Cleveland Avenue

Cleveland Avenue was formerly called Wheat Street. Wheat Street became the center of activity for the earliest African American community in Ithaca. The Ithaca Journal described Wheat Street in 1886 as “one of the shortest streets in Ithaca, yet it contains 15 families of colored people, one grocery, two ice cream saloons, one barber shop, one ladies’ hair dressing establishment, and last but not least, one church.” The name of the street changed in 1908 to Cleveland Avenue.

Check out the mapping tool developed by HistoryForge to see where African American families resided according to U.S. census data from 1880 to 1940.

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