Alaina Weisman (Zachary)

Joseph et al: It was family lore that my father, Maurice Weisman (members of B'nai Jeshurun btw) wanted to build our home on the other side of Warrensiville Center Rd. (The Byron side) but was told that although he could buy land, as a Jewish person, he could not build.  So he bought and built our home at 3119 Morley Rd., one road on the other side of WCR.  My elementary school was Malvern and OH, the homes where we trick or treated... Sumptuous.  The house is still there repainted white.  Our next door neighbors were the Marcuses and the Simons; all had kids who went to Shaker.

Joseph G Blake

Fascinating story about Torrens deeds.

The deeds in Shaker are usually the 1927 deeds which can contain the resale consent deed. That covers something like 75% of the properties. That was done when blacks were able to buy houses in a resale situation. The Vans then decided to add the consent for resale.

The previous deeds date back to around 1910 or so and would now be past their original life. Deeds along the lines you mention might well have appeared prior to WW1.That would cover areas along Fairmount and Shaker Blvd probably below Courtland because those areas were in active devlopment in that period. The street car lines came out Fairmount across Coventry and out Shaker Boulevard. to Courtland. That serivce eneded in 1920 when the rapid as we know it was completed. But see my comment below about the work of Charles Colman.

I presume an owner could also include restrctions if they were so inclined. I recently heard a story about a buyer in 1945 having to assert he was not Jewish in order to buy on Stoer Road. I presumed that this was something the then seller insisted on. But its totally possible that a Torrens deed had that in it.

I have found various anecdotal stories about Jews trying to buy in the area around US School. It's often called Poets Corners because of the street names..

Alaina, I recalled an earlier exchange last year in which you told this story. Of course we never know what realtor was imposing his values on a transaction or the seller's prejudices. Its long ago. Morley is one of the nicest streets in Malvern with some truly great houses notably houses designed by Small and Rowley ( Shaker Square) and H O Fullerton (Belgian Village on Fairhill). Likewise in doing research I have been lucky to look at the work of Charles Colman. He is the grandfather of Judi Bachman Holtze and Dick Halle. He was Jewish and designed 26 properties over a 40 year period starting in1923. His clientele is primarily Jewish and most of his work is off Shaker Boulevard in Boulevard and Malvern. These are both very desirable areas.

It would be interesting to see one of the Torrens deeds but I suspect that would no longer exist. And their restrictions long ago either lapsed or illegal. I am doing more research on this. I can say three thongs. Shaker was never an all are welcome community. It was too affluent for that to be true. There were never any notable Jewish institutions like Temple on the Heights and Park Synagoue in Clelveland Heights in Shaker. Bellfaire is on Fairmount but its largely in University Heights. Nonetheless there are a large number of Jews who built inthe 20s and 30s very subtantial homes and bought the land from the Van Sweringen Company. And the truth be told the Vans operated on a major scale and with a lot of debt, They always needed cash to pay the banks. They could be stuffy about the architecture but the color of your money mattered. The Vans were only dumb once in business, They bought the Missouri Pacifc RR in 1929 and some would say should have never acquired what we now call Beachwood and Pepper Pike. After 25 years of succes  they zigged when they ahould have zagged and got caught in the depression mess. And just as they seized their assets back in 1935 from bankruptcy they died within a year. Only the grim reaper beat them as he does all of us. But they were mid 50s. 

After WW2 the Van Sweringen Company was dead and the city of Shaker Heights approved all the planning etc. It shard to know where to assign blame now for discriminatory actions in that period. It may be easy to blame the Vans who were then dead. The blame may be unknown now for sure. 

But I have otherwise noted that in the 1920s there are several major well known homes built for prominet members of the Jewish community of the day. The Horiwitz mansion on Parkland and the Farber residence immediately west of it. We then can add the Grossman residence (Meade and Hamilton as architects for those wh may know their work) on South Woodland. Stunning house and the Salmon Halle residence overlooking Horseshoe Lake. As I noted before the Vans were practical. The color of your money decided the commerical realities more oftne than not. I should add that by the 1920s the Vans only decided big issues like building Shaker Square. Others ran the day to day operations of the real estate sales in Shaker. I am not trying to excuse them but ot explain they were big on delegation. They did not look over your shoulder. They had a talent for picking sharp mangaers to execute their visison. And unlike another developer today they never put their name on anything. Its the Terminal Tower not the Van Sweringen Tower.

