100 Years in 100 Days: The Clark Freeway Controversy

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 from the Cleveland Press shows the proposed route of Interstate 290, or the Clark Freeway, which would have connected downtown with Pepper Pike and other east side suburbs. The plan ignited a furor when it was introduced in 1963.

Shaker residents, led by Mayor Paul K. Jones, fought the plan immediately.  Later, Cleveland Heights residents joined the battle after learning of plans for other highways that would divide their suburb.

In Shaker Heights, a coalition of women's groups advanced a nature center as an alternative to the highways. Their success in rallying support, as well as organized opposition to the idea of the freeways, led to the death of the plan and the birth of the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes.

Sources: "The Clark, Lee and Heights Freeways," Cleveland Heights Historical Society, The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes

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.