ABSTRACT
Laid out in 1796 by General Moses Cleaveland, the city’s plan followed the familiar New England town plan, if not the Puritan ideals. Like New Haven, Cleveland – sans “a” – is laid out on a grid with 10-acre squares set aside for public use. Unlike New Haven whose Green is a middle square at the center of a nine square grid, Cleveland’s plan is cruciform so that the center square is at the intersection of two major cross streets. This has implications on the space’s use and continues to impact Cleveland’s Public Square to this day. When laying out the city, General Cleaveland could have used two alternative layouts regarding the streets leading into the square. He could have stopped the streets so that traffic would move around the square’s edge or, conversely, allowed streets to continue and move through the square’s center. Unfortunately, he chose the latter so that Public Square is divided into four smaller, isolated parks.
