Landscape Information
In the mid-nineteenth century, the North Union Shaker Community dammed the Doan Brook to generate waterpower, in the process forming two lakes known as Upper Lake (now Horseshoe Lake) and Lower Lake. The community dissolved in 1889, leasing its territory to the Shaker Heights Land Company. Following the construction of the nearby Rockefeller Parkway, the Company donated 279 acres, including both lakes, to the city in 1895, and engaged landscape gardener Ernest Bowditch. Bowditch connected the lakes with Wade Park (Wade Oval) Rockefeller Park, and Gordon Park to the east, forming a chain of parks linked by curvilinear boulevards. In 1905, the Van Sweringen family purchased plots from the Company and began developing Shaker Heights, which eventually expanded to encompass approximately six square miles along the Doan Brook. The roughly 60 acres of parkland immediately surrounding the lakes, populated by deciduous and flowering trees and dozens of species of native shrubs and herbaceous plants, was retained, with homes along lakefront boulevards afforded picturesque water views through groves of mature trees. More than four miles of paved and unpaved paths provide circulation around the lakes and access to overlooks, bridges, and pavilions. Pitkin & Mott devised a 1935 plan for Upper Lake that allocated discrete sections to local garden clubs to maintain. Since 1947 the lakes have been jointly managed by the cities of Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights.
In the 1960s, community members prevented construction of a freeway through the lakes, generating investment that prompted the establishment of The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes in 1966. Following years of sedimentation and flooding, Horseshoe Lake was drained in 2019. In 2022, STIMSON, with LAND studio and AECOM, surveyed the Doan Brook watershed, aiming to remediate the area near Horseshoe Lake. The lakes are contributing features of the Shaker Village Historic District (1984) and the North Union Shaker Site (1974), both listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
