When you think of places to visit in Cleveland, there are a ton of places that come to mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Rock Hall, Lake View Cemetery and on and on. But the real Cleveland diehards know we have much more than that. And if you didn’t, know you will too because we compiled a list of the 20 best quirky landmarks in town.

The Toynbee Tiles East Third St. and Prospect Ave.., Cleveland The Toynbee Tiles are mysterious messages etched into asphalt in about 30 cities in the United States and South America. The creator of the tiles is unknown. The first ones were discovered in the early 1980s and most contain similar cryptic messages to the one in Cleveland which reads’’TOYNBEE IDEA IN MOVIE 2001 RESSURECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER’. While there were once hundreds of the tiles, many have been paved over in recent years. Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Erifnam
The Warner and Swasey Observatory 11000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland Originally located on North Taylor in East Cleveland, the Warner and Swasey Observatory was built in 1919 and was once a scientific landmark. Due to rising light pollution of the city, the observatory was shut down in 1980 and moved from its original location to the Case Western Campus where the telescope is today. Photo via Stu_Spivack/Flickr Credit: Scene Archives
The Greater Cleveland Slo-Pitch Softball Hall of Fame 605 East 222nd St., Euclid Sharing the same building as the Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame is the Greater Cleveland Slo-Pitch Softball Hall of Fame. To some, Cleveland is known as the “Softball Capital of the World” so it makes sense we need our own hall of fame. Photo via The Greater Cleveland Softball HOF/Facebook
The Sanctuary Museum (Formerly the Museum of Divine Statues) 12905 Madison Ave., Lakewood Located in the decommissioned St. Hedwig Church in Lakewood, this museum was formerly known as the Museum of Divine Statues and is known for, well, a bunch of divine statues related to Catholicism. So bring your phone, scan all the items in the museum and learn the history of a bunch of statues. Photo via The Sanctuary Museum/Facebook
The Percy Skuy Contraception Collection 103 West Lakeshore Dr., Cleveland Located inside the Dittrich Museum of Medical History is the The Percy Skuy Collection and Gallery, which houses the Contraception Collection. The collection “includes a wide range of contraception items, prototypes, and manufacturing devices”. Photo via Case Western Reserve University
The Chess Collection at the Cleveland Public Library 325 Superior Ave., Cleveland The Cleveland Public Library has the largest library collection of chess sets in the world. Head to the third floor of the library and you’ll find The John G. White Collection of Chess and bring a partner, maybe they’ll let you play. Photo via Scene Archives
Castle Noel 260 South Court St., Medina Castle Noel is an indoor, year-round Christmas experience, but there’s no better time to visit than around Christmas. If you’re looking for everything Christmas in one place, like props from Christmas films, display windows from department stores, a Blizzard Vortex, Santa’s Chimney Squeeze, indoor snow, a 25 inch animated Christmas tree and much more, this is your place. Photo via @CastleNoel/Instagram
Balto the Dog 1 Wade Oval Dr., Cleveland The secluded star of Cleveland’s palace of taxidermy was once the most famous dog in the country, even before he inspired a kids’ movie. In 1925, Balto, a Siberian husky, led a team of sled dogs through the last stretch of a relay across Alaska, bringing an antitoxin to the town of Nome to stop a diphtheria outbreak. The dogs made national headlines, and the Iditarod sled race was founded in their honor. But two years later, a Cleveland businessman found Balto and his team in Los Angeles, neglected and miserable. He quickly raised $2,000 from Clevelanders to buy the dogs, who got a hero’s welcome in a Public Square parade. After his death in 1933, Balto’s body was sold to a taxidermist, and since then the stuffed Balto has resided at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Photo via Scene Archives
The Troll Hole 228 East Main St., Alliance If you’re into trolls, well, we have the perfect spot for you. The Troll Hole in Alliance is a museum dedicated to Troll Dolls and in fact has the largest collection of Troll dolls in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records.
