Native Americans and Euclid Creek Human beings first settled in northeast Ohio about 11,000
BCE, at the end of the Wisconsin Glaciation. This highly nomadic hunting culture, known as
Paleo-Indian, disappeared about 8,000 BCE, replaced by the nomadic
hunter-gatherer Archaic culture. About 2,500 BCE, this culture was in turn replaced by the semi-
sedentary Woodland culture. A warming trend in the global climate about 800 CE created more agriculturally favorable weather in Ohio, which led to the development of subsistence farming. A new society emerged, the
Whittlesey culture (named for 19th century Ohio scientist
Charles Whittlesey). Between 1600 and 1650 CE, the Whittlesey people disappeared. The cause—absorption into another culture, disease, emigration, low birth rate, warfare, or some combination of factors—is not known. By the time the
Iroquois of what is now central
New York began moving along the shore of Lake Erie into northeast Ohio in 1650 during the
Beaver Wars, the area was almost uninhabited. In the early and mid 1700s, the
Mingo,
Odawa (or Ottawa), and
Ouendat (or Wyandot) occupied northern Ohio after fleeing the Iroquois. By 1800, Native American emigration out of the area was occurring again, and few indigenous people lived anywhere in Ohio by 1850. The Whittlesey people and their predecessors left behind well-defined trails that ran along ridges paralleling Lake Erie. These ridges are the remains of ancient beaches, deposited by prehistoric versions of Lake Erie during times when the lake water levels were much higher. Several of these ridge trails crossed Euclid Creek, and served as the primary route by which white explorers and settlers began moving west into northern Ohio. These Native American trails are now Lakeshore Blvd., Euclid Avenue, and St. Clair Avenue. Native Americans found it difficult to access the Appalachian Plateau from the Erie Plain due to the steepness of the Portage Escarpment. Only a few natural access points existed; Euclid Creek was one of these. Modern Nottingham Road/Dille Road was originally a Native American trail which ran along the southern rim of the Euclid Creek gorge to the plateau, while modern Neff Road/Chardon Road ran along the northern rim.
Euclid Creek during initial white settlement White settlement of the Euclid Creek area began when some
log cabins were erected on the shore of Lake Erie east of the stream probably in the summer of 1795. Who built them, and why, is not known, and they were abandoned by the spring of 1796. The area around Euclid Creek was surveyed and
Euclid Township established in 1796. The
surveyors, trained in mathematics, named the township after the
Greek mathematician Euclid. Returning east in October 1796, the survey team led by
Moses Cleaveland gave the name Euclid Creek to the large creek they encountered between Doan Brook and the Chagrin River. A
Connecticut Land Company survey team returned to the area in 1797 and
blazed two major routes through the area, North Highway (now St. Clair Avenue) and Central Highway (now Euclid Avenue). North Highway was renamed St. Clair Road in 1815 for
Arthur St. Clair, first governor (1787-1802) of the
Northwest Territory. The first permanent white settler, Joseph Burke of
New York, arrived in the spring or summer of 1798. The second was David Dille, a
New Jerseyan who formerly lived in western Pennsylvania. He arrived in November 1798 and settled on the Buffalo Road southwest of Euclid Creek. The third permanent settler, William Coleman of
Washington County, Pennsylvania, arrived in either 1803 or 1804 and settled at the mouth of Euclid Creek. Abraham Bishop arrived in the area in 1809, clearing of forest west of what is now the intersection of White and Richmond Roads. Garrett Thorp also settled at the mouth of Euclid Creek in 1810, followed by Benjamin Thorp in 1811. The Central Highway, or Buffalo Road (also known as the Cleveland-Buffalo Road), became the major route through the area. It led from the
