Cleveland Area Former Nike Missile Sites

Nike Ajax, Hercules, and Zeus Missiles
Photographer and Location Unknown

Somewhat by accident I found that only a few hundred feet from a company where I used to work in Eastlake Ohio, there was a Nike Missile site. No, I’m not talking about a type of shoe, but real honest-to-god missiles that are used for war and blow things up. I became curious about the subject and with a little digging, I found that at one time, there were several Nike missile sites in the Cleveland area.

Photo from Dana Ryan and Burke Lakefront Airport staff

The Nike missile program was named after Nike, the goddess of victory from Greek mythology. The program brought Nike Ajax and/or Nike Hercules missiles to the Cleveland area and other locations across the nation during the “Cold War” era to combat a perceived Soviet threat. The missiles were part of a “line-of-sight” anti-aircraft missile system. They were put in place in the mid-1950s, and remained in place until the early 1960s when most locations in the Cleveland area became obsolete and closed, with the exception of the Parma and Warrensville locations. All bases in the Cleveland area were closed by 1971, and all locations were eventually reconfigured to serve other purposes more useful to their communities.

At Burke Lakefront Airport
Photo by Howard L. NewmarkerThe missile location in the confines of the actual city of Cleveland was at Burke Lakefront Airport. All locations in the Cleveland area were as follows:
CL-02 Bratenahl
CL-11 Painesville (Lake County)
CL-13 Willowick.Eastlake (Lake County)
CL-34DC Warrensville
CL-34 Warrensville/ Highland Hills
CL-48 Garfield Heights
CL-59 Parma/ Midpark Station
CL-67 Lakefront Airport (Burke)
CL-69 Lordstown Military Res/Fairview Park

You can find more detailed information about the program, and these Cleveland locations, in the links below.

By the way, I dug deep into my “archives” and found some old aerial photographs taken of the company where I worked in Eastlake. The photos were from the early 1960s – long before I worked there – but you can spot the location of the missile site in the photos.

Additional reading and reference:
Encylcopedia of Cleveland History Nike Missile Bases, which includes addresses for most locations

Nike Missile Sites in Ohio

The Nike Historical Society

Detroit-Cleveland Defense Area



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