The celebration of Historic Preservation Month in Cleveland Heights continues with a series of four lectures on historic homes at 7 p.m. on Thursday evenings at the Lee Road Library. Learn how to research the history of your home, how to make an older home more energy efficient, how to incorporate historic interior design ideas into your decorating scheme, and more.
May is both Bike Month and Preservation Month, so the Heights Bicycle Coalition (HBC) and the Cleveland Heights Historical Society are joining forces for a free lecture and bicycle tour of historic districts in the southern part of Cleveland Heights.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 12, 10 a.m.–12 p.m., and begins at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 2747 Fairmount Blvd. To register, call the Cleveland Heights planning department, 216-291-4878. (Rain date: May 26, same place and time.)
May is National Preservation Month and this year’s theme is “Discovering America’s Hidden Gems.” Here in Cleveland Heights, one month isn’t enough to celebrate all of the city’s hidden gems, so this year we’re stretching it a bit—starting in early May and continuing into July.
Preservation Month 2012 will feature seven free events co-sponsored by the Cleveland Heights Landmark Commission, Cleveland Heights Historical Society, Heights Libraries, FutureHeights, Heights Bicycle Coalition and Home Repair Resource Center.
On Feb. 15, the Shaker Farm Historic District was formally listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This recognition was the culmination of a process involving many people at the local, state and national levels over more than two years.
The new historic district is essentially the northern portion of land acquired and occupied by the North Union Shaker Community between 1822 and 1889. Because the Shaker Colony had dwindled and aged, the land was sold in 1892. New owners donated the Shaker Lakes and land along Doan Brook to Cleveland for a park in 1896, but it took almost two decades before houses were built on the adjacent land north of the park.
It’s been 70 years since Park School closed. Most of the former students have died or grown old, and memories of that place have grown dim.
But Christmas is a good time to remember one of the special customs of that long-gone school: The Yule-log hunt and bonfire.
Every year, just before school closed for the Christmas break, Fox Smith, our sports coach, went out into the surrounding forest, (it’s still on the grounds of Park Synagogue) to find a log for our Christmas bonfire. He would mark it with a distinctive sprig of beribboned holly. Classes would be dismissed and all the students would spread out in the woods to find the log.
Veteran’s Day is Nov. 11. Some spend the holiday relaxing, while others mark the day by honoring the people who fought for our country. Cleveland Heights resident Al Oberst is one of those who puts his heart and soul into honoring our nation’s fallen heroes.
Oberst is a veteran. He has taken it upon himself to restore the World War I memorial plaques along North Park Boulevard. The memorial, known as Liberty Row, is a nine-mile string of white oaks that run from Gordon Park, in Cleveland, to Warrensville Center Road, in Shaker Heights. The oaks—each shading a bronze plaque engraved with the name of a soldier who died in World War I—were planted beginning in 1918. Over the years, many of the oaks perished and the plaques deteriorated or were vandalized. (Learn more at http://www.chhistory.org/Places.php?PlacesContent=LibertyRow)
The Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS) will host "A Night In Rio," a benefit for the society on July 23. Dinner, dancing, music and entertainment await guests as they tour the award-winning restoration of one of Fairmount Boulevard's magnificent historic homes.
The City of Cleveland Heights will conclude Preservation Month, a celebration of significant places that have contributed to its history, with a lecture and walking tour.
On Thursday, June 23, Korbi Roberts, independent historian, and Dr. J. Mark Souther, associate professor of history at Cleveland State University, will present “The History of Grant Deming’s Forest Hill,” a Cleveland Heights Neighborhood that was listed in the National Register of Historic Places last year. Roberts and Souther will discuss the property’s early history and its development into the neighborhood that residents know today.
"Cleveland had a huge impact on Rockefeller’s success," said Sharon Gregor, an East Cleveland resident and author of two books about John D. Rockefeller. As part of the 10th annual Discover Cedar Fairmount Festival on August 7, Gregor will give a presentation about her research at 1:30 p.m. in the Alcazar’s music room.
Gregor says she began her research hoping to address the accuracy of the myths and legends that surround Rockefeller, the richest man in the world at the turn of the 19th century. "For example," she said, "many people believe that Rockefeller never returned to Cleveland after the 1914–15 tax dispute. In fact, he returned several times and frequently credited Cleveland for his success."
Cleveland Heights will soon add yet another neighborhood to the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s official list of historically significant buildings and neighborhoods. The Ohio Historical Society is reviewing the nomination for the Shaker Farm Neighborhood, before sending it to the federal government for final approval.
This Saturday, May 28, from 10 a.m. to noon, Mary Dunbar, resident and author of the nomination, will give a brief lecture on the area’s history, followed by a walking tour of the neighborhood.
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.
The Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS) and the American Institute of Architects-Cleveland honored Salim and Addie Hayek, the owners of 2900 Fairmount Boulevard, for the restoration of their Tudor Revival home at the annual Celebration of Preservation awards ceremony on May 10.