Cuyahoga River at what is now Cleveland to the area around
Buffalo, New York, and was cleared of trees by white explorers and settlers no later than 1810. The trail was cleared of stumps and brush and turned into a dirt road by 1815, and a
stagecoach began running once a day between Cleveland and Buffalo. The road was renamed Euclid Avenue in 1825 because it connected Cleveland and the emerging settlement of Euclid (now known as the
East Cleveland, Ohio, neighborhood of Collamer). Passengers on the Buffalo Road often had to have assistance in crossing Euclid Creek and its gorge. Wagons could not cross the gorge loaded; they had to be unloaded and cargo carried across the creek and gorge hand. Some wagons had to be partially dismantled to safely cross. The Hermle family established a
smithy and
wheelwright shop next to the creek to provide these services, and other businesses provided beverages, food, and assistance in moving freight. An inn, Euclid House, was built at the crossing by Abraham Farr in 1815. In 1810, Abraham Bishop built a sawmill on his land on the east branch of Euclid Creek. The
War of 1812 marks the end of the initial period of white settlement in Ohio. During the war, American soldiers on horseback were stationed at the mouth of Euclid Creek to provide warning to other settlements in the area in case
British ships should stop or pass by. On June 19, 1813, a British naval force under Acting Commander
Robert Heriot Barclay anchored off Euclid Creek to wait out a storm. Sailors came ashore and killed a farmer's ox for food, apologizing for the theft.
Euclid Creek from 1812 to 1850 A small hamlet named Euclid Creek (hereinafter the Village of Euclid Creek) formed after the War of 1812 at the intersection of what is now Euclid Avenue and Highland Road, adjacent to Euclid Creek. Memories of the recent war led the citizens of the Village of Euclid Creek to erect a
blockhouse as part of their settlement. About 1816, Abraham Farr opened a
tavern in a log cabin in the hamlet. A
Methodist church was erected in the village in 1821, and a
Baptist church from 1821 to 1822. By 1840, the Village of Euclid Creek had three stores, and the Dille family added a
dry goods store and
post office in 1849. A number of other important businesses opened elsewhere on Euclid Creek in the early 1800s. About 1815, Paul Condit opened a tavern in a frame house near the confluence of Claribel Creek and the east branch. In 1817 or 1818, William Coleman built a gristmill near the mouth of Euclid Creek, and later a sawmill. Coleman's neighbor, William Gray, erected a
stoneware manufactory at the mouth of Euclid Creek about 1820. It swiftly grew to seven or eight
kilns. Gray sold the works to J. & L. Marsilliott in 1823, who kept it open another 15 years. Toward the end of the 1810s, the Welch family moved from Connecticut and purchased the Euclid Creek gorge north of Monticello Blvd. This area became known as Welch's Woods, and remains as part of the Euclid Creek Reservation today (as "Welsh Woods"). The national American economy underwent a
boom in 1836 and 1837. A large number of people settled in Euclid Township, establishing hundreds of new farms and businesses. A city was surveyed at mouth of Euclid Creek in 1837, but no action was ever taken to build it. In 1840, James Hendershot and Harvey Hussong each opened a stone quarry on Euclid Creek in what is now the Euclid Creek Reservation. Madison Sherman, who opened his quarry on the stream near them at the same time, also built a mill for cutting stone into slabs. About 1840 (or just before), Ruel House, Charles Moses, and Captain William Trist opened a
shipyard on the east side of the mouth of Euclid Creek where they constructed
canal boats. The shipyard moved to the west side of the stream's mouth in 1845, and shifted production to the construction of
schooners. The shipyard closed in 1850.
