The Shaker Heights Highway Fight
Doan Brook
This map features the combined upper and lower watersheds of Doan Brook. The Doan Brook Watershed begins in Shaker Heights and runs north through University Circle, eventually emptying into Lake Erie at Dike 14. Doan Brook is a spring-fed area that creates a natural habitat for aquatic flora and fauna. Doan Brook has been manipulated by man for energy and aesthetic purposes.
For further imagery and information:
Nature Center at Shaker Lakes on Flickr
Doan Brook Watershed Partnership
This image shows a large Shaker Heights home owned by Mr. Stockwell, a Shaker Heights resident at the time of the planned freeway. The house shown was located along the Shaker Lakes and helps to illustrate the wealth of the area. The Shaker Lakes were created when two dams were constructed along Doan Brook for milling. The first dam, built in 1826, created the Lower Lake. The second dam, built in 1854, created the Upper Lake. Both lakes were established for the operation of the mills.
"The Ascetic Shakers established a fully self-sufficient farming settlement they called North Union on this land beginning in 1828. Doan Brook, which flowed through their property, was damned for power, creating the lakes. Over the next 25 years, a stone gristmill, a large brick woolen mill, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, a meeting house, and communal living buildings all appeared as North Union grew...But Shaker celibacy and changing fashions in spiritual outlook ultimately doomed the enterprise. ...the new buyers christened it Shaker Heights and incorporated themselves as the Shaker Heights Land Company."
Harwood, Herbert H. Invisible Giants the Empires of Cleveland's Van Swearingen Brothers. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2003. Page 9-10 "On the Shakers".
For More information see:
Shaker Historical Society AND Wikipedia [sic?]
