Doan Brook History and Facts

1796: First permanent settler came to the Cleveland area.

1799: Nathaniel and Sarah Doan and their six children settled beside the Doan Brook. This area became the ford on the main road between Buffalo and Cleveland, now it's the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street).

1812: Jacob Russell’s extended family made their home several miles upstream. It is now the intersection of South Park Boulevard and Lee Road.

1822: The Russell family formed the North Union Shaker Community, from which Shaker Heights takes its name. The Shakers built the two Shaker Lakes on Doan Brook to power their sawmills, grist mills and woolen mill.

Early 1880s: Jephtha Wade, William Gordon, John D. Rockefeller, Laura Rockefeller, Nathan Ambler and others donated land along Doan Brook to make the line of parks along the stream from Lake Erie to Horseshoe Lake in Shaker Lakes. (See Doan Brook Watershed Map).

The Cleveland Parks Commission built roadways to connect the parks and commissioned architect Charles Schweinfurth to design bridges to carry streetcar lines across the lower park areas. This gave inner-city Cleveland workers access to the parks.

May 1896: In all, almost 44,000 people are reported to have walked or driven along the brook in Rockefeller Park.

19th Century: Doan’s Corners and the North Union Shaker flourished. Much of the surrounding areas became farms and villages, including the Village of Glenville, located near the brook valley between Doan’s Corners and Lake Erie.

1900: The Doan Brook Watershed had begun to develop.

1930: Nearly the entire watershed in Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights and Cleveland was developed.

1960: Citizens opposed and defeated the Clark and Lee Freeways extension plan. The freeway would have paved over Doan Brook and its parks from Lower Shaker Lake to Horseshoe Lake and beyond.

1970: Dike 14-dredge spoil disposal area at the mouth of Doan Brook began to be constructed by the Corps of Engineers.

1974: The cities of Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, and Cleveland with interested citizens form the Joint Committee on Doan Brook Watershed.

2000-2001: Partnership Transition Committee of the Joint Committee investigates different structures for the new organization.

2001: Doan Brook Watershed Partnership is formed as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization.

FACTS

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Location: Parts of Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, the University Circle area, areas of Cleveland and portions of the Fairfax, Hough and Glenville and St. Clair-Superior Neighborhoods.

Length: 8.4 miles (along its north fork).

Age: Over 15,000 years old. Doan Brook originated after the final retreat of the glaciers from NE Ohio.

Culverts: Parts of Doan Brook are hidden in underground pipes or culverts. One culvert is located one mile from Ambler Park near the bottom of Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard, just west of the Cleveland Museum of Art. A second culvert carries the stream from 3,300 feet from the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard and The CSX Railroad Tracks north under I-90 to the Corps of Engineers’ Dredged Materials Disposal Facility Site No. 14 (Dike 14) into Lake Erie.

Watershed Area: 11.7 square miles of 7,500 acres. (See What is a Watershed?. )

Lakes: Lower Shaker Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Green Marshall Lakes.

Lagoons: Wade Park Lagoon and the Rockefeller Park Lagoon.

Wildlife along the Brook: Pollution-tolerant macroinvertebrates Fish - fathead minnows, green sunfish, carp and shiners. Mammals - Muskrats, deer, opossums, raccoon, shrews, mice, moles. Amphibians - salamanders, frogs and toads.

Between 1997 and 1999 over 217 species of birds were documented at the Shaker Lakes. More than 266 species have been documented at the Site 14 Dredge Disposal Area since 1980. This is an outstanding bird habitat especially during migration.

Population of Doan Brook Watershed: 145,000 persons