Euclid Creek from 1851 to 1881 One of the most important infrastructure changes to affect Euclid Creek came in early 1851 when the
Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad (CP&A) constructed a bridge over the creek at St. Clair Avenue. Construction on the CP&A began in January 1851, and by the end of the month grading had reached Willoughby. The masonry
arch bridge had a single span and extensive
abutments. Although the Village of Euclid Creek continued to grow until the late 1870s, the village of Nottingham grew much more swiftly. Euclid Cemetery opened in 1864 just above the Euclid Creek floodplain south of the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Highland Road. The cemetery was created as a means of consolidating more than 80 small burial grounds, and by the time it closed had more than 4,000 graves. In 1863 or 1864, attorney George Gilbert opened Camp Gilbert on the site of the former shipyard on the west bank of the mouth of Euclid Creek. Camp Gilbert was the Cleveland area's first resort. Catering to wealthy Clevelanders, the camp featured a three-story
Second Empire brick headquarters, a clubhouse, creekside fishing
pavilion, and campgrounds. Gilbert sold the camp in 1874 to the
Ursulines of the Roman Union, a
religious institute of women (
nuns) engaged in education. The Ursulines established Villa Angela, a
boarding school for girls, at the former Camp Gilbert in 1878. A boarding school for boys, St. Joseph Seminary, opened at the site in 1886.
Viticulture and
winemaking on a small scale appeared in the Euclid Creek floodplain below the Appalachian Plateau after the Civil War, with
vineyards appearing first in the alluvial floodplain in the Euclid Creek gorge in what is now the Euclid Creek Reservation. One of the first large grape-growing operations was founded in 1864 by German immigrant Louis F. Harms on in the area now bounded by Euclid Avenue, Chardon Road, and Dansy Drive. John J. and Mary Schuster founded the area's second large vineyard in 1870, southwest of the Harms vineyard across Chardon Road. Additional quarries opened in the Euclid Creek gorge after the
American Civil War. Duncan McFarland opened a quarry in 1867 near where Monticello Blvd. crosses Euclid Creek today. This was the first large-scale commercial stone quarry to open on Cleveland's east side. His sons, James and Thomas, purchased land opposite his quarry on the west side of Euclid Creek in 1871. John Holland and William H. Stewart founded the Forest City Stone Company in 1871 and established a third quarry in the Euclid Creek gorge. Both McFarland quarries were acquired by Forest City Stone in 1875, after which the company opened a fourth quarry on the east side of the creek. These quarries remained in operation until 1915.
Euclid Creek from 1881 to 1916 In October 1882, the
New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad opened. This railroad, which largely ran parallel to and south of the
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (the former Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula), passed through the Village of Euclid Creek, making it an important stopping point again. The railway, whose nickname was the "Nickel Plate", built a
Howe truss bridge over Euclid Creek. In 1895, the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County began converting Euclid Avenue from a
plank road into a modern paved street. The road was widened to and paved from downtown Cleveland to Village of Euclid Creek. The project reached Collamer in 1902, and work on the final segment to the Village of Euclid Creek began in the summer of that year. The work was finished in 1902, when a new masonry arch bridge was constructed to carry Euclid Avenue over Euclid Creek. Swedish immigrants constructed a
Lutheran church on the banks of Euclid Creek south of Anderson Road at Green Road in 1898. Henry Pickands, a partner in
Pickands Mather and wealthy heir of
Samuel Livingston Mather II, purchased in 1902 of land atop Chardon Hill (an area now bounded by Chardon Road, the Euclid Creek Reservation, and E. 221st Street). In 1903, work was finished on a "Flemish baronial" brick mansion which he named Chestnut Hills. His widow had Chestnut Hills demolished in 1938, and a
