Cleveland

Cleveland is located in Blount County in the northeastern portion of the state. It has a mayor/city council form of government.

The land on which Cleveland now stands was first settled through land grants as early as 1823, and the area was largely inhabited by 1854. The first store owner named the community Dry Creek Crossroads in 1882. A later owner of that store, John Blackwood, changed the name to Blackwood's Crossroads. Blackwood built several other businesses in the community, including a saw mill, a grist mill, and a feed mill.

A post office was established in the middle 1880s and it and the town were named Cleveland in honor of then-president Grover Cleveland. The town tried to incorporate in July 1912, but the effort proved unsuccessful because of lack of enthusiasm for holding elections. A fire destroyed several downtown buildings in 1913, including the landmark Blackwood Mercantile. The town was successfully incorporated in 1964.

According to 2016 Census estimates, Cleveland recorded a population of 1,176. Of that number, 98.1 percent of respondents identified themselves as white, 22.5 percent as Hispanic, 0.7 percent as two or more races, 0.5 percent as African American, and 0.2 percent as Asian. The town's median household income was $32,917, and the per capita income was $17,070.

According to 2016 Census estimates, the workforce in Cleveland was divided among the following industrial categories:

· Educational services, and health care and social assistance (21.0 percent)
· Manufacturing (19.5 percent)
· Retail trade (13.3 percent)
· Arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (8.1   percent)
· Transportation, warehousing, and utilities (7.7 percent)
· Professional, scientific, and administrative and waste management services   (7.5 percent)
· Construction (6.3 percent)
· Other services, except public administration (5.7 percent)
· Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (3.4 percent)
· Wholesale trade (3.2 percent)
· Public administration (2.3 percent)
· Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (1.1 percent)
· Information (0.9 percent)

Cleveland public schools are part of the Blount County Public Schools; the city has one elementary school and one high school. There is also a public special education school and a vocational high school.

Cleveland lies on U.S. Highway 231, which runs north and east through the town, and State Highway 160, which runs west.

The Swann Covered Bridge (c. 1925) is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Additional Resources

Blount County Heritage Book Committee. The Heritage of Blount County, Alabama. Clanton, Ala.: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 1999.