{"nrhp_refnum":"79001823","name":"Cooley Farms","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"N of Warrensville Heights off OH 175","address_restricted":false,"city":"Warrensville Heights","county":"Cuyahoga County","state":"OH","lat":41.450507846500074,"lon":-81.5192334225543,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-08-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A district of seven buildings in Warrensville Township, near Warrensville Heights, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, surviving from Cooley Farms, Cleveland's farm colony begun in 1904. Six were designed by J. Milton Dyer in Spanish Mission style, and one is the Walkden House, a nineteenth century brick farmhouse.","why_significant":"The buildings survive from the founding and first major building period (1904-1915) of Cooley Farms, Cleveland's first farm colony and a progressive reform program under Mayor Tom L. Johnson. The Walkden House is also a good example of a late nineteenth century brick Italianate farmhouse. Dyer's Spanish Mission buildings reflect the economical, informal approach adopted over an earlier Beaux Arts plan.","narrative":"Seven surviving buildings in Warrensville Township recall Cooley Farms, Cleveland's first farm colony, begun in 1904 with the purchase of 850 acres. Mayor Tom L. Johnson's administration and Dr. Harris Cooley, Director of Charities, built a program on the belief that country life and useful work would help the poor, the aged, the ill and offenders. Architect J. Milton Dyer designed six of the buildings in Spanish Mission style, with stuccoed brick walls and low tile roofs, after a formal Beaux Arts plan was set aside. They include the Workhouse, its boiler-house, and the Colony Farm halls. The seventh building, the Walkden House, is a late nineteenth century Italianate farmhouse used as a tuberculosis sanatorium from 1906 to 1913. Many planned buildings were never built, others have been demolished, and the rest have been altered to varying degrees.","period_of_significance":"1904-1915","architect_builder":"J. Milton Dyer (architect); Reaugh Construction Co. (contractor)","architectural_style":"Spanish Mission (Dyer buildings); Victorian Italianate (Walkden House)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Several Dyer buildings at Cooley Farms have been demolished or altered; some surveyed buildings are listed as vacant, and the Workhouse is listed as vacant with fair condition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:12.650282-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/79001823.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71987618","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/cuyahoga-county/cooley-farms-79001823/"}