Neo-Georgian style home erected on the site. In 1907, a $10,000 ($ in dollars) masonry bridge was constructed to carry Lakeshore Blvd. over Euclid Creek. This was followed in 1908 by a $15,000 ($ in dollars) concrete bridge to carry St. Clair Avenue over Euclid Creek. This bridge was a large one, long and wide, with a high arch. The first major development south of the Euclid Creek gorge occurred in 1909. That year, a significant number of members of the
Euclid Club in
Cleveland Heights quit and founded the Mayfield Country Club in Lyndhurst. In July, they purchased an initial of land about northwest of the intersection of Cedar and Richmond Roads. Within a year, the club owned , and had dammed Euclid Creek (which ran north through the club grounds) to provide water for the club's planned 18-hole golf course. The club, reduced to , opened in July 1911. A
Neoclassical house of worship was erected by Nottingham Congregational Church on the west bank of Euclid Creek near Waterloo and Nottingham Roads in 1910. The first of three bridges carrying Highland Road over Euclid Creek was constructed at the north end of the Euclid Creek gorge in 1912. Cuyahoga County wanted to push Highland Road southwest through the Euclid Creek Reservation, but the onset of World War I delayed the start of construction until 1920. A bridge over the east branch of Euclid Creek was built about 1922. Most of the remaining construction occurred in 1924, although it was not until 1928 that the final portion of Highland Road (connecting it to Euclid Avenue) was paved. Three Highland Road bridges remained to be constructed. Automobiles used
fords to cross the creek at these points. The Village of Euclid constructed Central High School at 20701 Euclid Avenue on the east bank of Euclid Creek in 1913. It was downgraded to a
junior high school in 1949, demolished in 1967, and rebuilt as Central Middle School. Although settlement and development had largely been contained to Euclid Creek below the Appalachian Plain, a few important changes were beginning to happen to the creek's headwaters. In 1913, Cleveland attorney Charles K. Arter constructed Arter House on the east bank of the main branch of Euclid Creek on what is now Curbside Road in Lyndhurst. The 22-room,
Late Georgian mansion sat on an elaborately landscaped estate. The Arter children, Calvin and Charles Jr., donated the estate to the
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1957, who converted it into the Julie Billiart School (a school for children with learning disabilities).
Chester C. Bolton and his wife,
Frances, established the Franchester Place estate in 1916 on of land on the northwest corner of Cedar and Richmond Roads. In 1922, the
Hawken Boys' School constructed a new school on the east bank of the main branch of Euclid Creek adjacent to the Julie Billiart School. These
Euclid Creek from 1917 to 1928 The Cleveland Metropolitan Park District (now Cleveland Metroparks) was created by state legislation in 1917. The following year, the park board proposed purchasing the main branch of Euclid Creek and its associated valley from Lake Erie south to
Shaker Heights. Although this plan ultimately proved unfeasible, the first of land (consisting of most of the old Harms vineyard) was purchased in October 1920. By the summer of 1926, the park board had obtained title to more than a mile of Euclid Creek south of Euclid Avenue, and in the fall of that year finally secured at the northern mouth of the gorge. A final were obtained at the south end of the gorge in May 1930, giving the Cleveland Metroparks control over what is now the Euclid Creek Reservation. Cleveland Metroparks made almost no improvements to the Euclid Creek gorge while it was assembling the land for the Euclid Creek Reservation. On November 21, 1933, the federal government approved the establishment of a
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the Euclid Creek Reservation. A
barracks was erected at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Highland Road, Euclid Creek Reservation was formally dedicated and opened on June 24, 1936—the first public opening of any unit in the Cleveland Metroparks system. The CCC camp became veterans' housing in 1942, and was demolished in 1944. The nuns erected Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine at the site, which was dedicated on May 30, 1926. In 1921, Over the next year, Press reports say that the owners laid of
tile drain to channel water into Euclid Creek. and the permanent clubhouse in May 1925.