Judi Bachman (Holtze)

A correction..Charles Colman is my grandfather and brother to Dick's.  These are turning in to auite the history lesson. 

Joseph G Blake

Thanks Judi. You can run my fan club.

Here is a link to a paper by Professor Marian Morton of JCU who wrote about the restrictions. She has an excellent account of why the 1927 deeds were created.

http://teachingcleveland.org/deferring-dreams-racial-and-religious-covenants-in-shaker-heights-and-cleveland-heights-1925-to-1970-by-marian-morton/

There are some interesting demographic data about Shaker Heights and how it changed from 1930 to 1970.

She also mentions John and Dorothy Pegg, a black couple who first bought a home in Ludlow and were met with a bomb. They stayed and later moved to South Park (15800). We knew them very well. We were the their whote tenants who lived over the garage. Dorothy Pegg was one the sweetest, gentlest ladies I ever knew. She and mother were of that generation of ladies who were always a lady regardless of circumstances. It could be said of them both- gentle as a lamb and clever as a fox. Dorothy lived many years and died a few years ago at 104 and still active in the Cleveland Institute of Music. May we all be so lucky.

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

As liberal as my parents thought they were, I remember they were afraid the value of their house would decline if African-Americans moved into the neighborhood. There is a PBS special filmed by one of our classmates about the integration of the Ludlow area. Joseph, Thanks for that really interesting article. Explains a lot of my parents decision of where to move in 1958.

Stuart Math

That would be my film, "Shaker Heights: The Struggle for Integration." It was broadcast nationally on PBS in 1998 and showed at the Cleveland Film Festival that year.

The film deals with the community's reaction to an article in The Shakerite about the achievement gap between black and white students in the high school and then jumps back in time to look at Shaker's efforts to promote housing integration in the 1950s. The film features two high school students who videotaped some crucial events from inside the school. I believe the Shaker library has copies in its collection.

I've been following this discussion about housing with great interest. It's a fascinating history that's still echoing in Shaker today with its continuing efforts to close the academic achievement gap.

William J Lavin

Joseph G Blake

  Thanks Bill.  Pls feel free to scan and email if that helps.

My email is jblake9147@aol.com

I am quite interested to see one and compare with the deeds I have.

Joe

Joseph G Blake

Ps I meant to add that the property East of Warrensville adjavey to Byron was not acquired. Y the Vans until the mid 1920s. The previous owner held out until he got a higher price. 

Alan M Cohen

Joe,

Can you comment on the land east of Warrensville ownership after the Vans defaulted?  My father built a house at 21988 Rye Rd (if memory serves me) in 1955.  I believe the builder was Wolf and the Helf's were possibly involved. Price was around $38,000.  For years I have been under the impression that Forest City owned the parcels and much of Beachwood and beyond (Millers and Ratners).  Opened it to housing as demand necessitated. There was a fierce competition in the lumber business with the Millers and Ratners coming to dominate by acquiring many lumber yards.  Drove many out of business.  Can you also comment on this?

There were only one or two houses on the street at the top of the hill that probably dated to the 1930s or before when we built.  My father Herschel Cohen picked the plot at the bottom of the hill so we would have no problems with ice in winter.  This was among the first houses to be built in that area. The lots all filled up within several years.  Marshall Burke lived in the corner house and Sheldon Kelman across the street. The Baileys, Newman and I believe Shulmans up the street. The land was originally farm land that I thought the Shakers used for a short while.  I am not sure how the several older houses came to be built, ? For farms, other.  

When I moved back to Shaker as an adult my family lived on Frontenay Rd.  We found an old Shaker well in the backyard of next door our neighbors, the Donnems when they had to repair their drain in the driveway.  

