Blue Rock, a lost Cleveland place

Blue RockUniversity Circle’s lost neighborhood
Sat. July 25, 2015, 2-4 pm, $5/person
Roy Larick
© 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
Two-mile interpretive hike
RSVP
welling@doanbrookpartnership.org 216-325-7781
Doan Brook Watershed Partnership
Sponsored by the
Led by

© 2015
Bluestone Heights
Blue Rock rose on a special local natural landscape comprising
lower Cedar Glen, the confluence of Blue Rock and Doan Brooks
and the outflow of a sulfurous spring.
Blue Rock is the forgotten neighborhood at the base of Cedar Hill.
The landscape is now dominated by the Nickel Plate/RTA track
corridor, several arterial highways and the buildings and parking
lots of CWRU and Judson Park.
In the 1880s, the Ambler family opened a water cure at the spring
and platted residential streets at the foot of Cedar Glen.
The Blue Rock hike explores remnants of the once complex natural
terrain, outlines the cultural transformation of the natural
landscape, and proposes small ways to rebuild ecological function.

© 2015
Bluestone Heights
The Blue Rock hike begins and ends in the Nighttown parking lot,
12375 Cedar Rd (25¢/hr). We cover ~2 mi of paved and earthen
paths with an optional short section on broken ground. The circuit
descends ~140' and rises back the same amount.
Sat. July 25, 2015, 2-4 pm, $5/person
RSVP
Sponsored by the

© 2015
Bluestone Heights
Nature
A Bluestone Heights blog post details the Blue Rock Spring area:
http://bluestoneheights.org/bsh/2011/06/17/blue-rock-spring/

North
Cleveland Cleveland Heights
hike
pathway
LittleItaly
Blue Rock
Ambler Hts
Euclid Hts
The name, Blue Rock, likely derives from the Euclid bluestone, the
fine sandstone bedrock unit that caps the lowest terrace of the
Portage Escarpment.
Early settlers quarried 'blue rock' at several terrace locations,
including the top of Cedar Hill. In the 1870s, ‘blue rock’ found a
national market as Euclid bluestone.
bluestone
quarry
bluestone
quarry
bluestone
quarry
The bluestone terrace makes for the Hills rising to the East Side
Heights. Mayfield Hill and Cedar Hill are examples.
Geologists identify the rock unit as an informal member of the
Bedford formation, also calling it the Euclid bluestone.

North
Cleveland Cleveland Heights
hike
pathway
LittleItaly
Blue Rock
Ambler Hts
Euclid Hts
Blue Rock Brook on the Portage Escarpment
Comprising three small branches, Blue Rock Brook drains
the Euclid Heights and Ambler Heights neighborhoods,
from the bluestone terrace to Doan Brook.
In Euclid Heights, the Kent and Deming branches coalesce
under Euclid Heights Blvd to descend Cedar Glen.
In Ambler Heights, the Ambler branch travels its own
ravine to meet the trunk stream at the base of Cedar Hill.
bluestone
quarry
bluestone
quarry
bluestone
quarry

sandstone terrace
bluestone terrace
Portage Escarpment
Schematic view looking
southward from Lake Erie
Blue Rock
hike area
Blue Rock Brook descends the Portage Escarpment, Cleveland’s major terrain feature. This ancient bedrock
massif resisted the bulldozing effects of Ice Age glaciations.
As the last glacier retreated northward about 14 thousand years ago, rushing melt water spawned our
‘escarpment run’ streams including Doan and Blue Rock Brooks.
The Blue Rock settlement straddles the confluence of Doan and Blue Rock Brooks at escarpment base.
Bedrock deposition, glacial sculpting and stream cutting produced the natural landscape.
© 2015
Bluestone Heights
lake plain

© 2015
Bluestone Heights
History

403
411
404
412
1881
1874
403
411
404
412
Blue Rock spring
Early Doan’s Corners residents
frequented a sulfurous spring in the
northern part of Cleveland Original
Lot 411. The parcel had ambiguous
ownership up through the 1860s.
In 1872, dentist Nathan Ambler
(1823-1888) and wife Martha Buell
bought much of lots 411 and 412,
which included the spring and the
lower part of Cedar Glen.
Shortly thereafter, the Amblers
fenced the spring area.
Nickel Plate RR construction began in
1881. The line opened in 1883.
N.H.Ambler

During the late 1870s, the Amblers
took on Daniel O. Caswell (1857-
1906) as business partner and
heir. The group began developing
Blue Rock.
In 1880, Blue Rock Springs opened as
a hydrothermal resort, The bathhouse
was built directly over the spring with
baths cut into the bedrock.
Blue Rock Springs
Nickel Plate
Road Historical
& Technical
Society
NYC&StL Ry
Right of Way Map
c. 1883

