Doan
Brook History and Facts
HISTORY
1796: First permanent settler came to the Cleveland area.
1799:
Nathaniel and Sarah Doan and
their six children settled beside the Doan Brook. This area became the ford on the main road between Buffalo and Cleveland, now
it's the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street).
1812: Jacob Russell’s extended
family made their home several miles upstream. It is now the intersection of South Park Boulevard and Lee
Road.
1822: The Russell family formed
the North Union Shaker Community, from which Shaker
Heights takes its name. The Shakers built the two Shaker Lakes on Doan Brook
to power their sawmills, grist mills and woolen mill.
Early 1880s: Jephtha Wade, William Gordon,
John D. Rockefeller, Laura Rockefeller, Nathan Ambler and others
donated land along Doan Brook to make the line of parks along
the stream from Lake Erie to Horseshoe Lake in Shaker Lakes. (See Doan Brook Watershed Map).
The Cleveland Parks Commission built roadways
to connect the parks and commissioned architect Charles Schweinfurth
to design bridges to carry streetcar lines across the lower park
areas. This gave inner-city Cleveland workers access to the parks.
May 1896: In all, almost 44,000 people are reported to have
walked or driven along the brook in Rockefeller Park.
19th Century: Doan’s Corners and the North Union Shaker flourished. Much of the surrounding areas became farms
and villages, including the Village
of Glenville, located
near the brook valley between Doan’s Corners and Lake
Erie.
1900: The Doan Brook Watershed
had begun to develop.
1930: Nearly the entire watershed
in Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights and Cleveland was
developed.
1960: Citizens opposed and defeated
the Clark and Lee Freeways extension plan. The freeway would have paved over Doan Brook and its parks
from Lower Shaker Lake to Horseshoe Lake and beyond.
1970: Dike 14-dredge spoil disposal
area at the mouth of Doan Brook began to be constructed by the
Corps of Engineers.
1974: The cities of Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights,
and Cleveland with interested citizens form the Joint Committee on Doan Brook Watershed.
2000-2001: Partnership Transition Committee of the Joint Committee investigates different structures for the
new organization.
2001: Doan Brook Watershed Partnership is formed as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization.
FACTS
Fact
and Action Sheet This sheet is in Adobe Acrobat
Reader. 
Location: Parts of Shaker Heights,
Cleveland Heights, the University Circle area, areas of Cleveland
and portions of the Fairfax, Hough and Glenville and St. Clair-Superior
Neighborhoods.
Length: 8.4 miles (along its north
fork).
Age: Over 15,000 years old.
Doan Brook originated after the final retreat of the glaciers
from NE Ohio.
Culverts: Parts of Doan Brook are hidden
in underground pipes or culverts. One culvert is located one mile from Ambler Park near the
bottom of Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard, just west of the Cleveland Museum of Art. A second culvert carries the stream from
3,300 feet from the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard
and The CSX Railroad Tracks north under I-90 to the Corps of Engineers’ Dredged Materials Disposal Facility Site No. 14 (Dike 14) into
Lake Erie.
Watershed Area: 11.7 square miles of 7,500
acres. (See What
is a Watershed?. )
Lakes: Lower Shaker Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Green Marshall Lakes.
Lagoons: Wade Park Lagoon and the Rockefeller Park Lagoon.
Wildlife along the Brook: Pollution-tolerant macroinvertebrates
Fish - fathead minnows, green sunfish, carp and shiners. Mammals - Muskrats, deer, opossums, raccoon, shrews, mice, moles. Amphibians
- salamanders, frogs and toads.
Between 1997 and 1999 over 217 species of birds
were documented at the Shaker Lakes. More than 266 species have been documented at the Site 14 Dredge
Disposal Area since 1980. This is an outstanding bird habitat especially during migration.
Population of Doan Brook Watershed: 145,000 persons
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Last revised: July, 07, 2006
Doan Brook Watershed Partnership