Towns and Nature: Cleveland, OH: Sherwin-Williams

First Plant?: (Satellite, the plant along the river is gone but they still have a Technology Center here)

Upriver Plant: (Satellite)

If you do a Google search, there are a lot of results concerning their plans to build a new headquarters building in Cleveland.

Because Sherwin-Williams has a large presence in Chicago, I have already documented its history here.

Their first manufacturing plant was in Cleveland. They have built plants in other towns such as Chicago, but they still employ nearly 4,500 people here. "Sherwin-Williams stands as the largest industrial employer in the city of Cleveland." [ClevelandHistorical]

Bill Kloss posted
Columbia's Crispin Oglebay (1) unloading at Cleveland Builders Supply as Kinsman's George D. Goble heads up the Cuyahoga River while Kinsman's Uhlmann Brothers is laid up at Sherwin Williams in this undated Chuck Drumm photo from my collection.
Ross Brocksmith: I'm wondering which bulk commodity a Sherwin Williams facility would have been receiving via the lakes.
Tom LeMond: Ross Brocksmith sand. Lotsa sand. Paint is mostly solid.
William Lafferty: Flax brought from the lake head and Canada to produce linseed oil. For decades much of the Cleveland winter fleet held storage cargoes of flax for the linseed mill. The oil was also shipped by salties overseas from S-W beginning from at least the late '40s and possibly before the war. [Flax sounds more reasonable than sand.]
[Some comments bracket the date between 1971 and July 1973.
[A comment on another post identified the bridge as 3rd Street Bridge.]

The bridge over a parking lot on the left confirms that this bridge is for 3rd Street.

3D Satellite

Marine Historical Society of Detroit posted

The Buckeye Steamship's George Stephenson unloading grain, or a grain-like cargo, at a Sherwin Williams elevator in Cleveland.  Peter Worden/MHSD collection.

Although the date and cargo are unknown, the cargo is possibly flax seed.  Flax seed is grown in North Dakota and western Canadian Provinces and is used to make linseed oil. Linseed oil was and is a common ingredient (especially in the past) for varnishes and oil-based paints.

A history of the vessel can be found here: https://www.greatlakesvesselhistory.com/.../stephenson...

Marine Historical Society of Detroit shared
Jody Aho: The date can be narrowed down to between the late 1940s, since she has radar in this picture, but before being laid up for the last time in 1959.
Andrew Koetz: Linseed oil straight from a can onto exterior wood on a house will seal it very well; albeit it's "very flamable" during the "flash off process" where the oil evaporates as it dries and gets soaked into the wood. A couple neighbors exposed the original clapboard siding on their homes & did the linseed oil before painting.

I presume this was the original plant that was east of Carter Road.

ClevelandHistorical-files

While looking for a Sanborn Map for the upriver plant, I came across this 1896 map. I saved it because it shows how much the river has changed and the terminus for the Ohio Canal.

Image 1 via 1896 Vol 4 via "cleveland+cuyahoga"

Because a pant factory uses a lot of flammable materials, Sanborn Map did a detailed study of the first plant.

Page 35A via Vol 1a via "cleveland+cuyahoga"

Back in 1896, 3rd Street was Seneca. The upriver plant would be on page 181. But that location had a lumber yard back then. I wonder when the second plant was built.