opening doors to “ludlow’s colorfield” in shaker heights, ohio · 2021. 1. 7. · opening...

Opening Doors to “Ludlow’s Colorfield” in Shaker Heights, Ohio

Except for a newly mounted sculpture called “The Color Field,” there is no hint of the 1957 bombing of the garage of a new home being constructed for a young black professional couple that served as the catalyst for organizing the Ludlow Community Association (LCA). Working mostly in their homes, backyards, schools, and other community buildings, the LCA came together in an extraordinary way to integrate the Ludlow Elemen-tary School district. These individuals were pioneers who reversed the tide of white flight, blockbusting, and re-segregation. For more than fifty years, members of the LCA successfully maintained and protected equal access to homeownership and a good education for the entire community of residents—black, white, Asian, Christian and Jewish—and persuasively argued that the value of that community was greater because it was integrated. Historic preservation can open doors to broaden understanding as to why preservation is important by being more inclusive in recognizing the profound significance and authenticity of seemingly ordinary places such as Ludlow’s neighborhood.

The “Ludlow Colorfield” was designed by Mark Reigelman for the Ludlow Community Association (LCA) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ludlow’s racially integrated neighborhood (1957-2007). (Land Studio-Cleveland, Ohio.)

Five decades ago, racial violence erupted across the United States amidst a great sea of social change in the nation. North or South in America, at that time, most whites resisted living in the same residential communi-ties with blacks, and educating their children together in local public schools. The Ludlow neighborhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio, a portion of which is in Cleveland, was not spared. However, the community’s response introduced a different type of pioneering that sparked a new episode in the Civil Rights’ movement worthy of historic preservation.

The evening of January 3, 1956, a blast startled residents who lived near Ludlow Elementary School. A bomb ripped through the garage of a home at 13702 Corby Road. The house was being constructed by a young Af-rican American couple, John and Dorothy Pegg. He was an attorney; she was an educator. Pat Mazoh and her husband Marvin also lived near the school at 2885 Ludlow Road. When they heard the explosion that morn-

Take a stroll in the Ludlow neighborhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio, and the view is just as spectacular today as it was a century ago—curvilinear streets and architecturally distinctive homes set back on deep, landscaped lots.

By Shelley Stokes-Hammond

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ing, Pat said, “We were trying to figure out what the sound was.” It has never been determined who set the bomb. But perhaps it was because John and Dorothy Pegg were African Americans? Pat Mazoh recalled discrimination towards her family as Jewish Americans when they purchased their home in the Ludlow community in 1937. Her par-ents had to get signatures of approval from five neighbors on either side of the home they wished to purchase. In 1955, the Peggs were warned by anonymous callers not to move into the neighbor-hood. They were also threatened with a promise of a bombing if they failed to change their minds and leave Shaker Heights as homeowners. Imme-diately, after the bombing, “For Sale,” signs flew up around the neighborhood as white homeown-ers fled due to concern for their safety and comfort.

Dr. Winston Richie of 3167 Livingston Road (who had to obtain twenty-one signatures from neigh-

bors before purchasing his home) explained why he selected Shaker Heights as a place of residence for his family:

I wanted to live in Shaker because of the excellent schools and because I strongly believed in an inte-grated experience for my children. I wanted them to be able to compete in the world, to become part of the mainstream, and when they grow up, to have self-confidence and pride in their ability to make it as blacks. I wanted them to know that there are some good whites and some bad ones, just as there are good and bad blacks.

Suburban communities were designed exclusively for white middle-to upper-class homeowners as a means of escape from the crowded, heavily black and ethnic (recent immigrants), and industrially pol-luted cities, once technology in railway traffic made suburban commutes possible in the early 20th cen-tury. Shaker Heights was founded by two broth-ers—Oris Paxton (O.P.) and Mantis James (M.J.) Van Sweringen who as children loved to play in the wooded area which had once been owned by the

Ludlow Elementary School Shaker Heights, Ohio

The Van Sweringen Brothers

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Shakers of the North Union Colony. They created “an engineering marvel” for their “Valley of God’s Pleasure” by damming Doan Brook (a stream that flowed through the community to Lake Eric) at two locations, creating the Upper and Lower Shaker Lakes and powering a stone gristmill, a large brick woolen mill, and a sawmill.

As a young adult, O.P. looked over the 1,336 acres encompassing “two pretty lakes in a rather remote city-owned park surrounded by abandoned farmland and the ruins of buildings” and wrote that he “considered the possibilities. He said, “Then and there I had a vision of how the whole region could be developed…”

After purchasing the land in 1905 for $1 million dollars, the Van Sweringens set out to create a “Garden City” suburb fashioned after the principles of Frederick Law Olmsted and Ebeneezer Howard and the suburban models of Euclid Heights, Ohio (George Kessler) and Roland Park, Maryland (Kes-sler and Edward H. Bouton). Property-deed cov-enants restricting race also governed house size, cost, and architectural styles. The Van Sweringens established a policy of “compatible neighbors,” meaning “mostly white Protestant” residents. Many Catholics and Jews and all blacks were considered “undesirable neighbors.”

