KINGSBURY RUN - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

KINGSBURY RUN is part of a winding, natural watershed carrying creeks and storm water from what is today WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS and MAPLE HEIGHTS to the CUYAHOGA RIVER. East of E. 79th St., the creek and creek beds are culverted and filled in many places, but from E. 79th St. west, Kingsbury Run forms a broad arc, and a deep, rugged valley remains. The area takes its name from JAS. KINGSBURY†, one of the earliest settlers in the WESTERN RESERVE, who in 1797 had been the first inhabitant of NEWBURGH, located on the ridge southeast of Cleveland. Kingsbury Run, the ravine separating Cleveland from Newburgh, became a route for railroads, beginning in 1857 with the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley line. In the 1860s it also became the site of industry, with JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER†'s crude-oil refinery and Wm. Halsey Doan's oil and naphtha works. Spanning Kingsbury Run at Sidaway Ave. is Cleveland's only suspension bridge, the Sidaway Ave. Footbridge, built in 1930 to link the St. Hyacinth (Jackowo) and Garden Valley neighborhoods but no longer used. Kingsbury Run's modern fame, however, is due less to its role in the city's industrial growth than to the infamous Cleveland TORSO MURDERS.

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