Euclid Creek from 1928 to 1945 Rapid development atop the Appalachian Plateau began to affect both the main and east branches of Euclid Creek after 1920. In 1928, the
Curtiss-Wright corporation purchased of land east of Richmond Road from the Richmond Estates Land Company. The company opened a dirt-runway airport there, and named it Herrick Field after
Myron T. Herrick. A
hangar was erected in 1929, but area residents won a federal injunction declaring the airfield a noise nuisance and public danger. It closed on August 1, 1930. Cuyahoga County purchased the sod airfield in 1946 for $200,000 ($ in dollars) and it reopened on May 30, 1950. The airport expanded to by 1963, by 1970, by 1981, and by 1999—encompassing several tributaries of the east branch. The 1902 masonry bridge over Euclid Creek was rebuilt in 1932. A portion of Claribel Creek, a tributary of Euclid Creek, was channelized in 1933 when Ohio Villa, a country club opened northeast of the corner of Richmond and Highland Roads. The club's owner, the Italian-American Brotherhood Club, was forced to close the facility in 1942 after its major investors were found to be bank robbers with connections to the
Cleveland crime family. It reopened as the Richmond Country Club in 1942, and Mayfair Dam erected the same year to create Mayfair Lake. After the clubhouse burned in 1953, the site was taken over by the Mayfair Tennis and Swim Club (a Jewish health club). In 1942, the
Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Mark purchased the Pickands estate. The 1938 Pickands mansion was converted into the Mount St. Joseph Nursing Home.
Euclid Creek from 1945 to 1970 The city of Cleveland began construction on the Nottingham Intake and Filtration Plant on Euclid Creek in July 1947. The project, designed to provide the city's fast-growing east side with fresh water from Lake Erie rather than from Euclid Creek, other streams, and groundwater wells, was first proposed in 1925 and set for completion in 1930. In 1930, the city
condemned of land on the east bank of Euclid Creek between the Nickel Plate tracks and St. Clair Avenue. Construction was delayed by the onset of the Great Depression, and the plant finally opened in the early fall of 1951. While the water filtration plant was under construction, the Cuyahoga County Airport opened in May 1950. Officials had spent several years debating whether to build a low-level bridge or a high-level span. The high-level span was finally approved, and the $1.2 million ($ in dollars) structure spanning the wide ravine opened in December 1955. Construction of Interstate 271 began in November 1960. The first segment, from Willoughby Hills to Wilson Mills Road, was under construction by April 1961, with construction on the segment from Wilson Mills Road to Fairmount Blvd. set to begin in the fall of 1961 and the segment from Fairmount Blvd. to Harvard Road for late 1961. The entire route (now extending as far south as Chagrin Blvd.) opened in November 1962. and these waters were rechanneled into a man-made ditch by the freeway's construction. The completion of Interstate 271 spurred a development boom on the east side of Cuyahoga County, greatly affecting Euclid Creek's headwaters. Construction of Interstate 90 and the
Lakeland Freeway through the city of Euclid began in the spring of 1961. Euclid Creek was straightened, cutting off a strong meander bounded by Neff Road, Villaview Road, Nottingham Road, and the old Lake Shore railroad tracks. The meander was filled in and a
cloverleaf interchange built on the site. Beneath the freeway, Euclid Creek was culverted and a long concrete channel constructed to replace the natural streambed. Construction of the culvert proved to be a turning point in how communities treated water in Cuyahoga County. Previously, streambeds were bridged. Afterward, streams were routinely buried in tunnels or culverted. The headwaters of Redstone Run, one of the east branch's major tributaries, were affected by construction in 1962. That year, the Glazer-Marotta Companies won zoning approval to construct a shopping mall (now
Richmond Town Square) on the northeast corner of the intersection of Richmond Road and Monticello Blvd. The company agreed to spend as much as 2 percent of the mall's cost in culvertizing, pumping, and rerouting the headwaters of Redstone Run. Initially, the $8 million ($ in dollars) project was intended to cover just of land in the watershed, but the project was expanded until it cost $42 million ($ in dollars) and covered . The Richmond Mall opened in September 1966. A year after the mall project was announced, construction began on St. Gregory of Narek Armenian Church across the street at 678 Richmond Road. It opened in April 1964, further impeding the headwaters of Redstone Run. In 1966, a new development in Beachwood impacted the headwaters of the main branch of Euclid Creek. That year, the Jewish Orthodox Home for the Aged moved from Lakeview Road in Cleveland's
Glenville neighborhood to a large new site at 27100 Cedar Road in Beachwood. The organization, now called Menorah Park Jewish Home for the Aged, constructed a one-story
nursing home. Over the next half century, Menorah Park constructed an extensive senior living campus. The R.H. Myers Apartments, finished in 1978, contained 207 units in a four-story tower, 10-story tower, and one-story communal area. Stone Gardens, an
assisted living facility, opened in 1994, and Wiggins Place, a second assisted living community, in 2004.