There was still great antagonism to black families in the 60s and 70s in the areas beyond Warrensvile Rd.  Dad helped a friend Henry Synor who ran the labs at Mt Sinai Hospital buy land and build a house in Beachwood.

Roger Schulman

We lived at 22361 Rye Road.  My parents bought the lot from Morrie Bailin, Gary's father.  They sold it to us because Gary and I were the same age and became best of friends when I began 3rd grade at Mercer.  There were hardly any homes on the street then (1954-1955).  A little later we had a full gang of kids in our class.  Gary Bailin and myself, Carolyn Aaron, Cathy Newman, Barbara Shuler, Marshall Burke, Sharon Anderson.  All of us at Mercer.

Gary D Hermann

In light of Stuart's interest in the disparity between African-Americna and other students at Shaker, it may be interesting to know that, probably 20 years ago, a black dentist, Winston Ritchie (who I occasionally played tennis with), headed up a committee to investigate that very issue.  Concerned parents and School Board members couldn't understand why a school like Shaker, in which the people running it were mostly liberal and motivated to create opportunities for black children, still had a significant gap in performance  when compared to white students.   As I recall, the Committee ultimately concluded that a contributing factor was the cultural attitudes held by a significant number of African-Americans living in the School District.   Essentially, it turns out that some African-American students would ostracize other African-Americans students who did well in school or aspired to take AP classes for being "too White".  In other words, being a good student was not considered "cool" and the related social pressure caused some students not to set higher aspirations.    Clearly, this criticism came from only one segment of the African-American students at Shaker, often kids who had moved into the District from the City of Cleveland and were more inner city in their background and attitudes.  Of course, many African-Americans living in Shaker are professional people with higher levels of education, with much different attitudes.   Nonetheless the cultural divide that existed within the Black Community in Shaker was a concern--even for African-American parents.    An African-American fellow I used to coach ice hockey with in Shaker was so concerned that he actually moved his son out of the Shaker system (he sent him to Culver Academy) telling me that he was concerned that his son might adopt some of these attitudes.  The fellow I mentioned had a Phd and I believe taught at Case, but the point is that differences in achievement level can sometimes have nothing to do with racial discrimination and possibly as much to do with class and the educational background and values of the parents.

Joseph G Blake

Alan,

Interesting questions.

First if you have not looked at the builidng card for your house on Rye, please do.

The building cost is noted. But keep in mind that is the estimated cost of the house and does not include the lot.

The archirect is William Wast who did 64 stucutres in the 40s and 50s. He did a lot of commercial and two family houses plus single homes in Byron/Mercer area. 

Because we lived in Shaker from 1928, I have vivid memories of the building that started east of Warrensville. I can still recall driving in Beachwood and Pepper Pike as a child and just seeing open fields. My father more than once said that the Vans planned ahead and died. 

My older brother who is now 85 used to say he found the years just after the war amazing. He was then a teenager and found all the construction amazing to see becasue he remembered that not much happened between the mid 30s and the end of WW2. Van Aken really fleshed out with houses and apartments. A lot of it never was developed until then.The Vans built  8 demo houses on it in the 20s but a lot of it was empty until the 50s. There  used to be an empty lot on Van Aken above Avalon that was flooded every winter as a skating rink. Eventually it was sold and a house was built. And then Thornton Park.

As noted above previously the land around Byron was purchased  in the mid to late 20s.Some farmer held out for more.  Of course there are the odd houses that were once farm hosues or built very early. The classic one is the home of Moses Warren on Daleford Road which may be the odlest house in Shaker. Well before the Vans were born.

But you have raised some interesting questions about Beachwood. I recently was talking to Jeff Morris who is a specialist in Cleveland Jewish history. He wrote a book called "Beachwood the Book" which can be read on line at

 http://web.ulib.csuohio.edu/speccoll/beechwood/table.html

Jeff had told an interesting story abiut how Fairmount Temple came to be built and you will find it there in chapter 5.Your question about the MIller and Ratners rings a bell with me and undoubtedly Forest City Enterpsises benefitted after war. I have tried to summarize your question and sent it to him. Quite clearly Beachwood became a communuty where Jews were very welcome and dominated by the 1960s. Pepper Pike always seemed more a gentile haven so to speak. But this is my impression. I am no expert.

