Part IV – Fairmount Historic District

 

 

Fairmount Blvd begins at Cedar Fairmount and, besides the initial curve to make it run parallel to Cedar Rd, it takes a b-line east towards the outer burbs.  But while still in Cleveland Heights, the sights are inspiring.  Huge homes and churches abound.

 

Noticeably absent are the homes in the North Park area along the Shaker Hts border.  I don’t like riding in that area due to fear of crossing into Shaker Hts and getting one of their no-helmet citations.  There have been other threads covering that area.

 

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Starting out just up the hill from Cedar Fairmount

 

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This is where being the CFO of Parker Hannifin will get you (the interior elevator makes stairs optional)…

 

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An all girls private school

 

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Hts121 Jr.’s school

 

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Just in case those traveling from the east don’t realize they are entering the land of pinko commie tree hugging hippies

 

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Makes me want to ride my bike there now. Some beautiful houses! Love all the trees.

Awe.  You got my favorite home in Cleveland, my cousins house and you walked/rode a distance for this thread!

Awe.  You got my favorite home in Cleveland, my cousins house and you walked/rode a distance for this thread!

 

Let me guess, the Tremaine-Gallagher House (#40).  And #39, after falling into disrepair was bought by a doctor and his architect wife and totally restored and won a 2011 Cleveland Restoration Society restoration award.  CRS recently held a fundraiser at the home.

 

There was somewhat of a glut of these houses on the market last year (The PH CFO one is currently on the market) so we got to see many of these on the inside.  Most have sold (at bargain prices for these), and now there are not nearly as many on the market.  We are about a month from officially putting in an offer on one in this neighborhood. 

 

The heights Heritage tours pages give some great background on many of the homes.  http://chhistory.org/HeritageTour.php

 

More info on the Cleveland Heights website: http://www.clevelandheights.com/historyarch.asp

 

More: http://www.chhistory.org/FeatureStories.php?Story=NationalRegister&View=FairmountBlvd&section=3

Awe.  You got my favorite home in Cleveland, my cousins house and you walked/rode a distance for this thread!

 

Let me guess, the Tremaine-Gallagher House (#40).  And #39, after falling into disrepair was bought by a doctor and his architect wife and totally restored and won a 2011 Cleveland Restoration Society restoration award.  CRS recently held a fundraiser at the home.

 

There was somewhat of a glut of these houses on the market last year (The PH CFO one is currently on the market) so we got to see many of these on the inside.  Most have sold (at bargain prices for these), and now there are not nearly as many on the market.  We are about a month from officially putting in an offer on one in this neighborhood. 

 

The heights Heritage tours pages give some great background on many of the homes.  http://chhistory.org/HeritageTour.php

 

More info on the Cleveland Heights website: http://www.clevelandheights.com/historyarch.asp

 

More: http://www.chhistory.org/FeatureStories.php?Story=NationalRegister&View=FairmountBlvd&section=3

 

You know me so well!

 

How is your search going?  It seems like you've been looking forever, but hopefully you're family will find the perfect house.

Built by old money; restored with new money! It's one of my favorite "mansion streets" in Greater Cleveland (South Park in Shaker is another). I visited one of these houses in the 1970s and it had a marble pool area in the basement. I remember the smell of chlorine was VERY strong!

Built by old money; restored with new money! It's one of my favorite "mansion streets" in Greater Cleveland (South Park in Shaker is another). I visited one of these houses in the 1970s and it had a marble pool area in the basement. I remember the smell of chlorine was VERY strong!

There are quite a few ubber nice streets in Cleveland Heights.  South Park only gets the love because of the Halle and Van Mansions.  I personally think the streets in this section of CH are better.  You have Harcourt, Denton, Overlook, St James, N. Woodland, Marlboro, Coventry, Norfolk just to name a few blocks that can go toe-to-toe with any old school surburban neighborhoods in this country.

Yes MTS I do know you well, plus I have a good memory!  I will send you an update soon. 

 

Yes, the some what secret Chestnut Hills neighborhood (The Ambler Heights Historic District) is great as well.  Also, beautiful homes on Overlook and  Berkshire Roads.

Noticeably absent are the homes in the North Park area along the Shaker Hts border.  I don’t like riding in that area due to fear of crossing into Shaker Hts and getting one of their no-helmet citations.  There have been other threads covering that area.

 

Oh come on, it's pretty easy to know where the border is!  8-)  As long as you're on North Park Boulevard, you're in CH.  The only part of NP where this is not true is when you get east of Beaumont School.

