More on Shaker Square and the Shaker Schools


Shaker Square and the Shaker Schools Related Exhibits

These exhibits support Virginia P. Dawson's explanation of why Cleveland's Shaker Square area is in the Shaker Heights School District. They were selected with her help.

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Newburg City

At the time of the 1912 agreement, what would become the Shaker Square area was in Newburg City. Under an arrangement made in 1905. Newburg City children attended Cleveland schools. Newburg City paid tuition for its children.

Plain Dealer July 11. 1905

Newburg City was moving to being annexed to Cleveland. It would be approved in the November 1912 election with 90 percent voting for annexation. That made the Shaker Square area part of Cleveland.

Plain Dealer August 17, 1912

Harvey Rice Elementary School

Source: a picture postcard at Cleveland Memory CSU

Cleveland's Harvey Rice Elementary School opened in December 1904 at East 116th Street and Buckeye Road, which was then nearly a mile east of the city border. It had only eight rooms. one per grade level. The school was enlarged twice because of the rapid growth in Cleveland's population and in 1905 taking on the education of Newburg City's children. By 1912 it was within Cleveland's city limits and could enroll more than 1,000 students.

The old Rice Elementary was demolished in 2007. In 2009 a new Rice Elementary School opened at East 116th and Shaker Boulevard (CMSD website)

The school's name honors Harvey Rice (1800 - 1891) who helped create Ohio's public education system.

Language spoken at home, Cleveland students, by school.

Source: Google book

In 1916 the Cleveland Foundation published a study of the Cleveland public schools, directed by Leonard Ayres Ph.D. The table shows Rice Elementary School, whose 1,060 students made it one of Cleveland's largest, with nearly 80 percent of its students from homes where English was not the primary language. Bohemian (Czech) and Hungarian (Magyar) were the leading languages spoken. Our pages of 1910 US Census data for the western end of Shaker Village confirm this finding for the parental country of origin.

September 4, 1912
Areas being exchanged have equal tax valuations

On September 4, 1912, five days before it approved the resolution exchanging school areas with Cleveland, the Shaker Heights Board of Education met. Mr. John L. Cannon, a Village trustee who was also an attorney for the Van Sweringens, reported that the tax valuation of the area the Shaker Heights schools would be giving to the Cleveland school district was $308,200. Though the Shaker Square area was farmland, there must have been developments nearby, as he also reported that the tax valuation of the area they would get from the Cleveland school district was $309,790. Thus, neither district's tax valuation would be affected by the exchange.

The minutes also recorded the hiring of the Shaker Heights Village school's teachers for 1912-13:

      - May Chapman, Principal, teacher of grades seven and eight, $1,000
      - Mary A. Litzel, teacher of grades five and six, $700
      - Suzie V. Sweeney, teacher of grades three and four, $750
      - Nellie Holt, teacher of grades one and two, $850

September 9, 1912
The agreement between the school districts

"Shaker Square and the Shaker Schools" by Virginia Dawson, PhD, explains what led to the agreement made on September 9, 1912 between the Shaker Heights Board of Education and the Board of Education of the Cleveland City School District. She has furnished the text of that agreement, which we display below. Source: Archives of the Shaker Heights Board of Education.

Minutes of the Board of Education of the Village of Shaker Heights,
Sept. 9, 1912.

It was moved by Mr. Evans and seconded by Dr. Wasser,

WHEREAS, the Board of Education of Cleveland City School District has signified its desire to change the boundaries of its District by attaching certain territory hereinafter described in said City School District to the Shaker Heights Village School District, and to obtain from said Shaker Heights Village School District certain territory hereinafter described, which territory should be attached to said City School District,

NOW, THEREFORE, be it Resolved that the following described territory located in said City School District shall, with the consent of the Board of Education of said City School District, be attached to Shaker Heights Village School District:

Situated in the Township of Newburg, now the City of Newburg, being part of Original Lots Nos. 422, 430, and 438 of said Newburg Township, and further described as follows:

Beginning at the intersection of the centerline of North Woodland Road with the westerly line of said Original Lot No. 422;
Thence from said point of beginning easterly along said center line of North Woodland Road to the intersection of said center line with the easterly line of Lot No. 422;
Thence from said point of beginning easterly along said center line of North Woodland Road to the intersection of said center line with the easterly line of Lot No. 422;
Thence southerly along the easterly line of said Original Lot Nos. 422, 430, and 438 to the southeast corner of said Original Lot no. 438;
Thence westerly along the southerly line of said Original Lot No. 438 to the easterly line of the Lorenz Sanda Subdivision No. 2 proposed;
Thence northerly and westerly along said subdivision line to the westerly line of said Original Lot No. 438;
Thence northerly along the westerly line of said Original Lots Nos. 438, 430 and 422 to the place of beginning.

Be if [sic] further Resolved that in consideration of the attachment of said Village School District of the above described property, this Board hereby assents to the transfer of the following described territory from said Village School District to said City School District:

Situated in the Township of Newburg, now the village of Shaker Heights, being parts of Original Lots Nos. 412, 413, 420, 421 and 422 of said Newburg Township, and is further described as follows:

Beginning at a point in the center line of North Woodland Road, which is in a line parallel with and distant 265.0 feet easterly, measured at right angles from the center line of East Boulevard, formerly called Rice Avenue;
Thence from said point of beginning northerly parallel with and distant 265.0 feet easterly from said center line of East Boulevard to the intersection of said center line with the center line of Fairmount Road, as altered;
Thence westerly along said center line to the intersection of said center line with the westerly line of said Original Lot No. 412;
Thence northerly along said westerly line of Original Lot no. 412;
Thence southerly along said easterly line of said Original Lot no. 421 to the center line of North Woodland Road;
Thence westerly along said center line of North Woodland Road to place of beginning.

Be it further Resolved that a map of the territory above described to be attached to said Village School District, together with a map of the territory heretofore described to be attached to the City School District, shall be made a part of the records of this Board, and that a copy of said map, together with a certified copy of this resolution, signed by the President and Clerk of this Board, shall be filed with the Auditor of Cuyahoga County.

Be it further Resolved that in consideration of the transfer of the territories as herein above describe, said Village School District shall assume no part of the indebtedness, either bonded or otherwise, or funds, of said City School District, and that said City School District shall not be obliged for any indebtedness, either bonded or otherwise, or funds, of said Village School District, by the transfer of the territory above described to said City School District.

Roll Call: Ayes; Evans, Petrequin, Wasser. Nays: None

Resolution adopted September 9, 1912.

November 1912
Cleveland grows through annexation

November 8, 1912 Plain Dealer

This story appeared two days after election day in 1912. Already the nation's sixth-largest city, Cleveland was growing rapidly. It had good schools, good government (Mayor Tom L. Johnson, followed by Newton D. Baker), many street-car lines, a municipal water system, and the financial strength to sell bonds to fund road building and sewers. Smaller suburbs adjacent to Cleveland were voting to annex themselves to Cleveland. In Newburgh City the vote was 90 percent in favor of annexation.

1953 John W Main's letter about the 1912 agreement

John W. Main had been Clerk-Treasurer of the Shaker Heights Schools since 1920. In 1953 School Board members asked him how the arrangement had come about He replied in a letter dated January 30, 1953. This previously unpublished document, which explains the essence of the 1912 agreement, was found by Virginia Dawson in the course of her research.

The exchange of school areas took place eight years before John Main joined the Shaker Heights Schools. That may explain the errors in his account of what led to the 1912 agreement. Rice Elementary School had been built in 1904 and was being expanded a second time to be able to enroll more than a thousand students. His comment that the Shaker Schools were getting "cow pasture" is not supported by the September 4, 1912 Board of Education minutes (above) which showed that the areas being exchanged had equal tax valuation. The New York University study he cites was published by the Cleveland Foundation in 1916, four years after the agreement. Its director, Leonard P Ayres, had been affiliated with NYU.

Source: local history collection of the Shaker Heights Public Library

Today's streets affected by the 1912 agreement

This northwest section of a map of the Shaker Heights City School District shows Shaker Heights in light blue and the area in the City of Cleveland in off-white.

Source: City of Shaker Heights

See a map on the Shaker Heights Schools website