On May 1, The Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University (CSU), in partnership with the City of Cleveland Heights, rolled out a series of Cleveland Heights sites on the Cleveland Historical mobile "app." Cleveland Historical is a free mobile software application for iPhone and Android devices that curates the history of the Cleveland metropolitan area through historic and current photographs, oral history audio clips, archival film footage and short documentary films. It is available at http://app.clevelandhistorical.org.
Within our nation’s communities there are significant places that have contributed to the American experience. May has been designated National Preservation Month, and this year’s theme is "Celebrating America’s Treasures." This coming May, small towns and large cities will hold events that include architectural and historic tours, award ceremonies, fundraisers, educational programs and heritage travel opportunities.
Cleveland Heights is no exception, but one month just isn’t enough time to celebrate all of Cleveland Heights’s treasures. This year, CH’s Preservation Month will start early—in late April—and continue into June.
It would be hard to overstate the significant contribution that architects Harry E. Weeks and Frank R. Walker made to the beauty of Cleveland in the first half of the 20th century.
Here’s a partial list: Severance Hall, First Church of Christ Scientist (now Nottingham Spirk Design Associates), Lorain-Carnegie (Hope Memorial) Bridge, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Epworth-Euclid Methodist Church, St. Ann Church(now Communion of Saints Parish), Allen Memorial Medical Library, Cleveland Public Library, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Public Auditorium. These are treasures we hope we never lose.
As the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District embarks on a review of its physical needs for the 21st century, it is a good time to look back at the buildings that have served the community’s children for the past century. Since the completion of the 1970s renovations, and construction of four new schools, the district has not constructed a new building in 35 years—the longest period in its history without new construction. Before this hiatus, there was a near-constant cycle of new school construction, first in Cleveland Heights and then in University Heights.
At the dawn of the 20th century, the township/city that became Cleveland Heights was beginning its transformation from a farming community in the hinterlands of Cleveland to a "garden suburb" of homes for people seeking to escape the city. Early districts, such as Euclid Heights, Euclid Golf, Ambler Heights and Mayfield Heights would soon be joined by numerous developments as Cleveland’s population sought larger lots away from the noise and pollution of the city center.
This past spring, the National Park Service listed “Grant Deming’s Forest Hill Allotment Historic District” on the National Register of Historic Places. The district lies generally in an area bounded by Euclid Heights Boulevard, Washington Boulevard, Lee Road, and Coventry Road. With 654 major structures, the district is the largest in Cleveland Heights to achieve National Register status.
My husband and I and our two small children moved to Cleveland from Chicago in January l963. We wanted to be near excellent schools and in an integrated neighborhood. At that time, the only truly integrated neighborhood was the Ludlow area of Shaker, which was out of our price range.
We rented half of a duplex in Cleveland Heights, on Hampshire Road. We were so happy in the Coventry School area that when we looked for a house to buy a year and a half later, we looked at houses only in that neighborhood, and we found one where we were very happy.
Five years later, my husband and I happened to see an extraordinary house for sale two blocks away. While we hadn't been looking to move, we bought that house the next day! We were thrilled.
Marian Morton’s latest chronicle of Cleveland Heights, The Overlook of Cleveland and Cleveland Heights (Arcadia Publishing), is another example of the author’s skill at uncovering heretofore unpublished vintage images, and knitting them together with sound research and a good story. Aficionados of Cleveland Heights history are the beneficiaries.
Morton covers Patrick Calhoun’s development of the Euclid Heights Allotment generally, but focuses more specifically on the westernmost portion of the allotment known as The Overlook. Falling within both Cleveland Heights and Cleveland, The Overlook largely duplicated the grandeur of Euclid Avenue, when some of that storied avenue’s most prominent residents made the Heights their new address.
Coventry P.E.A.C.E Park, the playground at the former Coventry Elementary School in Cleveland Heights, was built in 1993 by the community using funds raised and donated by area residents. Twice each year, Coventry P.E.A.C.E.–the organization that cares for it–hosts a cleanup and maintenance event.
The spring clean-up day is Saturday, April 17, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Come for an hour or all day if you have time. Snacks and lunch will be served in the Coventry Library. Garden tools and gloves are provided. Bring your enthusiasm and the desire to keep the garden and playground beautiful.
Take a trip back in time and explore the Heights and all of Ohio using historic maps that have been georeferenced in Google Earth, a free program that manages multiple map layers so you can easily see how locations have changed over time.
A hands-on workshop exploring these maps and the Google Earth application will be offered at the Lee Road Library on Sunday, March 7. Register in advance atwww.heightslibrary.org.Nov. 13 marks the 50th anniversary of the infamous “bust” in Cleveland Heights history: Cleveland Heights Police raided the Heights Art Theater (later the Centrum), shut down an evening showing of "Les Amants," (The Lovers) and arrested manager Nico Jacobellis - all because of a three-minute love scene that would seem tame by today’s standards.
The Cleveland Heights Historical Society announces a free screening of"Les Amants" at the Lee Road Library, along with the opportunity to hear an accompanying lecture, enjoy free popcorn and not worry about getting arrested and having your case taken all the way to the Supreme Court, which is what happened to Jacobellis.