Both of these communties entered the Van Sweringen world in the late 20s. They planned it to be Shaker Village Estates and the lots were to be between 2 and five acres. That did not happen. Hence the two communities developed after the war as we see them. They were to be fully developed by 1950. The Depression and the war changed all that. As a practical matter the influence of the Van Sweringen Company which controlled the suburban ventures became a moot point after 1936. OP Van Sweringen died that year and the Cleveland assets were of no interest to New York bankers and were sold to the highest bidder. The Higbee Comany was bought for $50,000 by John P Murpy and Charles Bradley in 1937 or so.The city of Shaker Heights bought the rapid ( then callled the Cleveland Interurban Railroad) during the war for its scrap value or about $1.4 million as I recall. That was well below its cost of construction or book value. 

So if you had the money you could get a lot of bargains. My father used to tell the story that in those years he was urged to buy vacant lots and hold them for later years by a clever old priest. The priest was right but my father was afraid to do it. He paid off the mortgage in 1938 and hated debt. It was an attutude widey held by those who survived the crash and the depreesion. My father was very conservative financially which was exacty where you wanted to be in the 30s. Not much debt and long cash. Mortgages then where no longer than 8 years. After 8 years you paid off the balance or refinanced.

You mentioned living on Fontenay. There is a small little circular island about halfway between Shaker and South Woodland. It used to have clump of trees and monument to a Shaker site as I recall. The tress are gone becasue they were probably elms and died from the blight. The monumment is there. That area was in the heart of the Shaker communuty farm. The Shakers were utopians who shared everything. Hence the land was owned in common and therefore easily acuired by a group of Buffalo investors in the late 19th century which tried to develop it. Some of the original Shaker buildings were still there when the vans bought it. The area they bought was fairly large and gave them a major chunk of what we think of as Shaker Heights.

Joseph G Blake

Ps I promise you will elarn more if you come to the talk on Sept 24 but you will need a reservation. Call the Shkaer Historical Society. The Number is (216) 921-1201.

If we exceed the seating number we will need to find a different venue. Why not make it make it happen and come.

Thanks

Alan M Cohen

My mother lived in the house until around 20 years ago. My brother Bruce and I sold it for her since she could no longer keep it running. I do not have access to the building card. I currently live in Houston and passed the original architectural plans to the new owners. 

We escaped the flooding from Harvey in our house. Everything you saw on the news was real, not hyped. Massive flooding. Five hospitals evacuated south of Houston in Sugarland.  Four major hospitals in the medical center had some water damage.

Neil T Glazer

Dr. John Ogbu, a research professor at the University of California and Nigerian by birth, wrote a book about Shaker Heights, the schools, and the achievement gap when comparing different populations in our city. He concluded that "acting white" significantly contributed to the difference(s) in achievement based on student grades. After 50 years in education as an elementary, middle and high school principal, adjunct professor and (still) working full time chemistry teacher,  I believe teacher grades are not the only way to compare learning. The Shaker community was very divided in the responses to Dr. Ogbu's research. He did not get a warm reception when he made a presentation in the auditorium at Byron Junior High School. The Black community was insulted by his findings and several groups walked out on Dr. Ogby before he could finish his speech.

I have been away from Shaker for a few years and wonder if the gap has been closed. My guess is that it hasn't. Research has shown that there are other factors that influence learning such as parental level of education and income. Despite Shaker hiring an African-American Supterintendent and many black administrators, I think the achievemnt gap is still one of the greatest challenges facing Shaker and other schools in the United States. 

Joseph G Blake

The education discussion is really more important that my tutorial about 80 years ago. The role of parents in setting expectations and providing encouragement and support cannot be underestimated. I thank my wife for being the mother she was and doing this with our 4 children who did very well in school and later.

God bless her.

But let me answer Alan Cohen's question. I asked Jeff Morris about the Miller and Ratners and Forest City in developing Beachwood.

