Cleveland's Eastern Suburbs (Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, East Cleveland: house, neighborhoods, university)

[rranger]

I happened on this forum and I was wondering whether someone with knowledge of Cleveland area urban history could answer some questions for me about the eastern street-car suburbs, i.e., Shaker Heights, University Heights, Cleveland Heights, etc.

I have been to/lived in quite a few cities in the US, but I've never seen any other than Cleveland with such extensive "city beautiful" suburbs (with the possible exception of Washington).

I live in Boston, for example, and while we have some suburbs that fit the bill (notably Brookline and Newton), nothing seems to come close to the sheer scale of Cleveland's planned suburbs. And they are beautiful, BTW.

So, I'd love it if someone could give me a little background on how Cleveland developed such grand suburbs to the east.

Thanks.

[CALarrick]

Interesting - and I really don't know the full answer. Part of it, surely, is that Cleveland happened to have been rich and growing at precisely the right early-20th-century moment (collapsing rapidly shortly thereafter) to have 'lined up' well with that architectural/planning moment. Certain individuals/institutions doubtless contributed -- there's an area spanning the Cleveland Heights-East Cleveland border that was developed by Rockefeller, intended for Standard Oil managers, for example. Detroit boomed in the same time frame and has somewhat similar looking areas in the Grosse Pointes, for example, so simple timing may indeed have much to do with it.

[rranger]

Originally Posted by CALarrick

Interesting - and I really don't know the full answer. Part of it, surely, is that Cleveland happened to have been rich and growing at precisely the right early-20th-century moment (collapsing rapidly shortly thereafter) to have 'lined up' well with that architectural/planning moment. Certain individuals/institutions doubtless contributed -- there's an area spanning the Cleveland Heights-East Cleveland border that was developed by Rockefeller, intended for Standard Oil managers, for example. Detroit boomed in the same time frame and has somewhat similar looking areas in the Grosse Pointes, for example, so simple timing may indeed have much to do with it.

Thanks. That's helpful. And, as an urban history fan, I've wondered about this for a long time - since I was in college in Pittsburgh and we'd visit Cleveland Museum, to be more precise.

Pittsburgh, while having even more wealthy people per capita than Cleveland at that time, doesn't have anything like what you see in Cleveland. It certainly has nice, streetcar friendly neighborhoods in the city (like Highland Park, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, etc.) but not on the scale of Cleveland. Of course, that probably has a lot to do with Pittsburgh's topography which doesn't really lend itself to large city development (though Pghers certainly tried).

[AndyF667]

Originally Posted by rranger

I happened on this forum and I was wondering whether someone with knowledge of Cleveland area urban history could answer some questions for me about the eastern street-car suburbs, i.e., Shaker Heights, University Heights, Cleveland Heights, etc.

I have been to/lived in quite a few cities in the US, but I've never seen any other than Cleveland with such extensive "city beautiful" suburbs (with the possible exception of Washington).

I live in Boston, for example, and while we have some suburbs that fit the bill (notably Brookline and Newton), nothing seems to come close to the sheer scale of Cleveland's planned suburbs. And they are beautiful, BTW.

So, I'd love it if someone could give me a little background on how Cleveland developed such grand suburbs to the east.

Thanks.

The development of Shaker Heights was driven by the Van Sweringen brothers in the early part of the 20th Century. I read an interesting account of their travails. From what I gleaned their plan was to become developers and bought large tracts of land just east of Cleveland. Part of the plan was to build a local transit rail to ferry people from SH H to Cleveland. In the process the backed into the railroad business in order to clear right-of-ways. In the end they owned the 3rd(I think) largest railroad company in the country. Sadly the depression eventually dragged down their business, and eventually much was sold off.
I cannot remember the book title right now...
I dont know much about Cleve Hts, but I believe it is an older suburb than Shaker. And University Hts followed both...

[rranger]

Originally Posted by AndyF667

The development of Shaker Heights was driven by the Van Sweringen brothers in the early part of the 20th Century. I read an interesting account of their travails. From what I gleaned their plan was to become developers and bought large tracts of land just east of Cleveland. Part of the plan was to build a local transit rail to ferry people from SH H to Cleveland. In the process the backed into the railroad business in order to clear right-of-ways. In the end they owned the 3rd(I think) largest railroad company in the country. Sadly the depression eventually dragged down their business, and eventually much was sold off.
I cannot remember the book title right now...
I dont know much about Cleve Hts, but I believe it is an older suburb than Shaker. And University Hts followed both...

Thanks Andy:

That's really helpful and educational. I just learned something new. And, others can read a very abbreviated history of the "Vans" here: Van Sweringen brothers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's really too bad that that kind of vision didn't exist in other places, because - for all of Cleveland's issues - the Vans' legacy is lasting and has left a beautiful built environment.

[AndyF667]

Here was the book title on the Van Sweringen's: Invisible giants : the empires of Cleveland's Van Sweringen brothers / Herbert H. Harwood, Jr.

There is another book I really liked which was fiction, but fairly accurate on the historical info, called Crooked River burning by Mark Winegardner

I am lucky enough to live in Shaker (not the rich part) and part of my running route is to go past the Van Sweringen mansion. I actually like the house next door better; fascinating (to me) nonetheless.

[rranger]

Originally Posted by AndyF667

Here was the book title on the Van Sweringen's: Invisible giants : the empires of Cleveland's Van Sweringen brothers / Herbert H. Harwood, Jr.

There is another book I really liked which was fiction, but fairly accurate on the historical info, called Crooked River burning by Mark Winegardner

I am lucky enough to live in Shaker (not the rich part) and part of my running route is to go past the Van Sweringen mansion. I actually like the house next door better; fascinating (to me) nonetheless.

Thanks Andy. Interestingly enough, both of those books are available for free, limited perusal on Google Books. So, I'll take a look at them.

[Hans64]

What is now Hunting Valley was originally part of the Van's Shaker plan. The are would be known as "Shaker Estates" and the homes and lot sizes were to be on an estate scale. The rail line was to extend to this area as well--you can still see the large area of land allocated for the line along Shaker Boulevard east of Green Road. Shaker is considered a "Streetcar Suburb". There are many similar communities across the US (though I'd argue Shaker is one of the most distinctive). There is an excellent book by Kenneth Jackson on this subject called The Crabgrass Frontier--it outlines the suburbanization of the United States.

[Clevelander17]

The Vans also developed parts of University Heights. Cleveland Heights wasn't really master-planned to the extent of Shaker Heights, but CH became a suburban escape for many wealthy Clevelanders, so a lot of that architecture is still around (though sadly some has been lost over the years).

There are a lot of good books to read about the history of these cities, especially CH and SH. Run a search on Amazon and you'll find some good stuff. Or if you're in town, visit the local libraries. I know SH has a room dedicated to local history, I would bet that CH has something similar.