Shaker Square
Encyclopedia
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. It encompasses the old Buckeye neighborhood and Shaker Square neighborhood, the latter of which is centered around an historic shopping district and an eponymous rapid transit station
Shaker Square (RTA Rapid Transit station)
Shaker Square Station is a station on the RTA Blue and Green Lines in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. It is first station west of the junction of the Blue and Green Lines and thus serves as a transfer point between the two lines....
, located at the intersection of Shaker and Moreland Boulevards, on the light rail line
Blue and Green Lines (Cleveland)
The Blue Line, Green Line, and Waterfront Line are the interurban/light rail component of the RTA Rapid Transit, a rapid transit rail system in greater Cleveland and Shaker Heights, Cuyahoga County, Ohio...
that connects the city of Shaker Heights
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population was 28,448. It is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland that abuts the city on its eastern side.-Topography:Shaker Heights is located at...
to downtown Cleveland
Downtown Cleveland
Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of the City of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Reinvestment in the area in the mid-1990s spurred a rebirth that continues to this day, with over $2 billion in residential and commercial developments slated for the area over the next few years...
. From the early to mid-20th century, the Buckeye Road neighborhood was known as Little Hungary, serving as the historic heart of Cleveland's Hungarian community, which at one time was the largest in the world outside of Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
.
Buckeye-Shaker is bordered by the neighborhoods of Woodland Hills on its west, Mount Pleasant to the south, University Circle
University Circle
University Circle, is a neighborhood located on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is best known for its world-class cultural, educational and medical institutions, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Museum of Art, Lakeview Cemetery, and University...
to the north, and the suburb of Shaker Heights to the east.
Shaker Square
The historicNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
American Colonial-Georgian shopping center, which was largely was influenced by European town squares, was built between 1927 and 1929 by the Van Sweringen brothers
Van Sweringen brothers
Oris Paxton Van Sweringen and Mantis James Van Sweringen were brothers who became railroad barons in order to develop Shaker Heights, Ohio. They are better known as O.P. Van Sweringen and M.J. Van Sweringen, or by their collective nickname, the Vans...
. The two brothers, who also developed much of the land to the east the neighborhood as the planned community
Planned community
A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...
of Shaker Heights
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population was 28,448. It is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland that abuts the city on its eastern side.-Topography:Shaker Heights is located at...
, envisioned Shaker Square as it's gateway between the urban and suburban living spaces represented in the early 20th century. On either side of the train tracks are two lawn areas. A short distance east of the Shaker Square stop, the track splits into the Blue (Van Aken) and Green (Shaker Boulevard) Lines.
Four large buildings around the perimeter of the grass lawns make up the second planned shopping center in the United States, after Country Club Plaza
Country Club Plaza
The Country Club Plaza is an upscale shopping district and residential neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile...
in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. They were designed in an Neo-Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
style by Phillip Small and Charles Bacon Rowley, and together form an octagonal area similar to the Amalienborg Square in Copenhagen, Denmark. The center is currently owned by The Coral Company of University Heights
University Heights, Ohio
University Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It borders Beachwood to the east, Cleveland Heights to the west, South Euclid to the north and Shaker Heights to the south. The population was 13,539 as of the 2010 Census...
.
Today, Shaker Square is the heart of the neighborhood. Near the square are more than 4,000 units of high-quality rental and condominium apartments (the largest concentration of multi-family housing in Cleveland), townhouses, and many private homes.
Under an arrangement made in the 1920s, Shaker Heights ceded roughly 1 square mile around the square to the City of Cleveland, but kept it in the Shaker Heights City School District.
Buckeye Road
Little Hungary, as it was one time known, began to develop as the heart of Cleveland's Hungarian communityHungarian Ohioans
The Hungarian Ohioans are Hungarian Americans living in Ohio. Their number was 193,951 in 2006. Fairport Harbor, Ohio is 11.8 % Hungarian American. In Cleveland and its neighboring areas there live more than 130,000 Hungarians. Some resources stated that there was time when Cleveland was the second...
in the late 19th century. By the 1920 US Census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
, over 42,000 residents in the City of Cleveland listed themselves as having been born in Hungary, with a large portion of these residing in the Buckeye Road neighborhood. Like many immigrant groups, the Hungarians came to the United States looking for a better life, and those who flocked to Cleveland came at a time when the city was one of the nations leading industrial cities. Working primarily in the heavy manufacturing sector, these immigrants settled their tightly-knit community due to its close proximity to the steel mills and day-labor jobs where they worked. Between the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and 1970 the neighborhood represented one of the most powerful political blocs in Cleveland's Democratic party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. By the end of the 1970s many of the original inhabitants of Buckeye Road had migrated to the suburbs as they ascended the economic ladder, and in large part due to the White flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
which had produced similar migrations out of the inner city in many US metropolitan areas. by the beginning of the 21st century only a handful of the Hungarian residents remained in a neighborhood that today is predominately African-American. Benedictine High School, a Catholic high school and perennial football-powerhouse that boasts Chuck Noll
Chuck Noll
Charles Henry "Chuck" Noll is a former professional American football player and coach, and a member of the Sid Gillman coaching tree. He served most notably as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League from 1969 to 1991...
as an alumnus, is located just south of Buckeye on Martin Luther King Drive.
Points of interest, all of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
include the now closed St. Luke's Hospital
St. Luke's Hospital (Cleveland, Ohio)
St. Luke's Hospital is a historic former hospital at 11311 Shaker Boulevard in Cleveland, Ohio.The hospital building was constructed in 1927 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.-References:...
, (built in 1927) which is slated for re-development; St. Elizabeth’s Church
St. Elizabeth's Magyar Roman Catholic Church
St. Elizabeth's Magyar Roman Catholic Church is a historic church at 9016 Buckeye Road in Cleveland, Ohio.It was built in 1918 and added to the National Register in 1976.-References:...
(built in 1892); and the Weizer Building (built in 1928) at 11801 Buckeye.
Education
Approximately 1 square mile of the City of Cleveland adjacent Shaker Square is served by the Shaker Heights City School District. This section of the city has been part of the school district since the 1920s. The Cleveland residents in this section may vote in school board elections, use the school facilities and they pay the same school taxes that residents in suburban Shaker HeightsShaker Heights, Ohio
Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population was 28,448. It is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland that abuts the city on its eastern side.-Topography:Shaker Heights is located at...
pay.