Rocks and Waters: Cleveland Heights deep history

by Roy Larick, Bluestone Heights

Each May, since 2002, Cleveland Heights has celebrated

National Preservation Month. Since 2013, the annual

activities have featured a walking tour series called Cleveland

Heights Rocks and Waters.

The tours pose questions about the places in which we live.

How does a neighborhood landscape come to be? What does

nature provide? Can humans live in ways to honor the gift?

Rocks and Waters finds answers along neighborhood stream

courses. At such places, natural and human forces combine to

shape landscapes. The resulting mixture always makes for an

intriguing visit. On such visits, we gain insights on local life

issues and on the good and bad of place planning. We see

what once was, what we now have, and how it could be better.

Deep History Rocks and Waters looks for the elemental

forces giving rise to natural landforms. We also seek the

weave of natural and human actions that make current places

special—and sometimes startling. Stated simply, the walks

explore the deep history of small-scale Heights landscapes.

On the East Side, the Portage Escarpment is the primary

natural feature. It forms the local transition between North

America’s Central Lowland and Appalachian Highland.

Cleveland Heights sits squarely on the escarpment. We can

comprehend the place from two perspectives of nature: how

the landforms arose and how current streams take them down.

Landforms The old forces that shaped Portage Escarpment

landforms included bedrock deposition, tectonic uplift and

glaciation. Local bedrock includes two hard sandstone beds:

the Euclid bluestone and the Berea Sandstone. Glacial action

carved out two narrow terraces upon these beds: the bluestone

terrace and, just above, the sandstone terrace. As the Euclid

bluestone is found only on the East Side, the bluestone terrace

is a uniquely Heights landform.

Streams Within the city, three creeks cut through the terraces

on their ways to Lake Erie: Doan Brook, the Dugway Brooks

(west and east branches) and Nine Mile Creek. The stream

ravines evince the power of water to tear down. As such, the

ravines are windows into the old bedrock-making forces.

The streams have small headwater tributaries in Cleveland

Heights, three of which are the basis for walking tours: Blue

Rock Brook (Doan), Compton Run (Dugway east) and

Quilliams Creek (Nine Mile). Two other walks cover trunk

stream segments of Dugway’s east and west branches.

Portage Escarpment with select Heights suburbs.

May 2013: Barrow & Larick begin the Blue Rock Brook walk.

Portage Escarpment with Rocks and Waters stream areas.

Portage Escarpment bedrock and stream profile.

Dave Lawrence

Humans The Euro-American role in landscape change began

in June 1797, when the Connecticut Land Co. made a complete

survey of Euclid Township. Euclid then covered almost all of

the Heights north of Cedar Road. The survey divided township

into scores of 160-acre lots. Some of our roads take their

names from early lot owners.

Early settlers sometimes used the survey lines as roadways.

Cedar, Mayfield Hill and Fairmount are prominent east-west

survey line roads. Demington, Lee, Taylor and Warrensville

represent major north-south lines. Two centuries later, these

old tracks still define municipal boundaries, residential

neighborhoods and daily commutes.

Early settlers used the local streams for the needs of farming.

Later developers prized the picturesque landscapes for platting

classy residential allotments. As a result, the walks cover

significant historic districts: Euclid Heights (Blue Rock), Grant

Deming’s Forest Hill Neighborhood (Dugway west), Mayfield

Heights (Dugway east), Forest Hill Park (Compton) and Nela

Park (Quilliams). We also see many individual landmark

structures.

Collective Effort Rocks and Waters has grown with the help

of passionate individuals. In 2013, William Barrow (CH

Historical Society) and Roy Larick (Bluestone Heights)

assembled the Blue Rock Brook walk. Kara O’Donnell (CH

Planning Dept) and Mazie Adams (CH HS & Landmark

Comm.) made it part of Preservation Month. Thus the series

began. In 2014, Korbi Roberts (CH HS) and Jim Miller came

on board to talk about historical and environmental issues,

respectively. Dave Lawrence is the series photographer.

Perspective Rocks and Waters seeks the long perspective on

the evolving Heights landscape. We ask three basic questions:

Can we continue to identify with treasured landmarks? Can

local streams become ecological assets? Can urban planning

serve to rebalance, more equitably, the life-sustaining needs of

humans and nature?

Join us each May. Comprehend the landscape at ground level.

Help forge the collaborative insights upon which Heights

neighborhoods may redevelop green and preserve heritage.

Cleveland Heights Rocks and Waters: online resources

2013: Blue Rock Brook/Turkey Ridge

2014: Dugway Brook east branch

2015: Dugway Brook west branch

2016: Quilliams Creek

2017: Compton Run

Conn. Land Co. June 1797 survey lines still in use: white = municipal lines (excluding diagonals); yellow = roads. Survey line roads do not cross the terraced areas. The terrain is too steep for straight line traverses.

May 2014: Korbi Roberts talks local history on a cold, rainy day at Dugway Brook east branch.

May 2016: William Quilliams house (1867) on Quilliams Creek. Cleveland Heights landmark.

Dave Lawrence

Dave Lawrence

© 2016 Bluestone Heights