Cleveland, NY

Cleveland is an Oswego County village on the north shore of Oneida Lake, where the 2020 census counted 732 residents. It was incorporated in 1857 and grew around the lake, canal, and nearby industrial sites. The Eagle Tannery and grist mills came early; then the Cleveland Glass Works opened in 1840, followed by the Union Glass Factory in 1851. Those factories used local sand and shipped window glass through the Erie Canal, giving the small village a surprisingly industrial chapter.

NY Route 49 follows the lakeshore and continues east toward the Oneida County line, keeping Cleveland connected to both sides of the lake. Today the village remains part of Central Square Central School District, a very large rural district that reaches across Oswego, Onondaga, and Oneida counties. The lake sets the horizon, while the old factories, tannery, churches, and village streets fill in the human scale. Cleveland’s story is a lakeside crossroads shaped by water, glassmaking, and the routes that moved people and goods through central New York.