Ohio City, Cleveland
Thirty-foot children on a freeway wall, facing the public housing they came from.
Ohio City was founded in 1836, annexed by Cleveland in 1854, and is today one of the West Side’s most recognizable historic districts — the West Side Market, a row of breweries, restored Victorian homes, and some of the steepest price appreciation in the city. The neighborhood association markets a single thriving Ohio City of more than ten thousand residents.
It is also home to Lakeview Terrace, which opened in 1937 as one of the first three federally funded public housing developments in the country. It is still public housing. Cutting between the two is a freeway and its retaining wall — postwar interstate infrastructure that put the New Deal housing on one side and the brewery district on the other. Same name on the entry signs. Different realities on either side of the concrete.
In 2016, the Brazilian artist Ananda Nahu spent weeks photographing the children of Lakeview Terrace, then painted their faces thirty feet tall along the full 620 feet of the wall. The work is Kings and Queens. The painted faces turn toward Lakeview Terrace — back at the community they came from. The commuters moving between downtown and the suburbs pass behind their backs.
Lakeview Terrace is still public housing. The breweries are still expanding. The wall remains. So does the claim painted on it.
This is one of four neighborhoods in Painted Claims →.
— Eve Moss
Map & Parcel. Field Notes. May 2026.
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