He replied:"Forest city had several sub divisions in the city. They were a major source for lumber for the many of the home builders in northeast Ohio."

The key comment here is the notation about sub divisions. That never was a factor in Shaker Heights. There is a certain sameness that is apparent in the newer sections above Warresnville but before WW2 houses were almost always unique. You bought your lot, got an architect and the plans were submitted to the Van Sweringen Company and reviewed, amended and finally approved. There actually was a book of standards that were very detailed. 

Let me quote what the standards say about the use of lead versus zinc in lead glass windows:

"In all leaded glass work, genuine lead bars should be used instead of zinc. The effect of zinc is flashyand therefore never in good taste." 

I sometimes have to laugh when I read this because I know why so much of that culture was part of older Shaker Heights in so many ways. It still is my natural reaction to so many things I do to this day, Never flashy. Its never in good taste. I was the youngest in my family and my parents and older siblings were part of that world even more so. Some might argue that those standards in terms of design were too conservative.I still like the lines of a classic Packard of the pre war years to anything after the war.But there is no right or wrong here.  I will let that be settled by the adage, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

But the routine before the war was impossible after war. The Vans and their company were really gone and no more than legal shells at best. Likewise the huge demand in housing changed the process, There was a huge boom after the war fueled by many factors like the Marshall Plan, the GI Bill for both education and housing, and the baby boom. I am sure many of your parents were part of this process. MIne were older. My mother could always do the Charleston and Black Bottom like a true flapper.  My daughter still is amazed at the finger waves of her 1927 hairstyle.They were rooted in the aesthetic standards of the Vans as were most of their contemporaries.The Vans never did the Charleston. Totally buttoned down.

In Shaker the years after the war meant the older standards were not possible and were to some extent relaxed. There were no more Norman style or English Tudor houses. The cost of certain features like fine woodwork, tapestry brickwork, or engraved stone made that less common or not at all. If nothing else demand determined what the city permitted, The Vans were gone. And in Beachwood there were sub divisions. 

Beachwood and Pepper Pike are "modern". That does not mean bad. It merely means they are products of a different time and set of economic realities based on price and demand issues of the time. From the mid 1930s to the years after the war, land lay empty, unsold and taxes uncollected. Shaker Estates as it was mean to be was bankrupt.

Alan I will send the buiding card to you.

Stuart Math

One thing to be aware of regarding the achievement gap in Shaker (at least when I made the film, things may have changed), is that the black students in Shaker, on average, did better academically than black students nation-wide, even as they lagged white students in Shaker. One complicaton (and this is true in a few other school systems as well) is that the normal bell-shaped achievement curve of Shaker's white students has a high end that is off the charts. Over the years Shaker has always had a group of white students who score extremely high on standardized testing and who get very high grades. This atypical pattern skews any comparison that tries to generalize between groups.

This is not to say there is no achievement gap, but the causes are multiple. One thing I found very encouraging in Shaker was the system's willingess to try a variety of approaches to address the problem. The Student Group on Race Relations (SGORR) and the Minority Achievement Committee were both very active at the school when I made the film. These groups echoed the community's response to block-busting real estate practices in the 50s, which is the historical backdrop in the film.

To Gary and Neil's posts, both Winston Richie and John Ogbu are in my film. One of my favorite lines is from Winston Richie who was a very active proponent of racial integration in Shaker. Here is what he said in response to a question about how to deal with these problems: "As my mother used to say, 'He who wants by the yard, but tries by the inch, should be kicked by the foot.'"

Dana Shepard (Treister)

I may borrow that quote, Stu!

Joseph G Blake

Stu Is there also a group of high achieving Asians in the system?

That is sometimes a factor in some school systems skewed achievement results.

Thx

Joe

Gary D Hermann

Thanks for the info Stu.  I agree that there are often multiple causes for problems.  Unfortunately, in this politically polarized world we live in people tend to look at things in a simplistic way.   Ironically, some African-Americans hurt other African-Americans by blaming everything on racism, effectively preventing people from considering other solutions and approaches which might bring better results.

