Shaker Heights Patch is celebrating the 100 years of Shaker Heights history by creating an online scrapbook. Each day for 100 days, we'll feature a photograph that helps tell the story of Shaker Heights.
Today's photo features William Van Aken, who served as mayor from 1917 to 1950. He was so influential in the city's development, he has been dubbed the "Third Van."
The website ClevelandHistorical.org credits Van Aken with "overseeing (Shaker Heights) transition from rural farmland to one of the nation's wealthiest and most well-regarded suburbs."
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Van Aken was born in 1884, and attended Central High School. He was a childhood friend of O.P. and M.J. Van Sweringen; they were paperboys for a Cleveland newspaper. Once the brothers launched their development of Shaker Village, Van Aken was quite involved.
A real estate developer in his own right, Van Aken helped the Van Sweringens detach The North Union Shaker property from Cleveland Heights, thus assuring the future of the development as an independent municipality. He was also one of the first Shaker Village trustees, as well as a council member of Shaker Village. When the village was officially designated a city, he became the city's first mayor.
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His accomplishments included overseeing construction of the Shaker Rapid rail line, helping the city survive the demise of the Van Sweringens' company and creating one of the country's first municipal architectural review boards.
Sources: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, clevelandhistorical.org
You can join our celebration of Shaker Heights history. Share your memories in the comments. Or upload your photos and we'll feature them in this scrapbook. Follow #ShakerCentennial on Twitter.