The First Shaker Rapid Transit: So far, we have looked at the role of trolleys in the development of the western part of today’s city. Now we will look farther east. So, what’s this about a FIRST Shaker line? We know that Van Sweringen brothers built a transit line that connected their new Shaker Heights development to downtown Cleveland, beginning in 1920. What we may not know is that this was neither their first major real estate development nor their first electric railway.

In 1906, a decade before their Shaker Heights development, they began a development on the former Shaker farm they had purchased. Called Shaker Village, this development occupied land east of Coventry Rd, along what now is Fairmont Blvd. Because this land was, then, pretty much “in the middle of nowhere,” they built a trolley line from Calhoun’s Cedar Glen extension, discussed last week. This line went east on Cedar Rd, to what is now Fairmont Village. At this point, it turned southeast on what then was open country, following the alignment that later became the westernmost section of Fairmont Blvd.

At this point, we can see the shape of today’s Cleveland Heights beginning to develop. The 1891 line to the cemetery — also discussed recently — was, in 1897, used by the Cleveland & Eastern interurban line into Geauga County, thereby providing service along Mayfield Rd., and what became the Fairmont line was taking shape.

Pictures: 1) M.J., left, and O.P. Van Sweringen, Wikipedia. 2) Car climbing Fairmont from Cedar, City of Cleveland Heights. This street was built along the tracks originally constructed by the brothers to reach their Shaker Village development.