MILL CREEK
Shortly after Moses Cleaveland left, the center of settlement became Newburgh Township, an area distinctive for one natural reason - its waterfall. In 1820, when Cleveland and Ohio were in heavy discussions/negotiations for the construction of the Ohio & Erie Canal, Cleveland had but 500 residents; Newburgh Township boasted 1,500.
Mill Creek Falls is Cleveland's only waterfall. It falls some 45 feet and may be Cleveland's best kept secret - hidden for decades when rail tracks were moved off Broadway Avenue and later Broadway/Warner roadways built over the tracks.
Before 1990, the waterfall has "out-of-site/ out-of-mind." Surrounded by construction yards and abandoned buildings crying for reinvestment, the Falls was the place where kids went to get in trouble. The Broadway/Warner/Turney cloverleaf was a traffic disaster with freeway-like signage hovering above Broadway Avenue, terrible sightlines as drivers rose onto Warner Road and sharp, ill-defined turnouts marking Broadway and Turney Avenues.
In the early 1990s, Mill Creek Falls was rediscovered - first in the seminal North Cuyahoga Valley Corridor Study, authored by Rick Sicha of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, and afterwards in a new community development project initiated and led by Slavic Village planner Bobbi Reichtel.
Today, the Mill Creek Waterfall is a different place. It offers an oasis in the midst of a dense and busy urban thoroughfare. (They haven't fixed the traffic problems, yet - but they're working on it.) The construction yard is gone as is the cluttered gas station that marked the intersection of Warner and Turney Roads. A park is growing, spreading around the Mill Creek Falls. Its footprint has extended down and along Broadway Avenue, inching towards the historic center of the historic Newburgh Township, now marked by the historic Carnegie Library Building.
The Mill Creek Falls area now includes overlooks and unerlooks of the Falls, interpretive storyboards, picnic areas, and a History Center. The Mill Creek Falls History Center is housed in the historic Brilla House overlooking Mill Creek Falls in Old Newburgh, in Cleveland, Ohio. It is operated by the Slavic Village Historical Society and welcomed its first guests the weekend of October 12th-13th, 2002. Regular monthly meetings of the Slavic Village Historical Society are held here.
Meanwhile, Cleveland Metroparks is busy- preparing to start construction a trail connection which will extend from the Towpath Trail at Bacci park to Garfield Hts. Boulevard in Garfield Heights; work is expected to start this summer of 2006. One final segment separates the Towpath from the Waterfall - a stretch would logically include a portion of the landfill that currently occupies the Mill Creek Valley.
For more information on Mill Creek, visit http://www.slavicvillagehistory.org/
Trail
BywayScenic
Railroad
Mill Creek
Canal Basin
Park
