Step lively! Keep to the right! Just days before Christmas 80 years ago, Euclid Avenue's slippery, snowy sidewalks were clogged with shoppers as a city of 900,000 converged on downtown's department stores. Customers barely squeezed through the doors of F. W. Woolworth's at Euclid Avenue and East Fourth Street, a building that houses the House of Blues and the Bodies exhibit today. Toys cluttered a storefront window at the current site of the Corner Alley. Although the Great Depression was a year old, gift buyers still thronged the newly opened Terminal Tower, the post office and stores. What was on shoppers' gift lists? The May Co. advertised three-piece women's pajama ensembles for $5.95 and a bird cage and stand for $4.95, while the Higbee Co. across Ontario Street sold chiffon stockings for $2.95 and eight-button French suede gloves for $6.
The arena, which helped solidify the Cavaliers in Cleveland, was built in Summit County and hosted top-flight acts until it closed in 1994. By Vince Guerrieri
