How well do you remember Shaker Square?

You are standing in the northeast corner of the Square with a friend who asks "What was there before the CVS pharmacy?"

You reply "The Joseph-Beth Bookstore. And before that it was a restaurant. Pacific Rim. Before that its was Pier East. My folks remember it as Stouffer's Restaurant. If you lived in Moreland Courts you could get there without going outside. It included a place called the Tack Room where a young crowd went in the late '50s - early '60s."

To see what it was before it was Stouffer's, when Shaker Square was new, look at the map below.

Image courtesy Shaker Historical Society

Hanging on a wall in one of the exhibit rooms at the Shaker Historical Society is a map of Shaker Square. It includes the names of every business on the Square, even the second floor tenants.

We know the undated map is pre-1937 because it says "site of proposed theater" where the Colony Theater would built in 1937. Our guess is that it was published in 1936.

It's about the size of a newspaper page, and it may have been published as a full-page ad.

We show only the Northeast Quadrant above. The building that is CVS today was then Shaker Tavern. Where Sergio's Saravá is located was then a Cadillac dealership. Where you enjoy a cup of coffee - Deweys - was then Webb C. Ball, perhaps Cleveland's finest jeweler of the day.

The Rapid ran along Shaker Boulevard then, but not on Van Aken Boulevard, then called South Moreland. (Today's South Moreland was then East 132nd Street.)

To see the whole map and much more, and go back in time, even back to the days of the North Union Shakers from whom Shaker Heights got its name, go to the Shaker Historical Society at 16740 South Park Blvd, east of Lee Road.

To learn more, visit the website of the Shaker Historical Society.