History
Overview of the Origins of Clifton ParkPre-Development History
present-day suburbs of Lakewood, Rocky River, Fairview Park and the West Park section of Cleveland. The investors took title but never visited or settled on the Clifton Park parcels. In 1819 Township 7, Range 14 was renamed Rockport by a vote of its residents. Over the next fifty years some buying and selling of properties in Rockport’s Clifton Park occurred but the land was not cleared or farmed or allotted and the Lake Erie beach on the eastern side of the mouth of the Rocky River remained undisturbed.
After the national trauma of the Civil War, the nation refocused on expanding commerce and expanding to the west. Embodying the spirit of the new era, a group of businessmen on the west side of Cleveland hatched a visionary plan to develop the Rocky River valley and the mouth of the Rocky River into a park, called Rocky River Park. The first step in introducing the plan to the public was an offer made in January, 1867 to donate property at the mouth of the Rocky River, totaling about 250 acres and including what was to become Clifton Park, to the City of Cleveland for use as a public park.
The offer stated that Clevelanders could access the park by a steam railroad which would run from Cleveland to the east bank of the Rocky River; the incorporation papers for the Rocky River Railroad Company were filed in January, 1867. While the Cleveland City Council considered the offer, the west side businessmen commenced construction of the single-track, 5.8 mile railroad and a three-story resort hotel, called the Cliff House, located at the western terminus of the railroad at Sloane and Edanola Avenues in the west end of Lakewood. Finally, in the Spring of 1868, the Cleveland City Council rejected the park offer by an 11 to 10 vote. The businessmen proceeded with their plans for a park.
The name “Clifton Park” was first used by the west side businessmen in January, 1869 when they incorporated a company, which they named the Clifton Park Association, to operate a “general public resort” at the mouth of the Rocky River.
An agent for the west side businessmen obtained an option to purchase the Clifton Park property in 1867 and the property was transferred to the Clifton Park Association in 1874.
During the decade and a half that the Rocky River Park flourished, 1868 to 1883, the Clifton Park land was controlled or owned by the Clifton Park Association. Thousands of visitors arrived at Rocky River Park each summer via the Rocky River Railroad, the Detroit Street plank road or by boat. Picnic groves were developed at the top of the hill and at the beach. Rowboats and sailing boats could be rented at the west end of the beach for leisure trips or fishing. “Clean bathing” was popular at the beach.
Two major events prompted the end of the Rocky River Park era. In 1881 the Rocky River Railroad and its right-of-way was sold to the Nickel Plate Railroad. The Cliff House caught fire in 1882, leaving only a few charred walls, and was not rebuilt. While the Clifton Park Association continued to own the Clifton Park land, it did not take any active steps to develop or sell the property until William J. Starkweather became President of the Association in 1892. Starkweather’s wife Olivia had inherited a major interest in the Clifton Park Association.
Real Estate Development History
The Clifton Park Association began to install improvements on the property in 1892, which at that time was still a forest of tall trees. In 1893 it engaged the nationally-known landscape developer Ernest W. Bowditch to develop a residential plan for a portion of the Association’s land holdings in the northwest section of Lakewood. Pre-planned suburban subdivisions like Clifton Park were the exception in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The typical development involved a farmer or entrepreneur who subdivided his property, installed streets and sewers and then sold the lots to the public.
Bowditch had completed studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1869. After working with several landscape and architectural firms, he established his own practice with offices in Boston and New York and undertook a variety of assignments including the design of suburban residential subdivisions, most notably Tuxedo Park, New York in 1885.
Beginning in 1890, Bowditch advised the City of Cleveland in the design of a system of parks and roadways, which in time would take the form of Wade Park, Rockefeller Park, Gordon Park, the Shaker Lakes and the Metroparks’ Emerald Necklace. The Bowditch firm had been engaged in 1892 to develop a residential area in Cleveland Heights at the top of Cedar Hill. The Bowditch firm’s other private engagement while Bowditch was in Cleveland was Clifton Park.
Three elements of the Bowditch design and plans for Clifton Park stand out as contributing to subdivision’s unique character. First, the streets were laid out in undulating curves with the northern-most street following the line of the cliff above Lake Erie; this layout contrasted with the street grid of the rest of Lakewood, with east-west and north-south streets. Writing in 1904 about his work at Clifton Park, Bowditch observed:
“These streets are so worked out as to reach all the land available for lots and at the same time in cutting the lots into a pleasing variety of shapes and equally desirable irregularities in size. This result is indispensable in a residence community such as this, for it renders impossible any monotony or uniformity in the appearance of the houses, owing to the fact that they cannot be set in line nor the yards be laid out exactly similar.”
Secondly, attached to all of the lots were deed restrictions which mandated single family homes, set-back lines for the homes and minimum investments ranging up to $7,000 for the structures to be built on the lots. Significantly, there were no design or architectural requirements for the homes, thus allowing freedom to each lot owner to adopt a style and design to his or her liking. The result is a neighborhood of varying architectural styles and designs, varying sizes of homes and varying placements on the lots, creating an eclectic residential community where a formal Georgian Revival home can co-exist with a rambling shingle-style residence, and mansions can fit comfortably in a neighborhood with bungalows. Also, the restrictions excluded businesses, schools and churches from the park-like planned community.
Finally, the Bowditch plan called for setting aside the beach on Lake Erie in the northwest corner of the Association’s property, as a private recreation area for the exclusive use of the Clifton Park lot owners, and property on the cliff above the beach for a social club, with a membership to be comprised of both residents and non-residents of Clifton Park. These two set-asides ensured a strong sense of community for the lot purchasers and club members.
The old-growth trees and the elements of the neighborhood planned by Bowditch have been preserved for more than a century such that Clifton Park today looks much like it did in the early twentieth century (except for the 1964 extension of Clifton Boulevard through Clifton Park).
