It would be impossible to discuss Train Avenue without first examining its past. It wasn’t always called Train Avenue…It wasn’t even always a road. 

Prior to 1900, the pathway we know as Train Avenue today was once a thriving tributary called Walworth Run, which connected and flowed into the Cuyahoga River – the river notoriously known for catching fire an estimated 13 times in its recorded history due to excessive pollution, made internationally famous in a 1969 article for Time Magazine in the infancy of the environmental movement. Walworth Run also had its share of environmental problems. 

The birth of Train Avenue was founded on the idea by Cleveland city officials to solve a growing issue in the mid-late 1800s where nearby industry – such as slaughterhouses, breweries and other manufacturing operations, exploited Walworth Run by dumping waste into the stream without repercussion. 

Area residents used Walworth Run for their primary source of fresh water, and filed complaints to the city for multiple decades about the foul stench permeating from Walworth Run rendering it useless. Until about 1900 when Cleveland City Council passed a measure to bury it and turn it into an extension of the city’s sewer system. Once completed, sections of it were paved to connect to other roads along the railroad tracks, and Train Avenue was born. 

The birth of Train Avenue didn’t prevent or curtail the problem of environmental hazards from occurring, as it faced new issues of pollution becoming the go-to place to discard unwanted trash without any threat of repercussion.

Aside from the environmental issues Walworth Run previously faced, there was an increase in violent crime taking place along the banks of the river…and that continued when Train Avenue was complete. 

Whenever local news media reports about Train Ave, the stories are almost exclusively about something horrible that has happened. It is also not uncommon to find random dead dogs in garbage bags discarded along this forgotten-about road. Additionally, under the many bridges that cross over the valley which Train Avenue rests in, you will find some of the city’s displaced homeless population, who use the bridges for shelter to protect themselves against the elements and away from public scrutiny. 

Although Train Avenue’s problems have been largely ignored by decades of administrations, there have been a few attempts to implement plans to beautify and enhance Train and its surrounding area; to reinvent it as an all-purpose corridor.

From the Train Avenue Greenway Plan – a concept that would have transformed a portion of the road into a recreational path for walkers, runners and bikers, connecting to the city of Cleveland Metroparks system. 

Or, the Red Line Greenway – an all-purpose rails-to-trails vision linking eight westside neighborhoods together, with a section of it butting up against Train Avenue (Side Note: Phase II of the Red Line Greenway was completed in May 2021, despite being compromised from its original plan due to budget restraints).

Here we are in the year 2023, and there are new preliminary talks about reinvestment opportunities to hopefully solve over a century of ranking low on the priority list. It’s clearly an area with great potential, and the hope for this film project is to continue to shine a bright light on how wonderful Train Avenue can become, to be used as a model for other city’s who have their own version of Train Ave.