The event takes place Nov. 13 in the Brody/Nelson meeting room at the Lee Road Library. The lecture is at 6:30 p.m.; the movie begins at 7 p.m. The event is free, though donations or membership applications to the Cleveland Heights Historical Society are welcome.
Built in 1923, the Alcazar Hotel at Surrey and Derbyshire roads was billed as “Cleveland’s most desirable residential hotel.” Designed in the Spanish-Moorish eclectic style, the Alcazar is reminiscent of Florida hotels built in the 1880s for Henry Flagler. Special guests of the hotel included George Gershwin, Jack Benny and Mary Martin. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Cleveland Heights Landmark, the Alcazar Hotel still runs as a residential hotel.
Find out more at www.chhistory.org! The Cleveland Heights Historical Society promotes the history of our community through public programs, an informative website and fact-filled newsletters. Join today!
No Sunday golf on these links! John D. Rockefeller allowed Patrick Calhoun to use his land for an additional nine holes in his Euclid Club golf course, but only if those nine holes were not played on Sundays. Calhoun opened this first-class recreational facility in order to attract high-end home buyers to his new development in Cleveland Heights. Well-known Meade & Garfield designed the Euclid Golf Club roughly at Cedar and Norfolk, which was completed in 1901. The course was bounded roughly by Derbyshire, S. Overlook, West St. James and Demington. Check out Euclid Golf Neighborhood by Deanna Bremer and Hugh Fisher at www.euclidgolf.com.
Find out more Cleveland Heights history at www.chhistory.org! The Cleveland Heights Historical Society promotes the history of our community through public programs, an informative website and fact-filled newsletters. Join today!
The East Cleveland Township Cemetery is made up of 12 acres of land in University Circle. It is an area that is hardly remembered by Clevelanders even though it has been surrounded by urban legend since its founding in 1859. Finally, the fact has been separated from the fiction and the real story of the cemetery has been uncovered.
Join Nancy Fofel West, vice president and secretary of the East Cleveland Township Cemetery Foundation, and author of "To Dwell With Fellow Clay: The Story of East Cleveland Township Cemetery", as she presents a virtual, in-depth look at Cleveland and the Heights' most interesting settlers, politicians and heroes.
The Cleveland Heights Historical Center at Superior Schoolhouse, owned and operated by the City of Cleveland Heights, houses an archival collection of Cleveland Heights' history. Help us identify this mystery photo so that we can include it in our online photo archive at www.clevelandmemory.org/chuh. If you know the location, e-mail the address to kodonnell@clvhts.com.
Genealogy is a recorded history of a person or family’s descent from an ancestor or ancestors. Soul is spiritual or emotional warmth, force or evidence. These combine well: knowing your roots and connecting with family are good for the soul.
Genealogy is also a great hobby for people of all ages, one you can stop and restart at any time. The experience can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, and as fulfilling or frustrating.
Research choices include concentrating on one surname from a specific area, collecting old pictures, joining a local and/or national genealogy society, and collecting documents to place in a binder. You can travel to do research at a library, cemetery or birth place of an ancestor. You can use the Internet to place surname queries or create a Web site.
Look familiar? The cars may have changed, but much that makes this intersection at Fairfax and Lamberton roads so beautiful remains. Developers and home-buyers in the early 20th Century were attracted to the trees, wide-open spaces and lovely architecture that helped make Cleveland Heights a great place to live (then and now!).
May is Historic Preservation Month and the last of three free events to celebrate and recognize Cleveland Heights as a special place is this week.
Thursday, May 21, 7:00 p.m.
“The Greenest Building is Already Built: Sustainability and Historic Preservation”
Jamie Bertram, historic preservation specialist, Cleveland Restoration Society.
Superior School House, 14391 Superior Road at Euclid Heights Boulevard.
The Cleveland Heights Historical Center at Superior Schoolhouse, owned and operated by the City of Cleveland Heights, houses an archival collection of Cleveland Heights' history. Help us identify this mystery photo so that we can include it in our online photo archive at www.clevelandmemory.org/chuh. If you know the location, e-mail the address to kodonnell@clvhts.com.
The richness of Cleveland Heights history continues to be revealed in the latest book by Marion Morton, "Cleveland Heights Congregations" (Arcadia Publishing). In this new book in Arcadia’s Images of America series, Morton tells the story of the evolution of Cleveland Heights' many religious congregations.
Most Heights congregations had their origins in some of the earliest religious institutions in Cleveland. As times changed, they made their way to the Heights, as did so many individuals during the early part of the 20th Century. Morton identifies the origin of each congregation and chronicles further changes in the rich histories of these great institutions. Central to Morton’s story is that no matter how much Cleveland Heights has evolved and changed, the city’s religious institutions have remained an important stabilizing influence.
The website for the historic Euclid Golf Allotment has moved. Formerly housed at the now defunct CH-UH.net website, it now has its own URL: http://www.euclidgolf.com.
The website tells the story of the Euclid Golf neighborhood, an excellent example of early twentieth century real estate planning. Located near the top of Cedar Hill, Euclid Golf comprises Fairmount Boulevard from Cedar Road to Coventry Road and the side streets on either side. The neighborhood was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.