Shaker Heights
Shaker Lake - photo Bob Perkoski
The homes of Shaker Heights are known to be some of the most striking in the country, boasting a real estate catalogue's worth of Tudors and Georgians. Gardens dripping with life and color beckon neighbors to pause and visit while walking their children to elementary school. Originally a planned garden city for early commuters, the verdant region has numerous parks, lakes and natural attractions. This tight-knit community of 30,000 blossomed in the early 20th century thanks to its pair of light-rail lines that connect its residents to downtown and the Cleveland airport. On the border of Cleveland and Shaker Heights, you'll find Shaker Square and Larchmere, trendy arts-minded strips filled with boutiques, restaurants and galleries.
AutumnFest: Fairytales in the Forest, a free family-friendly event, is set to enchant visitors at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes this weekend with a variety of activities, storytelling, s'mores, craft-making, and food trucks. Guests can also check out the annual bird seed and perennial plant sales.
AloeCLE, founded last summer by mother-daughter team Lena Paskewitz and Miranda Fox-Hervey, grew out of a passion for rescuing and nurturing aloe plants. The school teachers offer hand-glazed pots and aloe plants, while promoting a community of plant enthusiasts with their aloe mama fostering program, pottery workshops, and walks through their AloeCLE Trail at their home studio.
This Saturday, the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership will host a day of relaxation, kayaking, canoeing, and yoga on the Lower Shaker Lake. Dr. Roy Larick will lead an informative hike around the lake to learn about the region's history and geology.
Architectural photographer and Shaker Heights resident Lauren Pacini this week published “Empire Builders: An Illustrated History of the Rise and Fall of Cleveland's Van Sweringen Brothers,” the story of the eccentric Van Sweringen brothers' successes and failures in developing Shaker Heights as an exclusive residential garden community and their eventual demise during the Great Depression.
The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes launched the online portion of its annual plant sale this week, with hard-to-find native plants that attract and support local wildlife available. A free lecture series on native plants will be hosted by Curb Appeal Painting and Bartlett Tree Experts through April, with the in-person and the Home Grown sales happening in May and June.
To celebrate its 21st anniversary, Shaker Arts Council is hosting a fundraiser and family fun day in May at Edwin's Too. To celebrate Shaker Heights' dedication to the arts, the organization has opened a call to artists for submissions.
On March 1, LAND studio and Shaker Heights Public Library unveiled The Readers Garden, a public art installation by landscape architect Haemee Han, that features a reading porch of five clusters of larger-than-life books written by 13 local authors with ties to Shaker and the Cleveland area. The project celebrates Shaker's diversity and rich culture of reading and writing.
Officials with the Shaker Heights Public Art department and LAND studio teamed up with and landscape architect Haemee Han of Jaemee Studio and former Shaker mayor Judy Rawson to create the Reader's Garden—a public art space on the library grounds to celebrate Shaker's diversity and rich culture of reading and writing. The dedication and artist talk will be held tomorrow, Friday, March 1.
The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes recognizes that many people’s green thumbs are itching to get outside and dig in the soil during this cold, dreary period of winter. So, it is hosting a Winter Seed Sowing Workshop, using seeds from the Nature Center's Native Seed Library, to get people ready for spring plantings.
Shaker Arts Council has issued a call for artists to submit designs for utility box wraps on Shaker Heights streets in its Painting the Town design competition. Get the details on applying here!
This weekend, the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes and the Shaker Historical Society will host a Historical Homes & Building Tour, with presentations from local historians on the 1960s fight to stop construction of freeways over the wetlands and greenspace in Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights.
In honor of the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Shaker Arts Council will be sharing “Conversations in Courage: The Visit,” its documentary on Dr. King's 1965 visit to Shaker Heights.
David Knott, founder of the Veterans and First Responders Foundation, is on a mission to give military and police dogs everything they need when they retire from duty—from staying with their handlers to healthcare—with his nonprofit Howling Heroes. The first five dogs were just honored last month.
Shaker Heights attorney, judge, and author Burt W. Griffin just published his book about the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald’s involvement, and Jack Ruby's motivations.
Managing photographer Bob Perkoski joined the seasonal fun at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes' AutumnFest last weekend and captured in photos everyone celebrating all that fall has to offer.
Shaker Heights native Laura Meckler's newly released book "Dream Town: The Quest for Racial Equity in Shaker Heights" chronicles the east side suburb's efforts to achieve racial integration, equality, and harmony over the past seven decades.
The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes is partnering with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Literary Cleveland, and Wick Poetry Center tonight for Summer Wednesdays and poetry readings from the Poetic Inventory of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
The pickleball craze is taking off in Northeast Ohio. The hybrid of tennis, ping-pong, and badminton is now one of the fastest growing sports in the country, and new facilities are popping up all over Greater Cleveland.
The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes kicks off its Summer Wednesdays tonight, with extended dawn-til-dusk hours. food and drink, and live entertainment.
Cleveland Masterworks: Harold Burdick was known for designing 28 houses in Shaker Heights and worked on the design of the Federal Reserve building. But he might be most noted for the futuristic design of his own home in Cleveland Heights.