History
Courtesy of the Shaker Square Area Development Corporation
"Do it right, and don't worry about the money." That order came from O.P. and M.J. Van Sweringen in 1925, and “it” was Shaker Square. The directive is both a clue to the quality of the shopping center and the character of the Van Sweringen brothers who financed the project. Bold in business, the Vans sought to create a perfect residential community in Shaker Heights and a distinctive commercial center on adjoining land in the City of Cleveland. Decades later both the city and the shopping complex stand as a testimony to the success of their vision.
The Vans knew that quick, easy transportation was key to attracting residents to Shaker Square and Shaker Heights. Initially the brothers used existing trolley lines along Euclid Avenue for their Rapid Transit, extending them up Cedar Hill, through private right-of-way on what is now Fairmount Boulevard, then south on Coventry Road to Shaker Boulevard. Service began on their Shaker Heights Line in 1913, coming out Shaker Boulevard as far as Fontenay Road. By 1915, the Rapid extended to Courtland Boulevard.
Later that year, the U.S. Attorney General informed the New York Central that their control of the Nickel Plate railroad violated the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. To secure the right-of-way for a new transit line, the Vans bought controlling interest in the 513 mile Nickel Plate Railroad. Now access to the Shaker Boulevard rail could be made directly from the west without cutting through Cleveland Heights. This new rapid transit line began operating on April 11, 1920.
As Shaker Heights grew, the Vans added rapid tracks on Moreland Boulevard (now Van Aken) to Lynnfield. The intersection where Shaker and Moreland lines met was named “Moreland Circle” because of the circular track in the center to accommodate the rapids. To enhance the trolley junction and to create an exclusive retail hub to service their village of Shaker Heights, the Vans planned Shaker Square.
Two designs were considered. Philip L. Small and Charles Bacon Rowley, influenced by the design of Amailienborg Square in Copenhagen, designed an open green enclosed by twelve Georgian-style buildings in an octagonal formation with roadways entering at mid-side of the Square, dividing the buildings into four quadrants. Only a small parking area was planned for each quadrant reflecting Van Sweringen’s assumption that most people would use the rapid.
Small and Rowley’s plan for a commercial village was approved in 1926 and construction began 1927. Shaker Square opened to great acclaim in the fall of 1929, the first planned shopping center in Ohio. Forty-one stately elms graced its broad lawns and side walkways. A hardware store, a florist, a drug store, a gift shop, a restaurant and a beauty shop were among its first tenants.
Apartment complexes sprung up in the area immediately surrounding the Square, and early promotional literature emphasized the fifteen-minute, six-mile trip to downtown’s Cleveland Union Terminal. Most distinctive of those new residential properties was the luxurious Moreland Courts, completed by the Vans in 1929 and adjoined to the northwest quadrant of Shaker Square. Steam heating for Moreland Courts and for the Square was provided by a power plant built behind the southwest quadrant.