About Town: Mythical Features

Myth: There were 36 bombings in Cleveland in the summer of 1976 as gangster Danny Greene waged a turf war with the local Italian Mafia. The Facts: There were only 21 bombings in Cleveland that year and 37 in Cuyahoga County. Many had nothing to do with Greene or the mob. The exaggeration was perpetrated in the 2011 film Kill the Irishman. True/False: False 

Myth: The Dunham Tavern is Cleveland's oldest building. The Facts: The Dunham Tavern, now a museum, was built between 1824 and 1832. The Landmarks Commission dates the Jeremiah Gates House in Old Brooklyn to around 1820. True/False: Questionable

Myth: The bodies of two men are buried beneath the Terminal Tower. The Facts: While working on the foundation of the tower in 1928, two men laboring at the bottom of a 103-foot-deep pit were covered in fast-hardening concrete and killed. But rescue workers removed their bodies 18 hours later. True/False: False

Myth: Underground tunnels running to Lake Erie from homes in the Edgewater neighborhood, such as the 1891 mansion of Julius Feiss, were used to ferry slaves to safety as part of the Underground Railroad. The Facts: The tunnels exist, but to be used by fleeing slaves, they would have had to have been constructed nearly 40 years earlier. It's more likely, though still unproven, that the tunnels were used by rum-runners during Prohibition. True/False: False

Myth: Cleveland was once the country's sixth most populous city. The Facts: Cleveland has gone by the moniker "Sixth City," proud its population was once so high. But in the 1920s, the city actually became fifth most populous in the U.S. True/False: True

Did You Know? At 947 feet, Key Tower is the tallest building in the state and 20th tallest in the U.S.