The first two homes constructed in Clifton Park were completed in 1894. William Starkweather, the son of a two-time mayor of Cleveland, and his wife built a 19-room summer estate; it was razed in 1969 and the property was subdivided into Lake Point Drive and four lots. Henry D. Coffinberry, a successful businessman and also the son of a prominent Cleveland citizen, constructed a three-story wooden Victorian home at the top of the hill leading to the beach (17884 Beach Road); it was razed in the 1930’s and replaced in 1939 by a brick home. No other residences were constructed in Clifton Park while the Clifton Park Association owned the Clifton Park property. Six weeks after Mr. Starkweather’s death on July 10, 1899, the Association sold the property to the newly incorporated Clifton Park Land and Improvement Company. That Company sold five lakefront lots to incorporators and directors of the Company in October, 1899 and first advertised the availability of Clifton Park lots to the public that same month.
The Clifton Park Land and Improvement Company leased the four lots at the intersection of Lake and Beach Roads to the newly organized Clifton Club on July 1, 1902, at an annual rent of $1.00, with an option to purchase. The Club members raised funds to construct a clubhouse of shingle and stone, with a broad porch. In July, 1912 the Clifton Park Land and Improvement Company sold the four lots to the Club.
Forty years after the Club’s founding and five weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Victorian-era clubhouse caught fire and burned to the ground. After the war, with insurance proceeds and freshly raised funds, a handsome new brick clubhouse was constructed and opened in June, 1950. From its beginnings to the present day, the Club has continued as a dining and social club, with the members enjoying Beach privileges.
The Clifton Park Land and Improvement Company included a covenant in the deeds of early lot purchasers that promised that it would at a later time convey ownership of certain lands in Clifton Park, including the beach, to a trust to be held for the use of Clifton Park lot owners. By 1912 the real estate company had sold a sufficient number of lots and transferred the lands to a trust. The March 25, 1912 Trust Deed authorized the Trustees, who were to be owners of lots and resident in Clifton Park, “to hold title to and preserve all the land deeded to them for the common use of all the lot owners…” in Clifton Park and “establish regulations for the use” of the deeded property. The Trustees are empowered to make and collect assessments from Clifton Park lot owners to care for the properties. The Trust continues in perpetuity. Today the Trust properties are maintained as park land and Clifton Beach, with its Beach House, picnic tables, tennis courts and a children’s playground, is a prized neighborhood asset enjoyed by families from early morning until long after sunset. Clifton Beach fosters a sense of community by affording residents and Clifton Club members with a place to meet formally and informally and by providing a venue for group activities such as Beach Clean-up in the Spring, summer potluck dinners and the Fall Clam Bake.
Post 1940’s Development
Since 1948 the Clifton Beach Improvement Association, comprised of representatives of Clifton Park, the Clifton Lagoons and the Clifton Club, has organized fund-raising activities to finance Beach improvements and promoted social activities
Even though divided into two sections, Clifton Park continues as a coherent unit characterized by winding streets, generous set-backs of handsome residences, abundant landscaping and mature trees, and a nexus to the Rocky River and Lake Erie.
Forty years after the Club’s founding and five weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Victorian-era clubhouse caught fire and burned to the ground. After the war, with insurance proceeds and freshly raised funds, a handsome new brick clubhouse was constructed and opened in June, 1950. From its beginnings to the present day, the Club has continued as a dining and social club, with the members enjoying Beach privileges.
The Clifton Park Land and Improvement Company included a covenant in the deeds of early lot purchasers that promised that it would at a later time convey ownership of certain lands in Clifton Park, including the beach, to a trust to be held for the use of Clifton Park lot owners. By 1912 the real estate company had sold a sufficient number of lots and transferred the lands to a trust. The March 25, 1912 Trust Deed authorized the Trustees, who were to be owners of lots and resident in Clifton Park, “to hold title to and preserve all the land deeded to them for the common use of all the lot owners…” in Clifton Park and “establish regulations for the use” of the deeded property. The Trustees are empowered to make and collect assessments from Clifton Park lot owners to care for the properties. The Trust continues in perpetuity. Today the Trust properties are maintained as park land and Clifton Beach, with its Beach House, picnic tables, tennis courts and a children’s playground, is a prized neighborhood asset enjoyed by families from early morning until long after sunset. Clifton Beach fosters a sense of community by affording residents and Clifton Club members with a place to meet formally and informally and by providing a venue for group activities such as Beach Clean-up in the Spring, summer potluck dinners and the Fall Clam Bake.
Since 1948 the Clifton Beach Improvement Association, comprised of representatives of Clifton Park, the Clifton Lagoons and the Clifton Club, has organized fund-raising activities to finance Beach improvements and promoted social activities
As Clevelanders moved to the suburbs after World War II, highway planners mapped out roads to transport suburban residents to the City for work and other activities. The Cuyahoga County Engineer made it a priority to extend Clifton Boulevard, which dead-ended at the eastern end of Clifton Park, west through Clifton Park to a new bridge across the Rocky River, which would connect to routes further west. After prolonged litigation, the road extension and bridge construction commenced in the early 1960’s and was completed in early 1964. When the dust settled, six Clifton Park homes had been demolished, a number of homes were moved to new locations both within and outside of Clifton Park, and common areas were lost. Clifton Park had been severed into northern and southern sections.
The northern section of Clifton Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, citing it as “significant because of its overall coherence as a turn-of-the-century upper-class residential district with its origins in a lakefront resort.”
Even though divided into two sections, Clifton Park continues as a coherent unit characterized by winding streets, generous set-backs of handsome residences, abundant landscaping and mature trees, and a nexus to the Rocky River and Lake Erie.
John S. Pyke, Jr.
March, 2012