2-1 History of Lkwd - City of Lakewood, Ohio

Lakewood Home Improvement & Maintenance Guide:Preserving Your Housing InvestmentPART TWO2-1HISTORY OF LAKEWOOD

Lakewood Home Improvement & Maintenance Guide:Preserving Your Housing Investment2-1 History of LakewoodTHE EARLY YEARSDifferent types of transportation had importantroles in the development ofLakewood. Roads, railroads, and streetcarshave all left their imprint on thecity. This interplay over almost two centurieshas created the Lakewood we seetoday, including the patterns of buildings.Lakewood, the first suburb west ofCleveland on the shores of Lake Erie,began simply in 1805 as Township 7,Range 14 of the Connecticut WesternReserve. It was a wooded wildernessthrough which cut the old Huron PostRoad, which ran from Buffalo to Detroit.In 1819, a small group of eighteen familiesliving in the area of present-dayLakewood, Rocky River, and part ofCleveland’s West Park neighborhood,named the growing community RockportTownship. By 1871 the Lakewood areawas known as East Rockport. A communityof farms, orchards, and vineyardsprospered as people came fromNew England and New York, and immigrantsarrived from England, Germany,and later, Eastern Europe. In 1889, EastRockport, with 400 residents, separatedfrom the Township and became thehamlet of Lakewood. Settlement acceleratedrapidly, with Lakewood becominga Village with 3,500 residents in1903. City status, with 12,000 residents,came just eight years later. By 1930,the population of Lakewood was 70,509.ROADS AND TRANSPORTATIONRoads were the earliest influence ondevelopment in Lakewood. TheRockport Plank Road Company improvedthe old Detroit Road in 1848,opening a toll road from present-dayWest 25 th Street in Cleveland to fivemiles west of the Rocky River. It continuedoperating as a toll road until1901.A series of bridges carrying Detroit Avenueover the Rocky River Valley, thefirst of which was built in 1821, improvedcommerce between Clevelandand the emerging communities to itswest. An 1874 atlas of CuyahogaCounty shows present-day main roadssuch as Detroit Avenue, Madison Avenue,Franklin Boulevard, Hilliard Road,Warren Road, and Riverside Drive, aswell as several other streets.The Rocky River Railroad was organizedin 1869 by speculators as an excursionline to bring Clevelanders to the resortarea they developed at the mouth ofthe Rocky River. Financially unsuccessfulas a pleasure and amusement venture,the line was sold to the NickelPlate Railroad in 1881. The railroadline still exists today, running in an eastwestdirection north of Detroit Avenue.51

Lakewood Home Improvement & Maintenance Guide:Preserving Your Housing InvestmentHistory of Lakewood, continuedThe type of transportation most significantto the growth of Lakewood was the streetcarsystem. The Detroit Avenue line openedin 1893, followed by the Clifton Boulevardline in 1903, and finally the Madison Avenueline in 1916. As the early farms weresubdivided and real estate speculators advertisedLakewood’s ideal natural setting byLake Erie, neighborhoods appeared adjacentto the streetcar lines. An interurbanrail system connected Lakewood with communitiesfarther west.THE FIVE LANDSCAPES OF LAKEWOODAll of these changes created present dayLakewood. In their book, Lakewood: TheFirst Hundred Years, Jim and SusanBorchert describe five specific landscapesin Lakewood.Urban Village - This neighborhood, alongMadison Avenue from West 117 th Street toMadison Park, is often referred to as Bird’sNest. A subsidiary of National Carbon laidout over 400 lots in 1894 as a way to attractworkers to the nearby factory, which did nothave a streetcar connection. Mainly EasternEuropean immigrants built a distinctiveand densely packed neighborhood ofhouses, shops, and churches.Clifton Park and Lakefront Estates -Unable to succeed as a resort area at themouth of the Rocky River, the area was developedas an exclusive residential districtbeginning in the late1890’s. Clifton Park wasdesigned to have a park-like setting withcurving streets, which contrasts to the gridpattern of the rest of Lakewood. The neighborhoodbecame home to many of GreaterCleveland’s leading industrialists and professionals.52Along Lake Avenue, estates stretched fromthe north side of the street to Lake Erie,with large houses situated close to the water.Today, only a few of the Lake Avenueestates remain.Middle Lakewood - These are the familiarstreets of single-family and two-familyhomes in Lakewood, almost always laid outin a grid pattern, built from the 1890’sthrough the 1920’s. These lots were theresult of subdividing larger farms andwoods, with a street added to provide access,and a grid created the most lots.Builders sometimes constructed speculativehousing, often with several similar or identicalhouses near each other. In other cases,individuals purchased a lot and contractedwith a builder. Because of the patchworkdevelopment pattern over several decadesand by many people, features such as thestreet width, lot size, tree lawn depth, anddistance from the curb to the front porchoften vary, often from street-to-street.Apartment Houses and Cliff Dwellers- Apartment buildings, intended for singles,newly married couples, and small families,were closely linked to the streetcar lines.By 1930, Lakewood had about 200 apartmentbuildings. As the streetcar linesopened, most apartments were built alongDetroit and Madison Avenues, or aroundthe corner on side streets. Apartments eitheroccupied the entire building or the floorabove stores. In addition, several clustersof larger apartment buildings were constructedduring the 1910’s and 1920’s atthe east end of Clifton Boulevard, LakeAvenue, and Edgewater Drive, as well asthe areas around the intersections of CliftonBoulevard/Warren Road and Lake Avenue/Cook Avenue.

Lakewood Home Improvement & Maintenance Guide:Preserving Your Housing InvestmentHistory of Lakewood, continuedCommercial Landscapes - As the mainroad through Rockport Township, Detroit Avenuehas always been a center of activity. Afew 19 th century houses remain today, howeverthe streetcar lines ensured that Detroitand Madison Avenues would become the focalpoint of commerce and civic life. Hundredsof merchants provided daily necessitiesto a population on-foot in an era beforemodern refrigerators and widespread automobileuse. The buildings included many twoandthree-story structures with first floorshops and apartments or offices above, aswell as movie theaters, dance halls, fraternallodges, municipal offices, and numerouschurches. With their focus to the streetcarline, buildings were located close to the sidewalk.West 117 th Street, on both the Lakewoodand Cleveland sides, was also a majorcommercial street, however, most of the early20 th century buildings have been demolished.THE INFLUENCE OF THE AUTOMOBILEBy mid-century, the popularity of the automobileresulted in the decline of urban rail systems.Shortly after the Clifton Boulevard lineended service in 1947, the road was widenedfrom two lanes to six lanes. The last streetcarin Lakewood traveled the Madison Avenue linein 1954.The popularity of the automobile has alsocaused other changes to development patternsin Lakewood. The original early 20 th centurycommercial areas filled with small shops did notneed parking because residents walked or usedstreetcars. Today, changes in retailing such asshopping centers and large supermarkets, aswell as convenience demanded by many customers,means that parking areas have beenincorporated into commercial areas. In residentialareas, the number of vehicles requiringoff-street or on-street parking spaces has increasedsubstantially over the years.CITY OF LAKEWOOD OHIO53