Simpler days, no?
This was taken way back 1908 and it appears to be folks out for an excursion to Shaker's Horseshoe Lake. And it's so early that Shaker Heights as a village wasn't even established. The concept was there, just not the incorporation. That would happen until January 1912.
The lake was full - they have been dredging the lakes, I believe, to get rid of years and years worth of silt and muck. I don't know if it's full again. But they called it a Beauty Spot, and for good reason.
Apparently, this was taken along the earthen damn that separates (and makes possible) Horseshoe Lake from Doan Brook. The map below, looking SSE is about right:
The house in the distance of the original picture is still there today 17050 South Park Boulevard, and it is a masterwork of Chateauesque style. You just can't see it from this vantage point in the original picture from Google Maps street view.
We should be grateful that this still exists. In addition to the lake providing parklands and a nature reserve, this vista could have been a giant freeway interchange had a fiend by the name of Albert Porter had his way.
Long story short, Albert Porter was the Cuyahoga County Engineer. In addition to being a grade-A creep (he would ultimately lose his position when it found he had been demanding salary kickbacks for years from his employees) hated Cleveland's eastside heights communities. He felt that the people that lived there in the 1950s looked own him. So chip firmly planted on his shoulder, Porter devised a network of freeways that would effectively destroy Shaker Heights and the Doan Brook watershed.
Two of the freeways were the Lee Freeway - an eight-lane monster that would have torn through the right side of the picture, and the Clark Freeway, also overbuilt, would have gone from left to right in through the middle of the image. Connecting them was a multi-level exchange of concrete, steel, and pavement. Porter got as far as convincing the State of Ohio to fund the project. (I believe that there were four freeways involved in this diabolical plan.
What stopped it? Shaker Heights citizens led by mostly housewives and professional women including one Alice Van Deusen, principal of Mercer Elementary School. They are the ones who brought Governor Jim Rhodes to this site and showed him what he would be destroying. It worked; Porter was stopped dead in his tracks. Moreover, ODOT moved to cancel funding on any highway that would never pierce the sylvan scenery. The nature center building was built in the wooded area and name for Mrs. Van Deusen, who was also Cookie's grade School Principal until her retirement in 1970.
Why all this now?
Remember, when you fight for what is right, just, and serves a purpose larger than yourself, beautiful and enduring things happen. In this time of unsettlement, remember what side you are on. Good people win when they choose the cause larger than themselves, and the bad guys who want to wreck it all for their own greed don't win when you stick to your principles and fight the smart fight.
we "commoners" CAN make a difference; just look at our recent election!
ReplyDeleteTimely tale, sweetpea! xox
ReplyDeleteAlice Van Deusen for President! Jx
ReplyDeleteShe was a dear. When she retired there wasn't a dry eye in the room. I still have her going away gift that she gave every student - an opal-like marble with the golden rule printed on it.
Deletewe walk Shep around Horseshoe Lake at least 2x a week. As they are fixing a damn (allegedly) the "lake" remains waterless and grown in with reeds, weeds and plants. I'll meet you there for a constitutional one day?
ReplyDeleteAs soon as the COVID nightmare has a solution.
DeleteThank you for sharing this little slice of history. It would make a super movie! Amazing how corruption lives on and on and on. Let's hope good does the same.
ReplyDeleteWow, Albert S. Porter was quite the asshole in his day. This is just a paragraph in his Wikipedia profile:
ReplyDeleteControversy and downfall
Porter planned to build a freeway, commonly referred to as the Clark Freeway, through the Shaker Lakes, a park that preserved a historic site. Once the Clark freeway was completed, a secondary freeway, the Lee freeway, would be built from I480 to I 90. The interchange between Clark and Lee freeways would replace the Shaker Nature center. When a coalition of citizens' groups organized to fight this plan, Porter called the Shaker Lakes "a two-bit duck pond."
In May 1976 Beth Ann Louis, a twelve-year-old girl in Olmsted Falls, wrote to Porter as part of a school assignment, asking him not to replace the Bagley Road bridge because of the impact on wildlife and the environment. Porter replied to her with a disparaging letter that included several misspellings, calling Olmsted Falls residents "moochers, scroungers, chiselers and parasites." Public outrage resulted. In September 1976 a number of Porter's employees told The Plain Dealer in a series of articles authored by reporter Amos A. Kermisch that for years he had forced them to kick back two percent of their pay. That November he was defeated for reelection.
As a result of a grand jury investigation in 1977, which was launched following the articles in The Plain Dealer, Porter pleaded guilty to 19 counts of theft in office for the kickback scheme and was fined $10,000 and placed on probation for 2 years."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_S._Porter
Porter literally was the scummiest of the scummy. My father seldom, ever said anything really bad about anyone. But Albert Porter, made him cuss in Yiddish.
DeleteGreat post. Speak up! You may not be the loan voice after it is all said and done. Our current election results have shown if we ban for the greater good we may/can win. Hope is coming. Winter is coming.
ReplyDelete