Astorhurst History

Transcription

1 Astorhurst History

2 Purchase Announcement May 26, 2017 CMP approval by three commissioners - Minutes $3.1 M cost, $25k per acre budget plus grants Clean Ohio Conservation matched funds with $45k restoration 127 acre Astorhurst Club, CMP total 23,400 acres Plan similar to Acacia Golf Club 1960s started as front nine all low, other nine added up top later Drivers Watershed and contiguous with existing park land Brian Zimmerman, the Metroparks' CEO Kyle G. Baker, senior assistant legal counsel and director of real estate

3 Zimmerman Notes Metroparks leaders have begun to help nature along at Astorhurst, as they ve been doing for five years at Acacia Reservation. Since that private Lyndhurst country club reopened as a metropark in 2013, they say its biodiversity has resurged. Acacia is featured in a new book from the University of Iowa Press, Ecological Restoration in the Midwest: Past, Present and Future. In an experiment that might be duplicated around the park, a fairway has been plowed and plans made to reseed it with typical local trees, such as American sycamores, cottonwoods, pin oaks and red oaks. Park Place ice cream parlor there leased out through feet rise over valley Zimmerman expects to keep some overlooks mowed and cleared for scenic views. He also expects to install trails, shelters and maybe a frisbee golf course, which could be far more natural than the kind of golf with dimpled balls. Even as a course, Astorhurst had patches of uncultivated land. A scenic ravine hosts a mature forest of beech, sugar maple, black cherry, tulip, white oak and very big black maples. Possibly includes a Burr Oak which is at least 250 years old. The ravine also holds notable flora, including nodding rattlesnake root, Goldie s fern and a species of sedge considered potentially threatened in Ohio.

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5 PGA Course Details 7000 Dunham Rd Walton Hills, OH Architect Name Harold Paddock Grantwood in Solon Sugar Bush in Garrettsville Pine Ridge in Wickliffe Aurora Country Club in Aurora

6 Walton Hills History The Astorhurst, a country club type of bar and restaurant owned by Philip and Mary Astor, was a favored gathering place for Cleveland area politicians and businessmen. Today's Astorhurst Restaurant and Picnic Grove are on that same property. Philip P. M. and Martha Astor shed - refreshrnent stand - chicken house - shed - shed - 5-car garage 1930 house: c remodeled in Within a couple years Henry, Sr., Eleanor and their children opened their new Black Beauty Riding Academy to the public. Their horseback facility was about a mile north of Mr. Clark's, approximately at 7125 Dunham Road, across the street from today's Astorhurst Driving Range. The Sagamore Hills Beer Garden at 7100 Dunham Road was another local gathering place in the mid 1930's and 1940's. It was located on the hillside next to the Astorhurst. The beer garden was primarily a summer attraction and was closed during the winter months. Joseph Silk and his wife, Anna (Hadvabny), managed the family run business from their living quarters in the back of the house. A special feature of the establishment was moonlight dancing on the large inside dance floor. Patrons were served at tables on the enclosed front porch and also under the grape arbor in the back.

7 Astorhurst Restaurant OH, Bedford, Ohio, Dranek's Astorhurst Restaurant, Interior, Dexter No 24419B Walton Hills, Ohio Dranek's Astorhurst Restaurant on Dunham Road

8 Gleason Clara Gleason sold off the family land to Philip & Mary Astor in A few of the gravestones are still intact in Gleeson Homestead Cemetery on top of the hill East of Dunham Rd across from the Astorhurst Golf Course. One of them is the gravestone of a grandson of Moses & Polly, Edmond Gleeson, who died on October 26, 1851 at 13 years & 11 months old. Most of the bodies were moved to Bedford Cemetery on Broadway Ave in Bedford, approximately 8 miles East of Little Egypt. The Comstocks & other early settlers were buried in Tinkers Creek Cemetery off of Button Rd. Vehicle parking is available near the blocked off portion of the end of the road & follow the old path to the top of the hill & across a field. It s listed on google maps with the search Tinkers Creek Cemetery Ohio but we re not sure how accurate the pinpoint is.

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10 Fore to Forest for Fins and Feathers: Restoring Biodiversity at Acacia Reservation Conservation Symposium, September 7, 2018 Biodiversity: Life in Balance Connie Hausman, Ph.D., Plant and Restoration Ecologist, Cleveland Metroparks 3:00 3:30 Acacia Reservation was once a primately owned country club, but since 2012 has been transformed through active restoration efforts into a model urban ecological preserve. Legacy effects from nearly 100 years of golf course management and surrounding urban development drive site restoration opportunities and limitations. Cleveland Metroparks worked collaboratively to develop an Ecological Restoration Master Plan and has successfully received multiple grants to implement initial plan recommendations to re-establish the site s natural hydrology.

11 Acacia Notes Golf as a recreation activity is on the way out Replace with passive recreation, North or South Chagrin-like Four courses reverted - Cuyahoga, Geauga, and Summit Counties $14.5 M anonymous donors Implementation Meadow Establishment Invasive Plant Removal Tree Planting 5000 trees and scrubs planted Seed Protection Deer Management Driving range deer eclosure Tile Breaking subsurface drainage tiles Sand trap and cottonwood growth Acacia Case study Ecological Restoration in the Midwest, chapter 6 Acacia is year 6, Astorhurst is year 1

12 Little Egypt Oral History The Gleasons were Carey s grandparents they raised large families and owned land all around the region. The Gleasons owned and operated one of the principal grist mills up the Tinkers Creek Valley, in Bedford Township. Carey remembered seeing traces of it yet at the present Astorhurst place, back in the 1890s. There were the stone foundations remaining (the super structure was wooden.) The Careys *should be the Gleesons* bought the land here and later *the Careys* sold it to the Astorhurst. *The Careys sold 21 acres to Philip and Mary Astor in 1918, who in 1958 sold their 21 acres to a group of people who then split the property, developing the restaurant, etc. and the Golf Course* Again back to the Astorhurst area Cub told of the first white child (a female) being born in a log cabin across Tinkers, from the present Astorhurst place (the Mighton place.) It was said also that one night, in 1840, the family returned to their home and found an Indian asleep in the cabin.

13 Links Cleveland.com Purchase Announcement PGA Course Details Walton Hills Documents Little Egypt Album Little Egypt Community Bedford Reservation Historic Sites in our Park Ohio Ghost Towns Cuyahoga County 1858 Map of Cuyahoga County Zimmerman and Astorhurst Park CMNH Conservation Symposium