The final leg of my trip to Cleveland was really the centerpiece of the visit and the part I was looking forward to the most.

The neighborhood of Glenville is where both Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster grew up nearly a century ago. I have read many, many accounts of both of their upbringings, and how Superman was gestating in their imaginations during these formative years.

Without going into the entire timeline of events, suffice to say that after a good deal of back and forth of drafts of ideas and rejected proposals, the character finally came together in Jerry’s mind one night. As the story goes, while lying in his bed the ideas started flowing altogether at a rapid clip- the John Carter-like powers and abilities, the champion of the oppressed, the alien from another world aspect, all of it in a torrent of inspiration that made young Siegel get out of bed and start jotting everything down.

According to Jerry, his pent up enthusiasm catapulted him out of his front door the following morning, notes in hand. He then ran to Joe Shuster’s house to share his newfound concept, everything finally fitting together perfectly. Joe started drawing on his family’s living room table right on the spot, where, along with Jerry’s suggestion to put a cape on the circus strongman design, Superman was born.

Amazingly, the two houses are still standing all these years later but are lived in by other residents today. They do however have markers that denote their importance in front of them- the ‘S’ shields in front of the former Siegel home, and gigantic pages of the complete Action Comics #1 story on the fence in front of the former Shuster home.

The streets the homes are on- Kimberley Avenue and Parkwood Drive- are also marked by special Superman themed street signs. I am not sure if the Siegel & Shuster Society had a hand in erecting the signs for tourists or markers in front of the homes, but I am sure glad the city has something directed to Superman fans who might like to visit one day.

The sad reality is, despite the nice pictures (taken on a hot, sunny, Midwest summer day), the Glenville neighborhood is not a nice area today, with a lot of junk, run down homes all over the area. What wonders what kind of transformation took place to go from suburban refuge to distressed section of the city over the course of a century.

Still, the beautiful aspect of this visit is not only the historical importance of the homes themselves. After taking an uber from my hotel to the Kimberley Ave house first, I then proceeded to walk the same route that Jerry Siegel took to run to his best friend’s house the morning his character was crystallized in his mind (all in all about nine minutes for an adult to walk… an easily manageable distance for an excited young kid to run!). It absolutely made everything worthwhile.

To think that I actually walked the same steps as the creator of Superman did was the greatest part of my entire trip to Cleveland. Lousy aesthetics aside, nothing was going to stop me from enjoying myself that day! This was a huge item to cross off my bucket list.

I hope you guys enjoy the pictures I took from this really special trip, I might have a few more miscellaneous items to come next week!