Blue Rock Station?
In 1955, CTS built
the Cedar rapid
transit station on
the Cedar site.
The RTA Red Line
station is called
Cedar-University.
The platform may have
been planned for just north
of Cedar or, less likely, just
south of Highland. Blue Rock would be a better name!
At right, ‘Nickel Plate’ (NYC&SL) Railroad Circular No. 82
is auspicious, but no timetable mentions Station 179 and
no map shows any such facility. Might the Ambler group
have lobbied for a station that never materialized?
NYC&StL Ry
Right of Way Map
c. 1883
Nickel Plate
Road Historical
& Technical
Society
NYC&StL Ry
Right of Way Map
c. 1883

403
411
404
412
1898 Daniel O. Caswell was a tireless
promoter for the resort. The business
grew in popularity during the 1890s,
the heydays for the ‘water cure’.
By the early 1900s, ‘hydrotherapy’
moved into full service hospitals—just
at the time its health benefits were
being questioned. Blue Rock Springs
responded with more park-like
amenities, such as a dance platform
and picnic areas.
The Blue Rock residential neighborhood was platted
in relation to the resort and to the Cedar Ave link
between Doan's Corners and the emerging 'Heights'.
Blue Rock Place (current Glenwood Ave) and Caswell
St (current E. 114th) focused the development which
included E Highland St (current Fairchild Ave) as well
as parts of Murray Hill, Cedar and Ambleside. From
about 1890, houses were built on the north side of
Cedar Ave.
Blue Rock Brook
North and south parts of the map are offset east-west along Cedar Rd.
At his death on March 11, 1897, Dare
was City of Lakewood engineer and an
Early Settlers Association member.
(Cleveland Plain Dealer)
…

Blue Rock Springs, c. 1900 (WRHS)
At left is a unique view of small natural features
at the confluence of Doan & Blue Rock Brooks.
The photographer shot northwest from under
the Nickel Plate Railroad bridge, across Cedar
Rd, along Doan Brook (white line below).
Visible are two ‘outliers’ (red & white), bedrock
islands left, by chance, as the Doan/Blue Rock
confluence meandered around the location.
The area is now entirely transformed within the
University Circle built environment (below left).
The one period topographic view comes from
the Cleveland Parks Dept map of c. 1900,
entitled Eastern Parkway (below).

Blue Rock Place crossed
the NKP tracks to enter
the resort’s east border.
Blue Rock, c. 1900Eastern Parkway map (~1900)
Cleveland Public Library
The purple contour
represents the low bluff
around the confluence
floodplain, including the
crests of the two bedrock
‘island’ outliers.

‘Blue Rock’ photographs from the
Western Reserve Historical Society
?

403
411
404
412
1920
1912
403
411
404
412
By 1912, the resort was demolished
with college athletic fields tooking
over the spring area. E. Highland Ave
was renamed Fairchild. Blue Rock
Place was now Glenwood Ave.
As Cedar was becoming a major
automobile thoroughfare, it was
widened on the north side. Several
1890s houses were demolished. Some
houses still stood on the south side of
Cedar, along Buell Place (named for
Martha Buell Ambler), but they would
later be cleared for a yet wider road.
In 1920, Blue Rock Brook was still
open. The area of its course is now the
green space between Cedar and
Glenwood. The stream flows directly
under the RTA Cedar-University
station. The new bioswale symbolizes
the stream (slide 22, below).

WRHS 7151
In a development plan of the mid
1920s, neither Blue Rock nor its
brook is to be found.
Lincoln
Storage

Doan Brook
Ambler Park
infrastructure
Cleveland Memory ProjectCleveland Memory Project
Cleveland Memory Project
Looking northeast across Doan Brook along old Ambleside to current
Ambleside (at cliff base).
Looking south-southeast from East Blvd (MLK), up Doan Brook to Fairhill
(Stokes Blvd).
Looking north-northwest down Doan Brook from
Fairhill (Stokes Blvd) to East Blvd (MLK).
Looking south-southeast from NKP tracks across East
Blvd (MLK) to the Baldwin Reservoir. Doan Brook
culvert construction in foreground.
In 1929, construction of the
Cleveland Union Terminal Railroad
was fully recorded in photographs.
CSU Special Collections now owns
the set which are online as part of
the Cleveland Memory Project.
Four of many showing CUT RR
work around “East Boulevard.”
Water mains feeding the
Baldwin Reservoir from
the Kirtland Pump Station

Looking SSE, up Doan Brook,
March 1929
Gulf north wall, above North Park. Bluestone level
near top. Chestnut Hills Dr lies behind the left tree
line.
camera
viewpoint
Doan Brook
In 1894, Martha Ambler and Daniel
O. Caswell donated 25 acres for the
construction of Ambler Park.
At its lower end, the Ambler Park
was bordered by East Boulevard.
Area landscaping was of high quality.
March 1929
Google Earth
Ambler Park
infrastructure

© 2015
Bluestone Heights
Hike Highlights
12375 Cedar Rd (25¢/hr). We cover ~2 mi of paved and earthen
paths with an optional short section on broken ground. The circuit
descends ~140' and rises back the same amount.