Stuart Math

Joe,

I don't know the answer to your question, I'm not as up-to-date on the schools as I once was.

To Gary's point, here's a quote from the film. This is from Susan, Murray, one of the few black students in AP classes at the time. She described the problem most eloquently:

"I'm not really sure what has to be overcome. I mean there are a number of things that... that just jump to mind. I mean the students, the black students have to stop being scared of taking AP classes. They have to be not scared to work hard.  The white students have to stop being scared of the black students who are from Cleveland and who sound like they’re from Cleveland when they talk. The teachers have to stop being scared of the students who are different. The administration has to encourage the black students to take the classes. The kids’ parents, when they get home have to encourage them to do their homework. There’s something for everybody to do."

Stu

Joseph G Blake

Thanks Stu

There is that expression that the more things change they remain the same. Much more elegant y sounding in the French version of the adage.

But in Cleveland schools circa 1950 and before there would have been the same issues given all the nationalities then living in the city. Hopefully the leadership is there to make it happen as the girl writes.

Everyone has a role to play. It's critical to the success of all. Obvious yes but not so easy in the doing too often.

Neil T Glazer

In California the graduation rate for minority students was less than 40%. Huge sums of money were poured into the schools to find a way to raise the rate. After a number of years little progress was made. Then, last year the State Department of Education proudly announced the graduation rate had gone up to approximately 60%. Congratulations poured in and we were patting ourselves on the back. The Desert Sun, our local Palm Springs newspaper published an editorial I submitted earlier this summer. I reminded the reading public that the California State Department of Education no long required a basic skills exit test for seniors and guess what happened?  Hard to believe but TRUE, the graduation rate zoomed up 20%! So, if you want your test scores to improve and have more students graduate all you have to do is to lower the bar. If we keep moving in this direction sooner or later there will be no standards. Stay in school for 4 years in the "Golden State" and you are all but guaranteed to graduate. I am not suggesting that graduation tests truly reflect learning and I find it disheartening that "no student shall go untested, we already have far too many tests in school. I also feel that too many educators simply do not want to truly address issues because it is painful to admit that WE have a great deal of work to do.

Gary D Hermann

Stu:   Your quote is enlightening and fully consistent with what I had learned.    Neil: your comments are also important because it seems we are actually hurting people by failing to impose the kinds of standards that will improve performance in the long run. Unfortunately, in order to be consistent with whatever political narrative people want us to follow, we are seeing the "dumbing down" of America.   One of my sons teaches at the university level and tells me that most professors he works with are afraid to impose tough standards because their abililty to advance is dependent upon getting favorable reviews from students.   The professors know that, if they tell students what they need to hear regarding their performance when it doesn't measure up, they risk receiving a bad review. which could jeopardize their career--even though the student deserved the low grade because of inadequate performance..   So, basically, we have grade inflation and low standards which makes it difficultl to figure out who is a good hire.   Of course, in the long run, you learn as an employer to partially ignore where someone went to school and their grades and figure out who measures up based on your actual subjective experience,but it certainly creates a lot of problems along the way (I remember how our law firm spent a lot of time and money teaching young lawyers how to write--even though that is a skill which they should have learned years before they graduated).    

Coincidentally, I had breakfast this morning with a lawyer who I attended law school with at Northwestern (one of my competitors for many years, although we are now good friends) and our discussion was about how few young lawyers today know how to write well, even the ones who attended prestigious schools   Many don't work hard (contrary to the old saying that "the Law is a jealous mistress"), and too often have a sense of entitlement about making partner and earning certain amounts---even when they haven't earned it on the merits.    I think back at some of the teachers I had at Shaker and later in college who were tough graders and expected students to meet a certain standard of performance..    Ultimately, they did me a favor (though my lousy grades in high school certainly caused me a lot of trouble at home for awhile).   It makes you wonder where we are going as a Country when we no longer have such standards.     I feel particularly bad for minority students, who seem less likely to succeed in life because they are often not expected to adhere to standards that would, in the long run make them better at what they do.