THE VISION ISSUE - City of Shaker Heights

The Krause family at the Ardmore Road
home, 1926. Photo courtesy Lester Krause.
house and the neighborhood they
had in common. It unleashed a desire
in the Whites to learn the history
of their home and, in turn, to
share with Lester how it has fared
over the decades since he slept in
the bedroom now occupied by Ellie.
What is remarkable is not so
much that the physical features of
the house are still the same, but that
the experience of living in it has remained
largely unchanged.
In 1926, when Lester Krause
moved into the Ardmore house,
only a few other houses were on the
street and nearby Fernway School
was still under construction. “A
building boom existed and lots were
filling quickly,” says Lester, who was
bussed to Sussex until Fernway was
completed.
His closest friend, Warren
“Weedy” Miller, lived on Dorchester
next to what is now the Fernway
parking lot. “We played lots of ball
games in the Fernway School play
yard. It was covered with gravel and
it was not fenced in like it is now,”
recalls Lester who, many years later,
served as best man in Weedy’s wedding
and remained close long after
leaving Shaker.
For the Whites and their children,
Lester brought to life this time
of incredible change in Cleveland
and Shaker Heights. He recalled
witnessing the building of Terminal
Tower and working on a bakery
wagon pulled by a horse throughout
the Fernway neighborhood. Lester
often hopped aboard to deliver
orders to customers, earning him a
cookie or pastry of his own choosing.
In 1935, Lester’s father sold the
house and the family moved to a
farm in Burton. Lester commuted
36 miles back and forth in a Ford
coupe to finish his senior year at
Shaker High.
The email exchange often involved
extensive comparisons about
the details of the house, including
the story of the original glass panels
in the bathroom, which are still
there today. Lester asked if one of
the panels was a slightly different
color than the rest and upon closer
inspection, the Whites found that
indeed the panels did not match.
That was thanks to Lester’s father,
who accidentally cracked the original
tile. The manufacturer couldn’t
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