Blue Rock hike itinerary
1. Leave Nighttown parking lot.
2. Descend the Ranney ramp at
the Case dorms.
3. Visit the Blue Rock area.
4. Head south to Doan Brook
and Ambler Park.
5. Stop at the culvert entry.
6. Proceed upstream to the
retention basin.
7. Stop at bluestone outcrop.
8. Mount to cross N. Park and
go north on Chestnut Hills.
9. Stop at Ambler ravine.
10. Stop at the Gill house.
11. Return to Nighttown.
Nighttown
parking lot
Ranney
ramp
Blue Rock
spring
culvert entry
retention
basin
bluestone quarry
bluestone
outcrop
Ambler
Park
Gill house

Escarpment ramp roads
Parallel to local streams, ‘ramps’
connected lowlands and uplands.
Native Americans first defined the
ramps. Early Euro-American
settlers appropriated them.
Superior, Lee, Taylor, and Noble
Rds are examples.
Ranney ramp
A true parallel ramp may have
traversed the escarpment on
land Nathan Ambler sold to
Rufus P. Ranney in the 1870s.
The ramp now holds the covered
switchback stairway linking the
lower and upper Case dorms.
About 1905, the Southworths
graded a second switchback
ramp on their property.
1912
For Blue Rock Brook, Cedar Glen
Parkway is the exceptional ramp
lying within the stream valley.

Blue Rock Brook culvert & RTA bioswale
The Blue Rock settlement was platted on the
north bank of Blue Rock Brook to face Cedar
Glen Parkway. With successive road
widening, houses were demolished and the
brook was buried.
The culvert lies under the green space
between current Cedar and Glenwood.
In front of the new RTA Cedar-University Red
Line station, the bioswale essentially lies
over the brook.
Blue Rock significance
Blue Rock typified a natural amenity
settlement of the late 1800s. Springs,
streams, rock outcrops and the Lake Erie
shoreline served as natural bases. In some
places, a Christian tabernacle took
advantage of the amenity.
Blue Rock, like many amenity settlements,
lost its nature during the early 1900s. The
RTA bioswale is a first attempt to recover a
small bit of Blue Rock Brook.

Ambler Park culvert entry
The entrance to the University
Circle culvert sits below grade.
Stream flow crosses a weir and
then drops down to the culvert
level. The entry is an impressive
brick structure.
Doan Brook University Circle culvert
Upon leaving Blue Rock, the hike
heads upstream on Doan Brook to
Ambler Park. Here, we find Doan as
it drops into the University Circle
culvert. From this point in Ambler
Park, Doan flows underground all the
way to southern Wade Park. Along
the way, it picks up Blue Rock Brook.

Doan Brook Ambler Park retention basin
From the culvert entry, we trek upstream
to arrive at the Ambler Park retention
basin, shown here after a heavy rainfall.
After viewing the monstrosity, we climb
up over the Euclid bluestone to arrive at
the intersection of North Park Blvd and
Chestnut Hills Dr.
Euclid bluestone outcrop above the retention basin

Ambler Ravine
Blue Rock Brook’s Ambler branch drains
much of Ambler Hts. It descends a small
ravine to meet the trunk stream near the
base of Cedar Hill.
The ravine cuts through Euclid bluestone
and Cleveland Shale bedrock units. The
ravine bottom is full of bluestone rubble.
The area has bluestone retaining walls.
The 1898 map shows the Ambler
branch traversing a street grid
never fully implemented.
Currently, Chestnut Hills Drive
derives from sections of Beacon
Hill St, ‘Ave’ and ‘Harcourt’.
Harcourt derives from Northwood
Ave projected southward to North
Park Blvd.
The L.H. Elliott house, the first
built in Ambler Hts, is a Cleveland
Heights landmark. It sits in an area
once called Glen Point.
1898

Glen Point quarry
Lying between the Ambler Ravine and Cedar Glen, Glen
Point is a bluestone promontory. Much of the area was
quarried in the late 1800s, possibly for the bluestone
retaining wall on the south side of Cedar Glen. The east
quarry wall remains visible on the Gill house lot.
Gill House
Kermode F. Gill headed the
firm that built many of
Cleveland’s finer buildings,
including the Terminal
Tower complex. In 1911, Gill
had F.B. Meade design a
house to be set into the
quarry at 2178 Harcourt.

Blue Rock
© 2015
Bluestone Heights
Meet: Nighttown parking lot, Cedar-Fairmount
12375 Cedar Rd--bring quarters. We cover ~2 mi of paved and
earthen paths with an optional short section on broken ground.
The circuit descends ~140' and rises back the same amount.
RSVP
July 25, 2015
2-4 pm, $5/person
Two-mile interpretive hike
Sponsored by the

Roy Larick
Walk back in time
Look to the Future
Euclid bluestone outcrop
Doan Brook, Cleveland OH
Bluestone Heights
© 2015 Bluestone Heights
R. Larick
A production by
roylarick@gmail.com

Blue Rock, a lost Cleveland place

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