Shaker Square Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Surrounding Shaker Square in Cleveland and Shaker Heights, Ohio, this district contains 106 buildings laid out by brothers O.P. and M.J. Van Sweringen as the western gateway to their Shaker Heights suburb. At its center is the Georgian Revival square of 1927-29, an octagon of brick buildings with white trim and slate roofs. Around it, apartment buildings and a street of two-story houses were built mostly between 1920 and 1932, with some later construction into the 1950s. Deed restrictions set uses, heights and permitted styles, limited to American Colonial, English and French designs, so the area reads as a unified whole. Moreland Courts, a quarter-mile complex by Alfred W. Harris, presents a sequence of English architectural styles. The district is cited for its role in community planning, architecture, commerce and transportation, tied to the Van Sweringens' rail and automobile suburb. Buildings are generally well maintained; two altered gas stations are excluded.