History of Cudell Park
History of Cudell Park
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Frank E. Cudell was a renowned Cleveland architect from the late 19th and early 20th Century who is the namesake for the Cudell neighborhood on the West Side of Cleveland. Frank Cudell and his firm, Cudell & Richardson, designed several notable Cleveland structures, including the Rockefeller building in downtown Cleveland and the Franklin Castle in Ohio City.
In his later years, Frank Cudell developed a vision for the neighborhood of Cleveland where he had made his home with his wife, Emma Cudell, and ultimately left this property to the City of Cleveland for use as a city park. He died in 1916 and his will stated that it “shall become the property of the City of Cleveland, for ever (sic), for park purposes.” Generations of mayors and City Council members kept that promise. But in 2021, the City of Cleveland “swapped” part of Cudell Commons Park for two disused public schools – Watterson-Lake Elementary School on West 74th Street and Harry E. Davis school on the city’s East side. Both schools were demolished to make way for developers’ projects.
An asset to Cleveland
An asset to Cleveland
Ward 15 council member Jenny Spencer said when the plan was developed, no one considered the loss of trees, which she argued was a failure of the city’s and school district’s planning processes. The city’s urban forestry experts were brought in at the end of the design process rather than the beginning, she said, after it was seemingly too late to protect the canopy.
“We’re here today because we’re looking at the possibility of trees, legacy mature trees, being removed as part of this project,” she said. “How does this happen to a community? I think there are two main reasons. First, moving from concept to drawn footprint is a very different thing. We’re dealing with the reality of a school being built on a site. The second thing is that the city. Ordinances are not set up to protect trees, and that’s an incredibly painful reality.”
Jenny Spencer | thelandcle.org August 22, 2023
Where's Cudell Park?
Where's Cudell Park?
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