Euclid Creek from 1970 to 1995 Villa Angela completed a
Modernist school building for its girls' academy on its property at the mouth of Euclid Creek in April 1972. It opened to students in September 1972. The 1864 school building was razed in late 1972. In 1976, the Rouse Co. announced it would construct a $25 million ($ in dollars) shopping mall, Beachwood Place, on of land owned by the Ratner family on the southeast corner of Richmond and Cedar Roads. The mall (whose cost rose to $30 million ($ in dollars) within four months) began construction atop a portion of the headwaters of the main branch of Euclid Creek Much of the channel was altered and realigned prior to construction. Beachwood Place opened in late August 1978. In 1981, after more than a decade of flooding and discussion about how to correct it, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers acted to reduce erosion and flooding on Euclid Creek between Villaview Road and Lakeshore Blvd. The narrow-arched, culverted Lakeshore Blvd. bridge over Euclid Creek was replaced with a wide span at a cost of $1 million ($ in dollars). The city of Cleveland spent another $650,000 ($ in dollars) to purchase of bank along the stream between Euclid Avenue and the lakeshore. the of creek between Lakeshore Blvd. and the lake was straightened, Two years later, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland announced tentative plans to merge Villa Angela with St. Joseph Academy, the former St. Joseph's Seminary which had become all-male high school and relocated to the northeast at 18491 Lakeshore Blvd. As Cuyahoga County embarked on a $4.5 million ($ in dollars), state-funded Euclid Creek flood control project in the fall of 1987, the city and state began planning to purchase the Villa Angela lands and convert them to a public park. Major changes to the Euclid Creek lacustuary when Villa Angela closed in August 1989, The state also spent $607,000 ($ in dollars) on gabions to stabilize Euclid Creek's banks between Anderson and Mayfield Roads, and another $250,000 ($ in dollars) to straighten and add retaining walls to Euclid Creek's Redstone Run tributary between Schaefer Park and Roland Park in Lyndhurst. The
Cleveland Public Library (CPL) system purchased of land from Villa Angela in September 1990 for $160,000 ($ in dollars) for the construction of a new branch library to replace its Nottingham and Memorial branches (which it intended to merge). In May 1991, CPL purchased an additional of Villa Angela land (which included the 1973 school building) for $2.2 million ($ in dollars). The library system agreed to keep a part of its acreage parkland, and allowed ODNR to construct a road through this area to provide improved access to the new park at the creek's mouth. The new Nottingham-Memorial Branch Library (the largest branch in the CPL system) opened on August 8, 1994. In 1991, Montefiore Home, a nursing home serving the Jewish community, opened a 240-room facility adjacent to the south side of Menorah Park in Beachwood, further impacting the headwaters of the main branch of Euclid Creek. The facility underwent a major expansion in 2005. Montefiore added the eight-unit Willensky Residence assisted living facility for individuals with
Alzheimer's disease in 2012, and expanded it to 25 units in 2015. Another expansion of the Montefiore campus, the six-unit Maltz Hospice House, opened in April 2015. The 1932 bridge over Euclid Creek was rehabilitated in 1991 at a cost of $1 million ($ in dollars). ODNR constructed a two-lane road and two parking lots in the new park at the mouth of Euclid Creek in 1993 and 1994 at a cost of $6.5 million ($ in dollars). Euclid Creek was bridged with a new vehicular-pedestrian bridge near the creek mouth to provide access to the parking lots. The fishing pier, which was on the west side of the mouth of Euclid Creek, was completed in the spring of 1995. The creek mouth was dredged when the pier was completed.