Judy’s Jungle 8665 Station St., Mentor Out in Mentor you’ll find Judy’s Jungle, home to an awesome garden of fiberglass animals. What started more than 20 years ago at MT Heat Treat, a professional metal heating service, has turned into a full-fledged tourist attraction with a large assortment of animals. Photo via Yooperann/Flickr
The Haserot Angel 12316 Euclid Ave., Cleveland Located in the historic Lake View Cemetery, the Haserot Angel is actually known ans “The Angel of Death Victorious,”. The angel is located on the gravestone of Francis Haserot, an entrepreneur who made his fortune in canning. The angel is well known because there appear to be tears coming from its eyes. Photo via Scene Archives
Franklin Castle 4308 Franklin Blvd., Cleveland Built between 1881 and 1883, the grand structure at 4308 Franklin Blvd. is a local legend and well known to ghost hunters the world over. If the brick-insulated walls of the stone Victorian home could talk, the tales of its more than a dozen owners could go on for years. It stands looming above an Ohio City intersection where the eyes of its stone children have watched over the neighborhood from the front door frame through prosperity and poverty. It has inspired countless ghost stories evolving into urban legends through the years and was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1982. Photo via Scene Archives
The Dunham Tavern 6709 Euclid Ave., Cleveland The oldest building in Cleveland is the Dunham Tavern, which was built in 1824 and opened as a tavern and bar in 1842. The home was turned into the Dunham Tavern Museum in 1941 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974l Photo via Scene Archives
The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum 605 East 222nd St., Euclid The Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame isn’t the only musical hall of fame in Cleveland. Yes, we have a hall of fame dedicated to Cleveland-style polka music. It is temporarily closed due to the pandemic. Photo via The Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame/Facebook
The Dittrick Museum of Medical History 11000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland Part of Case Western Reserve University, the Dittrick Museum of Medical History was established all the way back in 1898. The museum is currently closed due to the pandemic but hopes to reopen soon. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
The Feline Historical Museum 260 East Main St., Alliance What started in Alliance in 1990 with 100 books and some Cat Fanciers Association (CFA) yearbooks turned into a full blown museum with over 8,500 books about cats, historical cat magazines, memorabilia from cat shows and much more. It’s the purrfect place to visit if you’re a feline fanatic. Photo via Feline Historical Museum/Facebook
House of Wills 2491 East 55th St., Cleveland What was built in 1898 as a German singing club called the Gesangverein Hall was sold to J. Walter Wills, the owner of the Wills Funeral Home which was established in 1904. The funeral home, which was one longest running and most successful black-owned businesses in Cleveland shut down in 1995. Eric Freeman bought the house in 2010 and has been restoring it since, keeping the house open for occasional tours. Photo via Scene Archives
The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick 2155 Broadview Rd.., Cleveland The witch museum, which is the first and only museum in the United States dedicated to witchcraft, is meant as a family-friendly tourist attraction mostly focusing on the modern Wicca movement in America and Britain. The collection was started as part of a museum in New York City in the 1960s and was brought to Ohio in 2015. Photo via Scene Archives
The Land of the Warres 4701 Perkins Ave., Cleveland, One of the stranger landmarks in Cleveland is called The Land of the Warres. Eames Demetrios is the geographer behind the elaborate project where he created a fictional parallel universe called Kcymaerxthaere, a universe whose story is told on plaques all over the world that connect to each other through the narrative. And one of those plaques happens to be on Perkins Avenue, just outside of downtown. Photo via The Land of the Warres
The Mini Guardians Of Traffic Washington and Center St., Cleveland A couple months ago, the Guardians of Traffic on the Hope Memorial bridge were well known to most Clevelanders. But the Cleveland baseball team announced their name would be changing from the ‘Indians’ to the ‘Guardians’ and the Guardians became a symbol much more widely known outside of Cleveland too. But even the most knowledgeable Clevelanders aren’t aware there are also mini Guardians of Traffic down in the Flats. So head down to the corner of Washington and Center Streets and check them out. Photo via Vince Grzegorek

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