Shaker Heights, Ohio

3026 Albion Road

14112 Becket Road

3119 Keswick Road

3106 Ludlow Road



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However, as Attorney Bernard Isaacs of the LCA stated on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Shaker Heights in 1987, “Eventually, the Van Sweringen compact ran out of gas, nullified by the tides of social change and the Supreme Court.” In 1948 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of racially restrictive covenants in Shelley v Krae-mer, arguing that they were a violation of the 14th amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws, which includes rights to acquire, enjoy, own and dispose of property.

The Ludlow neighborhood is one of nine in Shaker Heights that are named for the city’s original ele-mentary schools. Ludlow is the smallest in Shaker Heights and is located on the western side of the city with half in Shaker Heights, and the other half in Cleveland. Ludlow is also close to the Mount

Pleasant neighborhood of Cleveland. With the mantle of racially restrictive covenants lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelley v. Kraemer, and with the added negative incentive of Cleveland’s over-crowded schools, by 1950, more affluent blacks were in a position to leave areas like Mount Pleas-ant which was 90 to 95 percent black, for the Lud-low neighborhood of Shaker Heights.

The presence of blacks in Shaker Heights was noth-ing unusual before blacks started becoming home-owners there in the 1950s. In fact, the perception of an “all-white” suburb was more conceptual than actual. As Attorney Isaacs explains, We had al-ways seen black people, especially women, rid-ing the Shaker Rapid and occasionally in private automobiles. But we automatically checked them off as servants. They did not own or rent homes, and their children were seldom seen a block east of Shaker Square.

The change in the status of African Americans from domestic worker to homeowner in suburbia has as much to do with the history of discrimination in America as the determination of the discriminated to rise above the past towards the fulfillment of Ameri-can ideals. Violence towards African Americans who purchased homes in American suburbs was common during the 1950s and 1960s. But what happened next in Ludlow differed from reactions

Ludlow Pioneers were featured in Reader’s Digest magazine in September 1968.

Map of Neighborhoods in Shaker Heights, Ohio Wikipedia, April 25, 2014




in the mainstream. As LCA founder Beverly Mason stated, “…the bombing of John and Dorothy Pegg’s house served to unite the community.” She added, “That incident was the turning point.”

Propelled by their disgust and indignation over the “act of hoodlumism” against the Pegs, and inspired towards justice for fellow residents, early leaders in the community organized the Ludlow Commu-nity Association (LCA) in 1957 after two years of meetings in their homes and yards. Within a few

years, almost every house and many apartment units pulsed with LCA activity such as the following: clerical functions; door-to-door surveys and mem-bership drives; open houses to encourage real es-tate sales sometimes with guest speakers sponsored

The LCA celebrates its 50th anniversary in the auditorium of Ludlow School.

Brotherhood and the flag celebrated at Ludlow School, 1962 Cleveland State University Memory Project




by the United Nations and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. There were special fundraising events at Shaker Square’s Colony Theater such as the open-ing night of the film, My Fair Lady; an author talk and book signing with Lena Horne at the Square’s Stouffer’s Restaurant; and a concerts with Nancy Wilson, and Ella Fitzgerald and the 5th Dimensions at Cleveland’s Public Auditorium to fund alternative mortgage financing programs. By 1964, member-ship grew to approximately 500 members, which increased to 600 members by the 1970s. The com-munity fought for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at one of the churches although he had to do so on the back steps. They supported the candidacies of Dr. Winston Richie, Shaker Heights’ first black councilman; Carl B. Stokes, the first African Ameri-can to be elected to a major city (Cleveland when it was America’s eighth largest city); and Ohio’s first black congressman, Louis Stokes, a resident of Ludlow. Most importantly, the people who lived in Ludlow had the pleasure of discovering how nice it was to get to know one another, not only to restore but to build extraordinary pride in their neighbor-hood, setting a “precedent’ that proves to be as useful today as it was during the period of signifi-cance, 1956 to 1975.

Ludlow Elementary School became a key place and player in the success of integration in the

Ludlow community—where children of all races thrived academically and socially from 1956 to 1987.

As W. Dennis Keating stated in his book, The Ra-cial Suburban Dilemma, “Shaker Heights is one of the few examples of sustained suburban racial in-tegration in the United States. Keating adds, “The city, the board of education, and the civic leader-ship have strongly supported pro-integrative hous-ing policies for more than a quarter-century.” Not only did the Ludlow community receive national recognition during the Civil Rights era, but it has been in the national spotlight even in recent years.

