Lakewood (Ohio)

Cuyahoga County

39-41664

Lakewood is a city in Cuyahoga County in the U.S. state of Ohio. It lies on the southern shore of Lake Erie, just west of Cleveland, is 6.7 square miles ( 17.35 km ²) in size and had (2000) 56,646 inhabitants, of which 93.1 % White. The city is the third largest municipality in Cuyahoga County behind Cleveland and Parma.

The metropolitan area has an approximately rectangular shape bounded by W. 117th Street to the east, the Rocky River to the west, Lake Erie to the north and Interstate 90 Chicago - Cleveland in the south. It extends approximately 5.6 km in east-west direction and about three miles deep into the interior. The neighboring cities are Cleveland in the south and east and the city of Rocky River to the west. Lakewood is one of the inner and therefore older suburban belt of Cleveland, which arose before the Second World War and today is completely built.

Lakewood is a residential community and is characterized by dense, small-scale buildings. In the extreme north-east of the urban area, directly on the lake, is a series of up to 30-storey towers with luxury condominiums from the 1960s and 1970s. The city center is the Detroit Avenue on either side of Warren Road. Notable industry there is not; largest employer is the local hospital (2006) 1060 employees.

The area was originally part of the Rockport Township and known as East Rockport. From 1885, the name was Lakewood ( German: Seeholz ) in view of the biogeographic nature used. The place was spun off in 1903 as a village in 1911 and a town. The proximity to Cleveland and the construction of a power plant (1896 ) and a light rail line ( 1903) left the city until 1920 quickly grow to over 40,000 residents. 1883 an oil and gas field was discovered under the city and fully exploited in approximately 30 years.