; the northwestern part of W; I determine; is a no longerexisting road; hoyt is what is now 70th; and 71st is what the border referred to.
X - not sure about the eastern border, because the 1941 map says the southeast border is east 115 and ingomar; and those roads never intersected
Y - I think it's okay, was basing it off what I already did to the east;
AA - Verify the northern part of AA; not clear on the map exactly where that demarcation line is (doesn't match up with any stret)
BB - pretty easy to distinguish on 1968 map however, the 1968 map appears to even have the northeast little sliver of polygon to be Cuyahoga Heights (of course, 1968 map's representation of this is generalized)
CC - looks pretty good; western border, slightly unsure b/c not sure where to base it off of; (says east 88th, but not sure of what to use as reference when 88th becomes east boulevard; I interpreted the 1968 annexation map)
DD - discrepency: the western edge of this: west 45th is displayed as one straight line on Plat 33 of hopkins 1912/1914 volume 2 - this is not on CPL contentdm publically, received via internally - 036_Hopkins 1912 v2 Plate 33.tif); but in present-day, west 45th north of brooklyn is slightly to the west of the west 45th (south of ardmore); I decided to follow west 45th as it is in present-day (my interpretation, they were following 45th and didn't make the geographic accuracy on the platmap since its on the far left side of that plat); could verify with the primary source legislation
FF - also need to verify the western border of this, to see if there were any changes to the annexation boundaries since the 1968 map w/ bratenahl
GG - the northern boundary, there's a line that extends eastward from quincy on the Volkmann map, this line is parallel with the quincy, but it clashes with the 1968 Map, which shows that the northern part of the GG border goes just north of stokes blvd/fairhill at pt just west of MLK intersection. (the lowest part of fairhill blvd west of mlk is still northern of quincy ave, if it were a true imaginary line heading east)
HH - on the southeast part of this, the volkman 1941 map says the border is the euclid creek, but the current modern day in Cuyahoga County dataset (municipal boundary ) goes further east of the creek; extending to chardon road, (maybe the creek moved?!) VERIFY with another source; not sure if there were subsequent annexations not captured by the 1968 or volkman maps or whether the creek was relocated. ** importantly, the entire western border here is a crapshoot, totally guestimated, required a lot of interpretation.
II - think it's pretty good, compared with the 1968 map which, when I georeferenced it with tiger, it aligned really well in this part of town.
KK - according to the 1968 map, the southern part of the KK border was south of rookwood road but according to plat 33b of 1921 Hopkins (volume 1) which I georeferenced and the northern part of the plat matched up really well ; the southern part of the KK border (was well north of present-day rookwood circle, (not only rookwood road, but also rookwood circle, see additional_sources/1921-plate33b.png))
Additionally, hopkins 1921 volume 3, PLAT 8b has the southern boundary also has KK's border as north of rookwood road https://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll24/id/3952/rec/8 so I'm inclined that the 1968 map is possibly wrong;
LL - is legit, I think the eastern half is only covering that half side of homes east on 140th; regarding the western half: General Key Plan pg. 2, vol 1 of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Cleveland, Ohio, V. 1, 1912-1918 (which was just an index page and didn't have a specific plat in that volume) it showed that there was a municipal boundary that ran on E. 140th (The street itself); I'm thinking that since this was volume 1 of the 1912, and that the LL wasn't annexed until 1914, it was in the middle of east 140th.
MM - using the 1968 map, I confirmed that MM's western border, was in fact, east of MLK, not at MLK itself)
NN - verify perhaps with a later map, but (043_Hopkins 1912 v2 Plate 40.TIF); has a sub plat with this piece on there; coincidence?! (see DD for more information)
PP - verify the southwestern part of it; specifically the Volkmann map had the border at IRA avenue; but a portion of the southern 1968 map border was south of ira avenue and was between IRA and Vandalia avenue
QQ - the 1968 map says the northern boundary is south of barrett.
RR - looks good; matched up eastern border
SS - in the 1968 map, the southern border of this tiny piece appears to be north of chagrin/kinsman rd, but I'm not sure if that's really the case?
TT - in the 1968 and volkmann map, the southern border of Cleveland is Brookpark Road; but in OSM and in the County's Municipal boundaries on their open data site, most of Cleveland's southern border is about 150-200 meters north of Brookpark road (varies in multiple places along the southern border); This may have been a result of later annexations.
Verify if the northern border west of Alger Road is lakewood heights blvd
UU - I figured out UU's western border out by georeferencing Plate 33b of Plat Book of the City of Cleveland, Ohio, V. 1 (Hopkins, 1921) https://cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll24/id/379 (and that's ok to be used for copyright is 1921 on it;) - I did georeference it (had only 4 control points to work w/ because of limited references); see KK for details
XX - (for the northern border of this) verified that as of 1920, the southern row of houses on Scottsdale, were considered to be Shaker Heights, and south of that was Warrensville Heights; see Plat 24B of Cuyahoga County, Ohio: Complete in One Volume. Vol. 3 (Hopkins, 1920) (https://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll24/id/3973/rec/8)
YY - No idea, couldn't read it in the 1968 map; Checkout Plat 19 of Cuyahoga County, Ohio: Complete in One Volume. Vol. 3 (Hopkins, 1920) https://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll24/id/3965/rec/8 TODO
ZZ - relatively confident on the east side and north side of this based on the 1968 map;
51A - (not on the volkmann map; but only on the 1968 map) - According to OSM and official boundary from Cuyahoga County, the southern part of this area is NOT currently within the city of Cleveland; perhaps the 1968 map is wrong?