4/6/2023 0 Comments Wetter shaker heights![]() ![]() Source: Shaker Historical Society Shaker Students Playing Baseball, 1955 An increase in the amount of leisure time and disposable income available to Americans led to a rise in the popularity of sports during the 1950s. Pictured above is the restaurant's co-owner, Roman Gruber. Gruber's Restaurant, located in the Van Aken Shopping Center, was renowned as a gathering place for celebrities, millionaires, writers, lawyers, and art patrons. Social events, such as parties and dances, were generally hosted in private homes and country clubs. Source: Cleveland Memory Project, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections Shaker Night Life Very few recreation or cultural options existed for Shaker residents within the boundaries of their residential community. In 1960, Shaker had nine elementary schools, two junior high schools, two special schools, a high school, and three exclusive private schools. Source: Cleveland Memory Project, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections Sleeping Bag Race, 1960 From the founding of Shaker Heights by the Van Sweringen brothers, emphasis was placed on providing resources for the education of the community's children. Central to the city's design was the designation and maintenance of lands for use as green space. Source: Cleveland Memory Project, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections Shaker Costumes, 1956 In contrasting the utopian community of the North Union Shakers with the nation's wealthiest city, Cosmopolitan offered the following thoughts: "In modern Shaker Heights, the only shakers to be found are cocktail shakers, the only frenzied dancing to be seen is the Twist, and the communism of old has been replaced by what can only be described as galloping capitalism." Source: Cleveland Memory Project, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections Girl Scout at Shaker Lake, 1967 The census figures presented by Cosmopolitan affirm the success of the Van Sweringen brothers in their efforts to create a stable and exclusive community founded on strict regulation and thoughtful urban design. While the city's police force had little to do in the way of crime fighting, the service department had its hands full maintaining the roads, landscaping the public grounds, and caring for over 27,000 trees. Source: Cleveland Memory Project, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections Miss Flame, 1960 Shaker Heights was also touted for their highly efficient fire department, police force, and service department. The Ludlow district of Shaker Heights also had recently become home to an affluent African American community. ![]() Despite a history of discriminatory practices prior to the death of the Van Sweringen brothers, the city was home to a large population of Catholics and Jews. Images Brotherhood Week, 1956 As racial tensions were surfacing in cities throughout America during the 1960s, the utopian city of Shaker Heights was "unobtrusively integrated" according to Cosmopolitan. Within this context, the designation of Shaker Heights as the wealthiest community in the United States reaffirmed the ideals associated with both suburban living and the American dream. Even the problems associated with race relations that had become increasingly pronounced over the prior decade seemed to have passed the utopian city by. Consumerism flourished, and the troubles of unemployment and crime were virtually nonexistent. Churches, country clubs, and schools acted as the centers of the community. Displays of extreme excess were frowned upon, and a very suburban-esque semblance of uniformity permeated the affluent community. ![]() ![]() There were few large estates with multimillion dollar mansions, and the city lacked a night life, celebrities, and cultural institutions. Life in the suburb reflected and embodied a pervasive conservatism that characterized 1950s culture. The appeal of Shaker Heights, however, spoke to something larger. While the Cleveland suburb seemed an unlikely candidate for this distinction, it was statistically the wealthiest community in the country. Using the most recent Bureau of the Census figures as evidence, the author portrayed the suburb as both an idyllic society and the new demographic face of prosperity in the United States. In the March 1963 edition of Cosmopolitan, a feature article titled "The Good Life in Shaker Heights" declared the spotlighted residential community to be the closest thing to a utopian society as could be found anywhere in the U.S. ![]()
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