The effort to update American historic sites to reflect full American heritage including ethnic and social history is a position that has been well-articulated by one of this country’s historic preservation theo-rists, Randall Mason. “In significance,” asserts Ma-son, “preservationists pack all their theory, ideol-ogy and politics—and their wonder at the capacity to use historic fabric to reflect on the past.” He adds, “A statement of significance gathers togeth-er all the reasons why a building or place should be preserved, why it is meaningful or useful, and what aspects require most urgent protection. Once defined, significance is used as a basis for policy, planning and design decisions.”

However, Mason believes there is a problem in focusing only on the fabric of historical properties throughout the twentieth century. As he sees it, this perspective fosters a “fixing mentality” in preserva-tion, and in Mason’s opinion, has caused preser-vationists to be mostly focused on “architectural his-tory canons,” and, therefore, directing most of their attention to “…fixing things, literally and metaphori-cally…” As a solution, Mason suggests that signifi-cance “…be re-fixed to embrace cultural change and social process (the driving force behind sig-nificance) and being more relative to contemporary social issues such as the burgeoning presence of African-American histories in U.S. public memory of the post-Civil Rights era generation…” Mason

Students in Ludlow Elementary School Library (Date Unknown)Cleveland State University Memory Project




offers “values-or memory-centered” theory of pres-ervation as an alternative approach in assessing the significance of historic properties. In summary, Mason argues for a “proper balance” between fabric and memory in preserving the historic built environment with the understanding that “culture is an ongoing process…not a static set of prac-tices and things.” Otherwise, Mason explains, the work of preservationist “will become irrelevant to the daily challenges and long-term concerns of ordinary citizens.”

Fortunately, the NPS has created a vehicle for identifying, evaluating and documenting the American Civil Rights history of suburban com-munities with the NRB for suburbs: Parts 4 and 5: Historic Residential Suburbs; and theme studies (which are also relevant for identifying National Historic Landmarks). NPS developed theme stud-ies as “the most effective way of identifying and nominating properties…associated with a specif-ic area of American history…” In 1987, a con-gressional mandate (Public Law 101-628, Sec-tion 1209), directed NPS to “revise its thematic framework for history to reflect current scholarship and represent the full diversity of America’s past.” NPS finds that the revision “presents a larger and more integrated view of history, as it stresses the interplay of race, ethnicity, class, and gender, within and among the framework’s broadened topics.” The revised framework “covers human history in…the United States.” It focuses on developing the interrelationship of people and their actions in a place.

Two theme studies—the 2009 draft of “The Nation-al Historic Landmarks (NHL) Theme Study: The Ra-cial Discrimination in Housing in the United States, 1866-1975,” and “The Civil Rights in America: A Framework for Identifying Significant Sites” (which was initially published in 2002 and updated in 2008)—are especially useful in identifying, evalu-ating and documenting the resources in the historic built environment in the Ludlow community of Shaker Heights for inclusion in the NRHP. NPS guidelines allow for amending, revising or updating the most recent nominations on file in the NRHP for the fol-lowing reasons: to expand significance to include additional levels (including recommendations for NHL designations); to provide additional criteria; to add new areas of significance; and to extend the period of significance from where it presently stands. It is recommended that the nominations on

Ludlow Colorfield—Memories, Tributes, and Hope




To learn more about Ludlow’s significant role in the Civil Rights era, please visit the following web sites:

http://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/534#.

U1sUX1VdXpI

http://ludlowcommunityassociation.wordpress.com/

http://www.ludlowcommunity.org/history-main.htm

http://www.shakersquare.net/com/lca-pioneers.htm

The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency proudly supportedFORUM 2014

www.IllinoisHistory.gov

Champaign County CourthouseUrbana, Illinois

file for the Village of Shaker Heights and the Shaker Square Historic District be amended to recognize, preserve, and interpret the significant role citizens of the Ludlow community played in the history of American suburbs in housing and Civil Rights in America.

The LCA has consistently engaged youth in its activities. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation encourages preservation organiza-tions “to create partnerships with local schools and

Preserving America’s Heritage

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Supports Planning Commissions

Ask us about Section 106 and how historic preservation benefits communities! Local governments are critical to preserving America’s heritage.

Find out more: www.achp.govTwitter: @usachp Facebook: Preservation-The Next Generation

401 F Street NW, Suite 308, Washington, DC 20001-2637

(202) 517-0200 [email protected]

work to offer service learning and community service opportunities to students using local heritage resources.” In the meantime, and until the nomina-tions are amended, Ludlow’s “Color Field” shouts out, “Something important happened here!”

http://www.land-studio.org/our-work/ludlow-colorfield



opening doors to “ludlow’s colorfield” in shaker heights, ohio · 2021. 1. 7. · opening...

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