This is an independent endeavor. It is not a commercial site and is not affiliated with any neighborhood organization such as the West Park Historical Society.
We do not accept
advertising.
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The West Park History Website
Created by:
Gary Swilik
and
Charles C. Chaney
Updated:
11 August 2016
Cuyahoga Co.Weather
Number
of visitors:
History of the West Park
Neighborhood
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio
The purpose of this site is to provide an informal site concerning the history of the area and to share personal memories of the neighborhood. The West Park community, as considered here, consists of four neighborhoods located west of West 117th Street including the Jefferson, Kamm's Corners, Riverside and Puritas-Longmead areas. This approximates the original composition of the neighborhood.
The name was derived from a wooded park with a lake that John West operated on his property at Lorain Avenue roughly between West 138th and 140th Streets. It was known as "West's Park" but evolved into "West Park" for the short-lived town that developed in the area.
This site is not intended to serve as a neighborhood directory nor as a totally complete listing but to be simply a place to share some of its history, images and memories.
If you have memories and photos of your experiences in the West Park neighborhood that you would like to share please feel free to Email it to the West Park History website. ("Click" the name link to send an email to this website.) If you have a website which you think would be relevant please feel free to let us know about it so we can provide a link to it on this site.
The Marquard Shrine by Gary Swilik
The Montrose Pillars by Gary Swilik
Whatever happened to Lorain Street by Gary Swilik
Rough
Riders
of Old West Park by Gary Swilik
D'Ettorre's
Grocery Store and Meat Market by Gary Swilik
Auto Roller Coaster by Gary Swilik
The William & Olga Nichols family by Carol Nichols Henninger
| Hough Bakeries in West Park by Gary Swilik Sweeney's Pasture by Gary Swilik Gilchrist Record Shop -by Gary Swilik West 130th Recreation - Memories of the Hosta/Straka Families
The King of French Fries by Gary Swilik The Castle House by Dar McGeady
Local Man Unearths Rare Piece of West Park History
At Home on Lena Avenue. By Carol Nichols Henninger Photo Gallery of George Washington Elementary School Teachers - 1955 Photo Gallery of Newton D. Baker Junior High School Teachers - 1956 |
Click West Park Historical Society to learn about it.
We existed before the historical society was formed but do not consider ourselves to be in competition but, hopefully, complementary.
Visit the
Kamm's Corners Development Corporation
website for information on the present neighborhood that includes much of the western part of the original West Park area.
A book of interest for West Park residents:
Phil H. Marquard and Cleveland's "Homes Beautiful"
by Thomas A. Marquard
Click here for details
A book about the history of West Park:
FROM ROCKPORT TO WEST PARKby Ralph A. Pfingsten.
This is a long overdue source of information about the area. It will certainly be used to help develop this website. Hats off to Mr. Pfingsten and the John Marshal Alumni Association that published it. For more information logon the to the Kamm's Corners Development Corporation at http://www.kammscorners.com/historybook.html or go to The John Marshall High School Alumni Association
(Note that the above organizations are not affiliated with this site.)
This website was created and maintained by the following:
Gary Swilik who lives in West
Park and does most of the active research.
Charles C. Chaney who maintains this site.
Unless
stated otherwise, most photographs have been supplied by the Gary
Swilik Collection.
Some images on this site have
invisible watermarks.
Please request permission to use any of them.