FALL 2010

You may have read this year that “Forest Hill” had been added the National Register of Historic Places, only to learn that this Forest Hill generally includes the area bordered by Euclid Heights Boulevard, Lee Road, Washington Boulevard and Coventry Road. In fact there were three residential allotments in Cleveland Heights named after Rockefeller’s Forest Hill estate, although only our Forest Hill was developed by the Rockefellers.

Grant W. Deming created his Forest Hill allotment shortly after the turn of the twentieth-century on lands previously held by John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and James Haycox. Deming’s Forest Hill features a curvilinear street plan designed by Fred A. Pease, who also laid out the Van Sweringens’ Shaker Village. Washington Boulevard served as the allotment’s grand boulevard, with twin roadways divided by a grassy median to accommodate a single-track electric streetcar line, or “dinky,” which ran from Lee to Coventry, where a passenger could transfer to another streetcar to complete the trip downtown. Deming’s Forest Hill typifies the architectural eclecticism prevalent in the 1910s and 1920s, with homes in the Craftsman, Tudor, Colonial, Prairie, Italian Renaissance and Neoclassical styles. Many homes combine elements of several architectural styles, most commonly exhibiting an Arts and Crafts influence. The district’s oldest house, completed in 1909, is the original Grant Deming homestead on Redwood Road behind Zagara’s Marketplace.

Our Forest Hill has another connection to the Deming family. Grant’s brother, Barton R. Deming, was also a real estate developer who left his mark on Cleveland Heights. Rockefeller, Sr. owned 141 acres south of Cedar Road and east of Grandview Road that he allowed the Euclid Golf Club to use for the upper nine holes of the course. Although Rockefeller was a golf enthusiast, he was also a staunch Baptist and would not allow his property to be used on the Sabbath (less religious golfers had to play the lower nine twice for a full eighteen holes on Sunday!). In 1912, the Euclid Golf Club disbanded and migrated to the Shaker Heights and Mayfield Country Clubs, in part because the members had grown tired of having only nine holes to play on Sunday, their favorite golfing day. In 1913 Barton Deming convinced Rockefeller to enter into a partnership with him to develop the 141 acres for a residential allotment that ultimately became the Euclid Golf neighborhood.

Although Grant Deming fell out of favor with Rockefeller (at one point he fell behind on the mortgage payments to Rockefeller for the Forest Hill allotment), Barton Deming enjoyed a better relationship with the oil magnate and his son, and represented John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in the early phases of the development of our Forest Hill. In an April 1925 article in the Cleveland Heights Press (the forerunner of the Sun Press), Deming stated “It is our intention to make this new community [Forest Hill] one of the most beautiful in the United States, a district which will appeal inevitably to people of refinement and intelligence, which will have permanence as well as character.” Although Forest Hill was ultimately designed by New York architect Andrew J. Thomas, Deming lived the latter part of his life in the Heights Rockefeller Building apartments. And we can all agree that Forest Hill continues to “appeal inevitably to people of refinement and intelligence.”

I mentioned a third Forest Hill, didn’t I? In 1914, Frederick C. Werk and John C. Lowe, who were involved in Grant Deming’s Forest Hill, formed the Forest Hill Allotment Company and developed a second Forest Hill of side-by-side two-family homes on East Derbyshire and Cedar Roads between Cottage Grove Drive and Lee Road. So our Forest Hill is actually the third Forest Hill development in Cleveland Heights!

Deming’s Forest Hill allotment was listed on the National Register through the efforts of Mark Souther, an associate professor of history at Cleveland State University and a resident of the neighborhood. The National Register application he prepared is the source of most of the information in this article concerning Deming’s Forest Hill. Euclid Golf residents Deanna Bremer Fisher and Hugh Fisher were responsible for listing their neighborhood on the National Register in 2002 (they enjoyed researching the history of their community together so much they eventually decided to get married!). You can visit their informative website at EuclidGolf.com or checkout their book, Euclid Golf Neighborhood, for more fascinating history and great photos of the development.