 

Anyways, this is the nicest area of CH, and I'd put the housing stock here up against just about any area in Ohio.  Ironically, many outer-ringers drive through this area on a daily basis commuting between their place of employment in Cleveland and their McMansions in the sprawlburbs.

Yes, the some what secret Chestnut Hills neighborhood (The Ambler Heights Historic District) is great as well.  Also, beautiful homes on Overlook and  Berkshire Roads.

 

Yeah, Ambler Heights has some gems, too.

^^Now I know.  Thanks.

 

^Yes, I kept meaning to make it over there, but never did.  An omission I noted in the general introduction.

Built by old money;

 

I actually wonder how true this is.  I'd guess that many of these were built by industrial/professional fortunes that were actually pretty new at the time.  Socially, many of these may very well have been the McMansions of their era, resented by the lingering wealth on Euclid Ave and at University Circle.  I'm most certainly not drawing any architectural parallels though- I absolutely love this stretch of Fairmount!  The lush landscaping and street dimensions are integral to its beauty too.  I think Fairmount is featured as a particularly beautiful street in this book, or one like it: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Streets-Allan-B-Jacobs/dp/0262600234

 

 

Thanks, Hts121 for all these awesome photo tours!

Hard to pick a favorite out of all of your threads, but this is near the top - great job on all of them!

Very nice little tour.

Fabulous homes, fabulous community, fabulous history surrounding all--what's there not to like about the best of Cleveland?  Thanks, Hts121!

Wow what a beautiful area! Some really gorgeous homes there.

Fabulous homes, fabulous community, fabulous history surrounding all--what's there not to like about the best of Cleveland?  Thanks, Hts121!

 

The best?  It's one of the best.  There is a street south of Fairmount that I personally think is better!  :P ;D ;) 

Love love love the houses in this neighborhood.  I think #41 was recently bank owned and going for something like $300k.  The house is 9000 sf, but from the pictures I saw it needed a lot of work.

Fabulous homes, fabulous community, fabulous history surrounding all--what's there not to like about the best of Cleveland?  Thanks, Hts121!

 

The best?  It's one of the best.  There is a street south of Fairmount that I personally think is better!  :P ;D ;) 

 

Are you referring to South Park? ;) If so I agree.

 

Someone who thinks this is the best area of Greater Cleveland needs to travel around the city more. It's one of my favorite "mansion streets", like I said before, but there are many such streets. South Park is another. Coventry, between Euclid Heights and Fairmount, is also another great stretch. So are many of many of the side streets in CH and Shaker. Wade Park is another. Edgewater and Lake avenues in Cleveland, and Lake in the Clifton Park section of Lakewood, are others. So is Gates Mills Boulevard. So are some of the places back in the woods off River Road in Hunting Valley. Or the grand, European-style estates off South Woodland Road, west of the valley. Randy Lerner's estate is in this area (see: http://tinyurl.com/3c3lev3).

 

Travel around the city. Lots to see.

^I'll save MTS the trouble:  Gates Mills Blvd?  Meh.

Love love love the houses in this neighborhood.  I think #41 was recently bank owned and going for something like $300k.  The house is 9000 sf, but from the pictures I saw it needed a lot of work.

 

Yes it ended up going for $300,000.  We got a tour of the inside and it was both spectacular (amazing leaded glass windows, woodwork and marble fireplaces) it was also somewhat of a disaster.  There was a whole servant wing where everything was shabby, but somebody had started to put in a new kitchen with granit and such.  Definately not one of my favorites from the outside. :-o 

 

Somebody from Pittsburgh ended up buying it.   

 

We looked at the great tudor across from this the other weekend, amazing and loved it, but just too big (at 5400 sq ft), and like many of these old places the utilities were about $1,700 a month in the winter. 

^^Yeah.  Are you sure you mean Gates Mills Blvd, KJP?  The homes there are not that impressive IMO.

 

FWIW, my favorite house in Greater Cleveland is actually Bob Feller's old house in Gates Mills (but not on the Blvd) on Bringham just east of the intersection with Chagrin River Road.

I meant Gates Mills, but I was on a street kick so I added Blvd.

 

The homes above the valley, both north and south of South Woodland Road, are a recent discovery for me. We had relatives that lived in Daisy Hill, so I was familiar with this area (the Van Swerigen's former country estate that was turned into a high-class housing development). But there is more development that has occurred here, including Randy Lerner's amazing new European-style estate.

Yeah there are some really nice homes in the Chagrin Valley suburbs for sure.

