The Siren Board

Okay. I guess a lot of Cleveland has changed since the Cold War.

EDIT 4/3/19: I added another great source (link to an article in a history journal) about Cleveland’s short-lived Civil Defense program and what led to its ultimate demise in 1972. The information is much too in-depth for me to add in the main article and not make it too long, so the link is there if you wish to learn more in-depth about their Civil Defense program.

Another bump; found some more interesting information today!

Source: https://case.edu/ech/articles/n/nike-missile-bases

According to this source, "Built principally to counter an airborne threat from the Soviet Union, the bases soon became obsolete. In 1959 more sophisticated Nike-Hercules missile replaced the Nike-Ajax missiles at the Rocky River-Fairview Park and Bratenahl bases. By Aug. 1961 only the Warrensville and Parma-Parma Hts. Nike-Ajax bases remained operational. Ten years later, all of the bases, including those equipped with the Nike-Hercules missile, were closed. The bases, once closed, were either razed or turned to other purposes. The Parma-Parma Hts. launch site became the location of the Western Campus of CUYAHOGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE; the Garfield Hts.-Independence bases were turned over to the boards of education of their respective communities, as was the Willowick launch site. The Bratenahl base eventually became the headquarters of the U.S. Navy Finance Center."

What does this mean, then?

A local friend of mine (who happens to be a siren enthusiast from this area as well) had a grandfather who lived in Independence at that time. According to him, there was one of Independence's old Thunderbolts located at one of these Nike Missle Bases.

Where is this Thunderbolt now?

It's located at the Independence Service Center; which happens to be located directly adjacent to the Independence City Schools/Board of Education campus.

If this is correct, then what does this mean? It means that the Service Center Thunderbolt was installed at its current location in 1952 because the siren's previous location was actually the area of the Nike Missile Site (well, the site of one control area, anyways; the launch base was located in what is now a field near the Cuyahoga River)! When the Service Center Building was built later after the site's dismantlement, the siren was relocated atop the roof of the brand-new Service Center in Independence. The other control area at 5640 Briarcliff Drive is now the site of the Garfield Heights Board of Education. Garfield Heights has all 2001-SRNB's and is part of the Unified Regional System which encompasses several communities surrounding Bedford in Cuyahoga County. The launch site, at 733 Stone Rd., is simply just an empty field along the Cuyahoga River along the border of Independence and Valley View.

In total, there were 7 Nike bases in Cuyahoga County with an additional location in Lake County. Of these, the most well-known of the 7 was the bases at what is now Burke Lakefront Airport and Coast Guard base and the Parma base.

Trashbeam wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 30, 2018 6:30 pm

Okay. I guess a lot of Cleveland has changed since the Cold War.

I believe that it would be safe to say that the ending of the cold war killed Cleveland and other cities and towns in the rust belt.

But of a bump here, but I did find something else lurking in the old Cuyahoga County CD system.

Two things of note here:

1. Some of the old CD sirens were saved. No, I don’t mean the ones that went to other systems (which were Seven Hills, Independence, and Cuyahoga Heights).

I recently spoke with my friend Chris who lives in Medina. According to what he stated, his grandfather used to live in Independence and worked at the NEORSD facility (Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District) in Cuyahoga Heights for many years during the mid-1970’s and 1980’s.

As you may recall, CD operations in Cuyahoga County were ceased on November 30, 1972. The City of Cleveland had already dissolved their CD program several years before and even since its inception in 1951, many Greater Clevelanders found no reason to participate in Civil Defense exercises as it was pointless to prepare for what would have been an inevitable death if Cleveland would have been the target of a nuclear attack.

Back to the story from my friend Chris’ grandfather. According to him, he worked at the (then new at the time) Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant around 1978. He stated that he clearly remembers there being a pile of old Civil Defense sirens sitting in the back lot, having likely come from Cleveland. He stated that he was even given the opportunity to take one of the Thunderbolts home with him for free and was considering it but his wife forbade him from doing so. He stated there were multiple Thunderbolts and Model 7’s in the pile of sirens and some of those were gridface models.

Whether these were the 7 sirens that were purchased by the City of Independence is something I do not know. It is my belief that the Thunderbolt that was on top of an old school in Cuyahoga Heights (a 1955 4/5 port 1000AT), which was removed, restored and reinstalled at the Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2013 may have been one of these siren, but it’s possible that may have been an original install on the school building it was located at.

This would prove the theory that the sirens were not scrapped right away; at least not all of them anyways.

2. A new abandoned Cuyahoga County CD siren has been found! While looking for old sirens around Cuyahoga County the other day, my friend found another ex-CD siren in North Olmsted! The siren is a mid 1960’s Federal Sign and Signal Model 5, single tone, and is identical to the one in Shaker Heights that is abandoned. Here is the geographical location to that siren. I’m on mobile but will post a screen shot later for future reference.

There was a gridface Thunderbolt horn for sale on craigslist in the Cleveland area not too long ago.

Someone22 wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 08, 2020 7:27 pm

There was a gridface Thunderbolt horn for sale on craigslist in the Cleveland area not too long ago.

Do you have photos, etc. to prove this? I'm curious which part of the system this came from.

The Thunderbolts that are still standing are all still up.

It was located on Puritas Elementary School according to the seller, here are pictures from the listing.

Major breakthrough we just made here:
This was the original Fairfax Elementary School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio; located just outside the City of Cleveland. The Thunderbolt on top of the building supposedly came down with it. I'm unsure if this was an install from 1952 (one of the 72 gridface units), or one of the 1954-1956 4/5 port 1000T units that went up.

This school was demolished in the 1970's, probably just after the CD program was axed in Cleveland/Cuyahoga County. The photo was taken around the 1970's.

Another new discovery: Here is a Model 7 atop a building in the Rocky River portion of the City. Photo circa 1972.
Credit to Brendan Williamson for finding this.