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Buckeye–Shaker is a
neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
on the East Side of
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
. It encompasses two sub neighborhoods: in its south and west, the old Buckeye neighborhood; and in its northeast, the Shaker Square neighborhood, which is centered on a historic shopping district and an eponymous rapid transit station, located at the intersection of Shaker and Moreland Boulevards, on the light rail line that connects the city of
Shaker Heights Shaker or Shakers may refer to: Religious groups * Shakers, a historically significant Christian sect * Indian Shakers, a smaller Christian denomination Objects and instruments * Shaker (musical instrument), an indirect struck idiophone * Cockta ...
to
downtown Cleveland Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The economic and cultural center of the city and the Cleveland metropolitan area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square, Cleveland, Publi ...
. From the early to mid-20th century, the Buckeye Road neighborhood was known as "Little Hungary", serving as the historic heart of Cleveland's Hungarian community, which at one time was the largest in the world outside of Hungary and for years has been almost completely African-American. Shaker Square, continues to be known as one of Cleveland's most notable neighborhoods, in terms of shopping, dining, architecture, the education of its residents, participation in civic life, diversity, and quality of living. Buckeye–Shaker is bordered by the neighborhoods of Woodland Hills on its west, Mount Pleasant to the south, University Circle to the north, and the suburb of Shaker Heights to the east.


Shaker Square

The
historic History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...
American Colonial-Georgian shopping center, which was largely influenced by European town squares, was built between 1927 and 1929 by the Van Sweringen brothers. Several pieces were added to the four quadrants, likely in the 1950s. Nearby, along Van Aken Boulevard but essentially an appendage to the Square, a commercial strip was built in 1939. The two brothers, who also developed much of the land to the east of the neighborhood as the
planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
of
Shaker Heights Shaker or Shakers may refer to: Religious groups * Shakers, a historically significant Christian sect * Indian Shakers, a smaller Christian denomination Objects and instruments * Shaker (musical instrument), an indirect struck idiophone * Cockta ...
, envisioned Shaker Square as its gateway between the urban and suburban living spaces represented in the early 20th century. On either side of the train tracks are two lawn areas. A short distance east of the Shaker Square stop, the track splits into the Green Line (that heads east to Green Road), and the Blue Line (that runs southeast on Van Aken Boulevard, until it reaches Chagrin Boulevard). Four large buildings around the perimeter of the grass lawns make up the second planned shopping center in the United States, after
Country Club Plaza The Country Club Plaza (often called The Plaza) is a privately owned regional shopping center in the Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri. Opened in 1923, it is considered to be the first planned large outdoor su ...
in
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...
. They were designed in a Neo-Georgian style by Phillip Small and Charles Bacon Rowley, and together form an octagonal area that is said to have been inspired by the eight-sided plaza at the center of the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 2004, the Square has been owned by The Coral Company, whose offices are in Shaker Square. Today, Shaker Square is the heart of the neighborhood. Near the square are more than 4,000 units of rental and condominium apartments (the largest concentration of multi-family housing in Cleveland), townhouses, and many private homes.


Larchmere

The Larchmere district begins at North Moreland Boulevard, stretching west along Larchmere Boulevard to East 121st Street. The commercial and residential district is known for its dozens of storefronts and annual festivals, including PorchFest, Holiday Stroll, and Larchmere Festival.


Buckeye Road

The Buckeye Road neighborhood was known as Little Hungary and developed as the heart of Cleveland's Hungarian community in the late 19th century. By the 1920 United States Census, over 42,000 residents in Cleveland listed themselves as having been born in the
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
, with a large portion of these residing in the Buckeye Road neighborhood. Like many immigrant groups, the Hungarians came to the United States looking for a better life, and those who settled in Cleveland came at a time when the city was one of the nation's leading industrial cities. Working primarily in the heavy manufacturing sector, these immigrants settled in their tightly knit community due to its close proximity to the steel mills and day-labor jobs where they worked. Between the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and 1970, the neighborhood represented one of the most powerful political blocs in Cleveland's Democratic Party. By the end of the 1970s, many of the original inhabitants of Buckeye Road had migrated to the suburbs as they ascended the economic ladder, in large part due to the
white flight The white flight, also known as white exodus, is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the Racism ...
which had produced similar migrations out of the inner city in many US metropolitan areas. by the beginning of the 21st century, only a handful of the Hungarian residents remained in a neighborhood that today is predominately
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
. Benedictine High School, a Catholic high school and perennial football- powerhouse that boasts Chuck Noll as an alumnus, is located just south of Buckeye on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Points of interest, all of which are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
include the closed St. Luke's Hospital, built in 1927, which is slated for re-development; St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, built in 1892; and the Weizer Building, built in 1928.


Education

In September 1912, the Cleveland Board of Education ceded an area at the eastern end of Buckeye–Shaker, around what would later become Shaker Square, to the Shaker Heights Board of Education. Currently, Moreland Boulevard serves as the dividing line, with homes and businesses along Moreland and to the east being within the Shaker Schools and Library District and thus paying taxes, including real estate taxes, and participating in elections for the Shaker Heights City School District and Shaker libraries. Households and businesses west of Moreland continue to be part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Cleveland libraries. Because of the ability to send their children to Shaker Schools, there has historically been a large number of individuals who work in Cleveland, particularly in city government, who live in the Shaker Schools area, or Buckeye–Shaker. This anomaly also led to this area being the center of Cleveland's black middle class prior to the integration of Shaker Heights.


References


External links


Shaker Square
(neighborhood website)
Larchmere

Shaker Square Area Development Corporation

Buckeye Area Development Corporation

Encyclopedia of Cleveland History article on Shaker Square
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckeye-Shaker Hungarian-American history Hungarian-American culture in Cleveland Hungarian-American culture in Ohio Neighborhoods in Cleveland Historic districts in Cleveland National Register of Historic Places in Cuyahoga County, Ohio Populated places established in the 1870s Georgian architecture in Ohio Buckeye-Shaker