West Park, Cleveland

West Park was a city in the U.S. state of Ohio that was annexed to the city of Cleveland in 1923. West Park covered 12.5 square miles, stretching from West 117th Street on the East, to the Rocky River Valley on the West; from the City of Lakewood, on the North, to Brookpark Road on the South. Since 1923, those borders have remained the same for the West Park neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. The Statistical Planning Area of Cleveland traditionally divided West Park into four subneighborhoods: Jefferson, Kamm’s Corners, Puritas-Longmead, and Riverside In 2015, the city of Cleveland made an alteration in the naming of the West Park neighborhoods with the Riverside neighborhood changed to Hopkins.

Up until the 1600s, the area of West Park had no name. West Park was part of the vast, forest-covered wilderness that once blanketed most of the eastern half of the present United States and it followed the pattern of settlement from Native American civilizations to migration from eastern colonists. In 1796, the Connecticut Land Company sent an expedition, led by General Moses Cleaveland, to explore and survey their new holdings in the Connecticut Western Reserve. Cleaveland landed at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in July and founded Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1810 Cuyahoga County was formally organized with Cleveland as the county seat. At this time the site of future West Park, seven miles west of Cleveland, was in a region officially known only as Township 7, Range 14 of the Western Reserve. In 1812, Nathan Alger, with his wife and sons, Henry, Herman, Nathan, Jr., and Thaddeus P., and his son-in-law, John Kidney, all from Litchfield County, Connecticut, settled upon sections twelve and thirteen in the township and founded Alger settlement. Two days later, Benjamin Robinson, afterwards son-in-law of Nathan Alger, came from Vermont and also settled in that area. Nathan Alger, Sr., died January 21, 1813, being the first white person who died in the township.

In 1819, the eighteen families living in the area decided to adopt a more proper name than just being referred to as Township 7, Range 14. They chose “Rockport Township,” inspired by the high rocky embankments along the lake and both sides of Rocky River. Using present day landmarks, it was bounded by Lake Erie on the north, West 117th on the east, Brookpark Road on the south and West 230th, in the present City of Fairview Park on the west. As the population of the 15,207 acre township grew, hamlets and villages were formed, eventually leading to the establishment of surrounding Lakewood, Rocky River and Fairview Village (Fairview Park).

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