Reasons to See Cleveland

By: Debbie Stock

Cleveland Rocks at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

"We're huge rock fans," said Shelby, a teenager from Hamilton, Indiana, who stood with her girlfriend posing for selfies on the plaza of the unique $92 million Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (rockhall.com). "Our family couldn't think of a better place to spend vacation than right here!" she beamed with excitement.

The best-attended hall of fame museum in the U.S. includes a pyramid, tower and geometric protrusions designed by renown Chinese architect I.M. Pei. Photographed more than any other subject in Cleveland, it opened in 1995 and has become the must-see attraction with seven stories of exhibits and largest collection of rock music memorabilia, documents and artifacts on the planet.

Each year a handful of rock musicians and artists are selected by a voting body of more than 1,200 artists for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To qualify the musicians or musical acts are required to have released their first record 25 years prior to receiving this honor. Tickets for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame are quite reasonable.

Launched around the time that the first episode of the "Drew Carey Show" helped put Cleveland on the map, home-grown Carey and his hit TV series forever tied the city to rock music. At the beginning of each episode, a dance skit and catchy tune by rocker Ian Hunter repeated a mantra 42 times—Cleveland rocks.

While Cleveland's first rock concert in 1952 offered a taste of great things to come, much older rock (several hundred-million years old) would not be abandoned or forgotten. Extracted from one of the world's largest, oldest sandstone deposits, Cleveland Quarries produces Berea stone used in walkways, columns, flooring and buildings. "Long live rock" may be the lyrics to a song about a music genre but at Cleveland quarries they like to think it's about their durable stones.

Another rock, brownstone, holds a commanding presence at  Hyatt Regency Cleveland at the Arcade where I stayed during my visit. The "solid as a rock" brownstone building has John D. Rockefeller's name written all over it—he helped finance its construction as America's first indoor shopping mall in 1890.

If you're going to Cleveland to experience rock first-hand, there's plenty of it to explore!