Free historic walking tour is this Saturday

This vintage postcard depicts the Euclid Club, one of the first 18-hole golf clubs to be built in the Cleveland area. It was located on the site of the city-owned parking lot at Cedar and Norfolk roads.

Cleveland Heights will celebrate National Preservation Month by showcasing some of its historic neighborhoods. This Saturday, the Cleveland Heights Landmark Commission, FutureHeights and the Cleveland Heights Historical Society will cosponsor a free walking tour of one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, the Euclid Heights Allotment. 

The event takes place, Saturday, May 21, from 10 a.m. to noon. Participants will meet at St. Alban Episcopal Church, 2555 Euclid Heights Boulevard.

Noted Cleveland Heights historian and John Carroll history professor, Dr. Marian J. Morton, will lead participants on a two-hour tour of Euclid Heights (roughly bounded by Cedar, Coventry, Mayfield and Overlook roads), which was developed by Patrick Calhoun and designed by noted Boston landscape architect, Ernest W. Bowditch.

Started in the 1890s, the neighborhood was the first large-scale residential development in Cleveland Heights designed to appeal to Cleveland's elite. The neighborhood had its own private golf resort and streetcar access. Mansions on large lots housed Cleveland's elite business leaders, lawyers and doctors. 

A 1913 bankruptcy changed the face of the neighborhood, which spans from the Cedar Fairmount area to Coventry, resulting in the lively commercial districts, grand apartment buildings, and distinctive homes now seen on these historic streets.

Although the tour is free, space is limited and preregistration is required. To register, call 216-321-9141 or e-mail Heightshistory@gmail.com. Tour organizers invite participants to lunch at one of the many Coventry or Cedar Fairmount restaurants afterwards. To learn more, visit www.cedarfairmount.org or www.coventryvillage.org.