Editing South Euclid, Ohio (section)

==History==
[[File:South Euclid Bluestone Quarry.png|thumb|left|upright|South Euclid Bluestone Quarry]]
The land currently comprising South Euclid was part of the [[Western Reserve]], obtained via treaty with the [[Iroquois]] confederation in 1796 by the [[Connecticut Land Company]]. In 1797, [[Moses Cleaveland]] named the area east of the [[Cuyahoga River]] Euclid, after the [[Euclid|Greek mathematician]] and "[[patron saint]]" of surveyors. Euclid Township was officially formed in 1809. In 1828, Euclid Township was divided into nine districts, with South Euclid becoming district two.

The earliest industry was farming.<ref name="cityofsoutheuclid.com">{{Cite web |url=http://www.cityofsoutheuclid.com/about-south-euclid/images/golden_jubilee_se2.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708161141/http://www.cityofsoutheuclid.com/about-south-euclid/images/golden_jubilee_se2.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref> But, by the 1860s, quarrying of the area's rich [[Bluestone#United States and Canada|Bluestone]] deposits replaced agriculture as the town's economic mainstay. Two separate locations – one along Nine Mile Creek near present-day Quarry Park at South Belvoir and Monticello Boulevards, and the other along what is today part of the [[Cleveland Metroparks|Euclid Creek]] reservation – were consolidated by Forest City Stone Company in the 1870s, creating one of the region's largest producers of the stone.<ref name="cityofsoutheuclid.com"/> By the end of the 19th century, the northern section of the town had become known as Bluestone village.<ref name="clevelandmemory.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.clevelandmemory.org/southeuclid/|title = South Euclid: City of Beauty and Contrast - the Cleveland Memory Project}}</ref>

Residents of South Euclid eventually wanted autonomy from the larger Euclid Township, and voted on October 13, 1917, to be incorporated as a village, with Edward C. Foote being elected the first mayor a few weeks on November 6.<ref name="cityofsoutheuclid1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.cityofsoutheuclid.com/about-south-euclid/images/golden_jubilee_se3.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708161234/http://www.cityofsoutheuclid.com/about-south-euclid/images/golden_jubilee_se3.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref> At the same time, with the decline of the Bluestone industry brought on by improvements to poured concrete, Bluestone village was absorbed into South Euclid.<ref name="clevelandmemory.org"/>

South Euclid's rapid economic and population growth continued in the early decades of the 20th century, partly driven by industry in nearby Cleveland.  Due in part to funding by the [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]], which helped keep people employed through the [[Great Depression]], the village continued to grow and was officially incorporated as a city in 1941.<ref name="cityofsoutheuclid1"/>

Population growth, which tapered during the Depression era, skyrocketed during the postwar period, driven by both the [[Post–World War II baby boom#In the United States|baby boom]] and [[white flight]] from the urban center of Cleveland.  South Euclid's population peaked in the early 1970s.  By 1980, lacking large tracts of available land for development, and with a population shift to [[exurban]] communities, the population of South Euclid began to shrink.