CLEVELAND — There’s a place in Cleveland where you can travel the world without leaving the city. The Cleveland Cultural Gardens — a two-and-a-half-mile stretch along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and East Boulevard — celebrate the heritage of 38 cultures, each with its own green space, statues, and flags.
“Different ethnic communities represented throughout Northeast Ohio, but a lot of them are represented down here,” said Tom Turkaly, Executive Director of the Cultural Gardens.
The idea dates back more than a century. In 1916, Cleveland newspaper editor Leo Weidenthal envisioned the gardens as a way to counter the divisions of World War I. Land was donated by John D. Rockefeller, and each garden has been built and maintained by its own community ever since…