Euclid Creek from 1995 to 1999 Widening of Interstate 271 to eight from four lanes, which was completed in 1993, led to major new flooding problems on Euclid Creek. The
Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) had moved forward with the project without constructing any new flood control measures after concluding that the interstate highway's existing flood control measures, designed in the 1950s and 1960s, were adequate for an eight-lane freeway. In October 1994, the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District (CS&WCD) concluded that the widening project had contributed to extensive flooding in Willoughby Hills. According to CS&WCD studies, ODOT engineers did not account for the increased runoff into Euclid Creek caused by extensive new impervious development, channel straightening, and channelization in Beachwood, Lyndhurst, and Highland Heights since the design of Interstate 271. A second study, issued in June 1999, concluded that the city of Beachwood had not followed standard stormwater management practices since 1980, and the two stormwater
detention basins it had constructed were of only minimal effectiveness. In response to the Euclid Creek flooding and other extensive combined sewer problems in the greater Cleveland area, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District initiated in 2001 a $1 billion ($ in dollars) project to construct of underground detention basins, tunnels, and sewers on Cleveland's East Side. The first phase of the project was the construction of the Euclid Creek Storage Tunnel, a diameter, The Euclid Creek Storage Tunnel was completed in September 2015, and became operational in June 2016 when the Easterly Tunnel Dewatering Pump Station went online. The pumping station was designed to empty the Euclid Creek Storage Tunnel as well as the as-yet incomplete Dugway Storage Tunnel and Doan Valley Storage Tunnel and divert their stored stormwater to the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant. 2001 also saw Cleveland and nine east-side suburbs form the Euclid Creek Watershed Council to work together on Euclid Creek and combined sewer flooding. Water quality and velocity in Euclid Creek was of a major concern to the group, which tentatively set plans to restore meanders to the stream as an initial goal.
Euclid Creek in the 21st century In 2002, a new nonprofit advocacy group, the Euclid Creek Watershed Council, formed to address flooding and water quality issues along Euclid Creek. Despite improvements, by 2010 flash flood-like runoff remained an issue for Euclid Creek.
The Plain Dealer newspaper called the Euclid Creek Reservation "the region's catch-basin for storm water runoff". Flash-like flooding was so severe that the park had been extensively damaged and erosion control within the park was failing. Cleveland Metroparks purchased the Acacia Country Club in 2012 and began restoring Euclid Creek within the new park boundaries. Acacia's owners agreed to sell the land to
The Conservation Fund for $14.75 million ($ in dollars), despite opposition from Lyndhurst Mayor Joseph Cicero and a group of real estate developers (who offered $16 million for the land). An anonymous donor financed The Conservation Fund's acquisition, with the stipulation that the land no longer be used as a golf course but rather be converted into a nature park. One of the first projects Cleveland Metroparks undertook at Acacia was the restoration of Euclid Creek. This involved removing the culverts through which the creek flowed, rebuilding a meandering channel, removing armor and channelization structures, and reconnecting the stream to its floodplain. Projects the following year included removing the tile drainage system which underlay the park, building
swales throughout the park, and planting extensive new trees, shrubs, native plants, and grasses around Euclid Creek and elsewhere in the new park. The work was paid for with $1.5 million in grants from the Ohio EPA and the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District called it the "single largest restoration effort in the history of the watershed". A pedestrian-only bridge was constructed over the mouth of Euclid Creek by Cleveland Metroparks in 2016. The 1992 fishing pier at Lower Euclid Creek Reservation was demolished in the fall of 2016, and a new pier constructed in 2017. NEORSD began a Euclid Creek Shoaling Removal Project in November 2017. The two-month-long project removed gravel, sand, wood, and trash which degraded habitat and inhibited water flows in Euclid Creek's manmade channel between Lakeshore Boulevard and Villaview Road. ==References==