The Arcade opened on Memorial Day, May 30, 1890, and it cost $867,000. It is one of the earliest indoor shopping arcades in the United States. Wealthy Clevelanders including John D. Rockefeller helped pay for it.
It was modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. Two nine-story buildings face Euclid and Superior Avenues, joined by a five-story glass-roofed court more than 300 feet long and ringed with four levels of balconies. The skylight has 1,800 panes of glass.
It became a National Historic Landmark in 1975. In 2001 it was redeveloped into a Hyatt Regency hotel, and the skylight was replaced. In 2024 a scene in the movie Superman was filmed inside it.