{"id":144,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-03-04 21:31:58","latitude":41.51265862310000187562764040194451808929443359375,"longitude":-81.61631584169998632205533795058727264404296875,"title":"Rockefeller Park","subtitle":"Ernest Bowditch Landscapes the Doan Brook Valley","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/rockefellerpark-loc-ca1900s_cc56e67e7d.jpg","address":"Martin Luther King Jr Dr, Cleveland, OH","zoom":15,"creator":["Michael Rotman"],"description":"With the opening of Wade Park in 1882 and then Gordon Park some ten years later, the Doan Brook valley on Cleveland's east side was turning into a picturesque stretch of public parks as the nineteenth century drew to a close. On July 22, 1896, during a celebration of the city's centennial at the Central Armory, John D. Rockefeller's real estate agent J. G. W. Cowles announced another key piece in this transformation: Rockefeller had purchased nearly $250,000 worth of land along the valley to make the chain of parks complete from Lake Erie to Shaker Heights. Moreover, Rockefeller would give over $300,000 to the Cleveland Park Board for the beautification and maintenance of the new park. The crowd at the Armory responded with three cheers for Rockefeller and then quickly passed a resolution declaring that the park would forever bear his name.<br /><br />Today, the portion of parkland named Rockefeller Park runs between Gordon and Wade Parks. Roughly two miles long, it was the recipient of a good portion of Rockefeller's funds. Here, the Doan Brook, which has been culverted underground for much of its path through University Circle, flows in the open past the Cultural Gardens. The park may bear Rockefeller's name, but it reflects the hand of landscape architect Ernest W. Bowditch of Brookline, Massachusetts. Bowditch, who frequently worked with Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and John Charles Olmsted of the Olmsted Brothers firm as a surveyor or draftsman, sculpted a park that in many ways embodied Olmstedian principles. Charles Schweinfurth's four elegant <a href=\"https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/145\">stone bridges</a> (completed in 1900) carry traffic over Doan Brook and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. In addition, this part of Rockefeller Park features tennis courts, picnic areas, and a bike trail. Here, one will also find the Rockefeller Park Lagoon, once a popular destination for ice skating, fishing, and boating. The city drained the lagoon for a time in the 1970s, but it has since been restored.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":null,"website":null,"related_resources":["\"Rockefeller Lagoon.\" <em>Green Book Cleveland</em>. <a href=\"https://greenbookcleveland.org/locations/rockefeller-lagoon/\">greenbookcleveland.org/locations/rockefeller-lagoon/</a>"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/rockefellerpark-loc-ca1900s_cc56e67e7d.jpg":{"id":1470,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"An Early Scene in Rockefeller Park","description":"Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division | ca. 1905","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/rockefellerpark-loc-ca1900s_cc56e67e7d.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/ec7af2fc7c0712963f3b79c6c7f77880.jpg":{"id":12724,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Park Creator Ernest Bowditch","description":"Ernest W. Bowditch of Brookline, Massachusetts, laid out Rockefeller Park. One of his earliest works included laying out new paths and gardens in Boston&#039;s Mt. Auburn Cemetery in the 1870s, and he is also known for designing the gardens at the Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. As a frequent associate of the famed Olmsted firm, for which he sometimes worked as a surveyor and draftsman, Bowditch imbibed Olmstedian planning principles, which he went on to apply both in Rockefeller Park and for developer Patrick Calhoun&#039;s Euclid Heights allotment in Cleveland Heights. | <a href=\"https://archive.org/details/sim_peabody-essex-museum-collections_1989-04_125_2/page/162/mode/2up\">Essex Institute Historical Collections</a>","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/ec7af2fc7c0712963f3b79c6c7f77880.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/c6c462c1dedbd29f26d9053f783536e4.jpg":{"id":12725,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Wade Park Avenue Bridge","description":"This stone bridge, one of Charles Schweinfurth&#039;s four bridges traversing Doan Brook and the parkway (today Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) alongside it, carries Wade Park Avenue. Grade separation was a popular principle of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, whose ideas influenced Rockefeller Park designer Ernest Bowditch. A stone staircase enables pedestrians to ascend or descend at this point. | <a href=\"https://www.loc.gov/item/2016814641/\">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a> | ca. 1908 | Detroit Publishing Company","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/c6c462c1dedbd29f26d9053f783536e4.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cmp-rockefellerpark1912_c38631308a.jpg":{"id":1396,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Rockefeller Park Lagoon, 1912","description":"Image courtesy of Cleveland State Library Special Collections","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cmp-rockefellerpark1912_c38631308a.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cmp-rockefellerpark-kidsboating1943_98372edaab.jpg":{"id":1397,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Toy Sailboats, 1943","description":"Kids race toy sailboats in the Rockefeller Park Lagoon in 1943.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nImage courtesy of Cleveland State Library Special Collections","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cmp-rockefellerpark-kidsboating1943_98372edaab.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cmp-rockefellerpark-fishingmay1943_e97cc3cc1e.jpg":{"id":1398,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Fishing, May 1943","description":"Fishing in the Rockefeller Park Lagoon in May 1943.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nImage courtesy of Cleveland State Library Special Collections","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cmp-rockefellerpark-fishingmay1943_e97cc3cc1e.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cmp-rockefellerpark-oct1947_dbbe7082ef.jpg":{"id":1399,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"&quot;Spuds in the Fire,&quot; Oct. 1947","description":"The caption for this Cleveland Press photograph from October 15, 1947 reads:<br />\r\n<br />\r\n&quot;The spuds are in the fire and the gang gathers round, proof that autumn is here. This picture was taken on a hillside in Cleveland&#039;s Rockefeller Park. Here, only a short distance from busy St. Clair and Superior Avenues, trees drop colored leaves and a roasting pit awaits young athletes with healthy appetites.&quot;<br />\r\n<br />\r\nImage courtesy of Cleveland State Library Special Collections","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cmp-rockefellerpark-oct1947_dbbe7082ef.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cmp-rockefellerlagoon56_43d37fe2d1.jpg":{"id":1400,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Rockefeller Park Lagoon, 1956","description":"Image courtesy of Cleveland State Library Special Collections","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cmp-rockefellerlagoon56_43d37fe2d1.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cmp-rockefellerpark-july20-1978_8f136d82aa.jpg":{"id":1401,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Drained Lagoon, July 1978","description":"The City of Cleveland decided to drain the Rockefeller Park Lagoon for a short period in the late 1970s to prevent flooding.  The drained lagoon soon turned into an eyesore, and it was later restored to its original condition.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nImage courtesy of Cleveland State Library Special Collections","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cmp-rockefellerpark-july20-1978_8f136d82aa.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/original/951017-fleischman-timelessrockefellerpark_f2df09b2cc.mp3":{"id":1410,"mime-type":"audio/mpeg","title":"&quot;Timeless&quot;","description":"Architect Richard Fleischmen shares a childhood memory from Rockefeller Park and describes the park&#039;s &quot;timeless&quot; quality.<br />\r\n<br />\r\n"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/original/901009-osickey-speedskatingatrockefellerpark_20a63acdd4.mp3":{"id":1411,"mime-type":"audio/mpeg","title":"Speedskating at Rockefeller Park","description":"Joseph O&#039;Sickey describes the days when speedskating at Rockefeller Park Lagoon would draw spectators by the tens of thousands."}}}