 

A few recent discoveries of mine that are off the beaten path would be Oak Hill Road (East Cleveland), Oakwood Drive (Cleveland Heights), and Sheridan Road (South Euclid).  Most of the homes on these streets aren't mansions by any stretch, but there is some really cool architecture worth checking out some time.  Also I can't think of the name of the street, but I remember seeing some nice older homes in Bratnahl. 

 

I know we're way off-topic here, but if anyone has any specific suggestions of streets with other nice, older homes in the University Circle or East Cleveland areas or heck anywhere else in the near north/northeastern suburbs, I'd love to hear about it and go exploring sometime.

Fabulous homes, fabulous community, fabulous history surrounding all--what's there not to like about the best of Cleveland?  Thanks, Hts121!

 

The best?  It's one of the best.  There is a street south of Fairmount that I personally think is better!  :P ;D ;) 

 

Are you referring to South Park? ;) If so I agree.

 

Someone who thinks this is the best area of Greater Cleveland needs to travel around the city more. It's one of my favorite "mansion streets", like I said before, but there are many such streets. South Park is another. Coventry, between Euclid Heights and Fairmount, is also another great stretch. So are many of many of the side streets in CH and Shaker. Wade Park is another. Edgewater and Lake avenues in Cleveland, and Lake in the Clifton Park section of Lakewood, are others. So is Gates Mills Boulevard. So are some of the places back in the woods off River Road in Hunting Valley. Or the grand, European-style estates off South Woodland Road, west of the valley. Randy Lerner's estate is in this area (see: http://tinyurl.com/3c3lev3).

 

Travel around the city. Lots to see.

 

Yes my childhood street!  LOL

 

I've seen others, I just love the mansions of the heights though.  The mansions east or Richmond dont, in my opinion, have the same interior integrity & details as those in the Heights.

 

^I'll save MTS the trouble:  Gates Mills Blvd?  Meh.

I would say GM Blvd. is East and travels northeast, Fairmount and GM intersect at one point, yes? >:D

I've seen others, I just love the mansions of the heights though.  The mansions east or Richmond dont, in my opinion, have the same interior integrity & details as those in the Heights.

 

Me too. But I like the exteriors of SOME of the new mansions farther out. I don't know what their interiors look like. Although the mansions in Hunting Valley aren't "new".

 

Oh, I also like the mansions in Bratenahl, some of which date to the 1890s. I've been in one of them, I think it was the Mather mansion which is now the Shoreby Club.... http://www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/Shoreby-Club

I'm really enjoying these photos.  I grew up in Shaker and lived in the Cedar-Fairmont area for a couple of years too.  Back in high school we had a garage band and played at a birthday party at the house in photo #5.  The cops came and made us turn off the sound system.  Beautiful area!

I've seen others, I just love the mansions of the heights though.  The mansions east or Richmond dont, in my opinion, have the same interior integrity & details as those in the Heights.

 

Me too. But I like the exteriors of SOME of the new mansions farther out. I don't know what their interiors look like. Although the mansions in Hunting Valley aren't "new".

 

Oh, I also like the mansions in Bratenahl, some of which date to the 1890s. I've been in one of them, I think it was the Mather mansion which is now the Shoreby Club.... http://www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/Shoreby-Club

I didn't bring up Bratenahl on purpose, but I do like many of the homes there.

C17 - the older Bratenahl mansions line Lakeshore Blvd between E 140th and Gordon Park.... most of the really 'grand' ones are east of Eddy Rd.  Interesting point of note is that some of those homes have old speakeasy's from the prohibition era in their attics.  And, of course, there is the one owned by CWRU (or at least it used to own it) which has 'the beach' in the basement (installed because the kids wanted to be able to play in the sand during the winter).  There is a grouping of new and very impressive mansions on Hanna Ln. (the other side of Newport Harbor accross from Shoreby, but it is gated and not open for public viewing (the private beach back there - Hanna Beach - has some great views of downtown BTW). 

 

For Oakwood Drive (directly to the west of Oakwood CC for those that don't know), keep in mind that it is a private right of way.  The residents pay for all the street repairs, etc., so they might not take all that kindly to people just wandering back there for sight-seeing purposes.  That is why I didn't photograph it.... even though I probably could have gotten away with it since one of my co-workers lives back there.  It is a great brick road with very 'stately' homes.

Gorgeous! A neighborhood well worth walking through and capturing with a camera, even if it's not in the city of Cleveland proper! Thanks!