Downtown Cleveland is tucked into a triangular wedge northeast of the the Flats, in perhaps what is the closest physical relationship of an American city’s core to its industrial heart.

Much of the western part of downtown is preserved, but it should be noted there are still entire large city blocks that are parking lots. So not everything is perfect. There is this very nice pre-Civil War commercial building preserved on West 9th Street.

That being said, besides the parking lots, there is nary an abandoned building, at least one that is blatantly obvious like in St. Louis, and the street life is strong and vibrant.

There is a nice range of commercial buildings, ranging from what looks to be the 1880s to the turn of the Twentieth Century.

And of course, we can see the obvious switch to buildings with a steel skeleton for structural support, such as in the one below.

The curve of the Cuyahoga makes for some odd shaped lots on the edge of downtown on the west side of the area.

There are whole rows of rehabbed Italianate and Second Empire storefronts along West St. Clair Avenue, but yet there’s a parking lot on the other side of the street. Surely something more lively will come some day.

In the other direction, flanking the steep incline down to the river, are early Twentieth Century warehouses that are also rehabbed.

One of the parking lots is being shaded by the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters; the paint company has its roots in Cleveland.

I next headed up West 6th Street, I believe, where the Nineteenth Century row buildings have been preserved and rehabbed.