Newburgh Heights

How Newburgh Heights began

Newburgh Heights organized and incorporated in 1904 out of old Newburgh Township, one of eighteen townships the Connecticut Land Company laid out after its 1796 purchase of the Western Reserve; the name was probably taken from Newburgh, New York. Settled first by New Englanders and then by waves of Irish, Welsh, Polish, Czech, and German immigrants who worked the nearby steel mills and factories, the village stayed small -- only 400 residents in 1909 -- until a building boom beginning in 1917 subdivided its farmland into residential lots. Raus Park, later renamed Washington Park, opened in 1920 as the village's civic and recreational heart, hosting gymnastics exhibitions, concerts, nationality dances, carnivals, and political events; its 1912 bridge over Burke Brook, since demolished, once linked the park's Newburgh Heights and Cleveland sides.

Incorporated 1904, by Edwin S. Peck (first mayor, 1904-1908).

Where the name comes from

The name was probably taken from Newburgh, New York, carried over from the older Newburgh Township the village split from.

Before the town

No source we reviewed identifies a specific, named Native American village, mound, or treaty site within present Newburgh Heights; the land was part of Newburgh Township, one of eighteen townships the Connecticut Land Company laid out after buying the Western Reserve in 1796, on ground ceded to the United States by the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1796 — The Connecticut Land Company buys the Western Reserve and lays out Newburgh Township as one of eighteen original townships.
2. 1904 — Newburgh Heights organizes and incorporates as a village, with Edwin S. Peck as its first mayor.
3. 1908 — Edwin S. Peck's term as first mayor ends.
4. 1909 — Population is only 400.
5. 1912 — A bridge over Burke Brook is built connecting the Newburgh Heights and Cleveland sides of what becomes Washington Park.
6. 1917 — A building boom begins, subdividing the village's remaining farmland into residential lots.
7. 1920 — Raus Park, later renamed Washington Park, opens, becoming a hub for gymnastics exhibitions, concerts, nationality dances, carnivals, sports, and political events.
8. 1930 — Population peaks at 4,152.
9. 2000 — The geographic center of population of Cuyahoga County is calculated to fall within Newburgh Heights.

Stories

A steel-mill village's park, twice named

The wave of Irish, Welsh, Polish, Czech, and German families who settled Newburgh Heights to work the nearby steel mills and factories built a village that stayed modest for its first fifteen years -- only 400 people as late as 1909 -- until a 1917 building boom finally broke up the remaining farmland into house lots. The community's social center followed close behind: Raus Park opened in 1920, later renamed Washington Park, and quickly became the place where the village's gymnastics clubs, nationality dance societies, carnivals, and political rallies all happened. A bridge built across Burke Brook in 1912, connecting the park's Newburgh Heights and Cleveland sides, has since been demolished, but a photograph of it survives from the Cleveland Public Library's collections -- one small, specific trace of the infrastructure that held this steel-mill immigrant village together.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · case.edu · commons.wikimedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

The Five Mile Crib, a small structure about 5 miles out in Lake Erie north of Cleveland's Edgewater Park The water here

• Cleveland Public Water System100% of residentsLake Erie

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (3)

Stations and terminals (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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