{"id":437,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-04 22:10:42","latitude":41.50800278691699674027404398657381534576416015625,"longitude":-81.57953739166299556018202565610408782958984375,"title":"PEACE Park","subtitle":"A True Coventry Yard","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/008060f9799d0810e792b0d3eaf4bc1d.jpg","address":"2843 Washington Blvd, Cleveland Heights, OH","zoom":15,"creator":["J. Mark Souther"],"description":"PEACE Park carries on a piece of the tradition of the closed <a href=\"https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/445\">Coventry School</a> next door. The park originated when neighborhood residents became concerned that the school's playground had seen better days. In 1991, the Coventry PTA formed a committee that got elementary school students to submit drawings of their \"dream\" playground.<br /><br />The visioning group in the PTA incorporated as Coventry People Enhancing A Child's Environment, or Coventry PEACE, an acronym that evoked the school's peace theme. Through a series of T-shirt, candy, lemonade, and bake sales, and benefit performances and dinners, the non-profit organization raised the nearly $300,000 needed to create Coventry PEACE Park. The park's construction in October 1993 was in the \"New England barnraising\" style and proceeded despite torrential downpours. <br /><br />In 2001, the newly formed nonprofit organization Heights Arts sponsored its first public art project in the park: Coventry Arch. Designed by Barry Gunderson, an art professor at Kenyon College, the 180-degree span of aluminum pipes includes four whimsical, abstract figures (two on each side) reaching across the path to form an arch-like entry to the park. Gunderson's creation, according to his original proposal, is \"a symbol of greeting, accommodation, and celebration of differences.\"<br /><br />After nearly thirty years, PEACE Park’s well-loved facilities were showing their age. In 2018, Heights Libraries purchased the six-acre PEACE campus. Collaborating with the Fund for the Future of Heights Libraries, it began collecting community input with the goal of renovating PEACE Park as an inclusive, accessible, and environmentally sustainable public space — one that might truly embody Gunderson's arch's symbolism. The project resulted in a completely transformed park that reopened in 2025 with amenities such as a red Cardinal climbing structure, rope swing, large slide, zipline, bandstand, storybook loop trail, educational signage, native plantings, an urban mini-forest, new seating, and brighter lighting.<br /><br />Home to summer movie nights, winter sledding, after-school playing, and the occasional peace demonstration, PEACE Park remains a beloved green space and a symbol of the neighborhood that outlived the school from which it was born.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":null,"website":null,"related_resources":["Campbell, Joanne, and Diane Mogren, \"<a href=\"http://www.heightsobserver.org/read/2010/16/02/coventry-peace-park\">Coventry P.E.A.C.E. Park Cleanup.</a>\" <i>Heights Observer.</i> February 16, 2010.","Preiszig, Abigail. \"<a href=\"https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/weather-can-t-dampen-spirits-at-coventry-peace-park-playground-opening/article_53b41b82-f2e4-11ef-8541-e33392fa6b34.html\">Weather Can't Dampen Spirits at Coventry PEACE Park Playground Opening.</a>\" <i>Cleveland Jewish News</i>. February 25, 2025."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/008060f9799d0810e792b0d3eaf4bc1d.jpg":{"id":12705,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Cardinal Climbing Structure","description":"The centerpiece of the redesigned Coventry PEACE Park is this climbing structure styled like a Cardinal (the Ohio state bird).  | August 24, 2025 | J. Mark Souther","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/008060f9799d0810e792b0d3eaf4bc1d.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/c8b5aebf6d53f47c45ec0410db4e96bb.jpg":{"id":4421,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Old Coventry School Playground","description":"Coventry PEACE Park developed from concerns about the upkeep of the old Coventry School playground. At one time the school had an upper and lower playground. Today&#039;s park spans both areas. | Cleveland Heights Historical Society | 1973","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/c8b5aebf6d53f47c45ec0410db4e96bb.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/3166766c4230ed5bb461d727235aef7e.jpg":{"id":12710,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Planting a Tree","description":"A few years after the park&#039;s opening, this group of community volunteers prepares planted a new tree on the Euclid Heights Boulevard side of the park. The park&#039;s newest iteration includes many new trees. Three decades after this photo was taken, Coventry restaurateur Tommy Fello spearheaded a fundraising drive to help Heights Libraries realize its plan to add 100 new trees. | FutureHeights | April 20, 1996","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/3166766c4230ed5bb461d727235aef7e.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/fb033afbc794b360b50824941a8aaac4.jpg":{"id":12711,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Planting Perennials","description":"In 1996, volunteers plant perennial shrubs on the edge of Coventry PEACE Park. Formed through community voluntarism, the park owed its upkeep to the ongoing commitment of active citizens. For two decades, annual spring clean-ups played a signal role in maintaining the park as a clean and safe place for children. | FutureHeights | May 28, 1996","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/fb033afbc794b360b50824941a8aaac4.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/9591aeb0c9058b368cfe9709e3c84848.jpg":{"id":12709,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The Original Coventry PEACE Playground","description":"With one of the region&#039;s most extensive playgrounds, Coventry PEACE Park became not only a beacon for Cleveland Heights children but also a destination for kids from miles around. The park&#039;s long, fast slide took perfect advantage of the hill that once separated Coventry School&#039;s upper and lower playgrounds. Unfortunately, however, as time went on, the all-wooden playground needed extensive repairs, leading to the decision to rebuild it. | May 18, 2012 | J. Mark Souther","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/9591aeb0c9058b368cfe9709e3c84848.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/fa7b3d448f722ee1f1f694d67fcd3f89.jpg":{"id":12708,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Detail of Coventry PEACE Arch","description":"The Coventry Arch frames the entrance to the park but also provides a sense of arrival in Coventry Village for residents of Grant Deming&#039;s Forest Hill neighborhood to the southeast. | May 18, 2012 | J. Mark Souther","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/fa7b3d448f722ee1f1f694d67fcd3f89.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/8b22942d408ce2cb90a3202163444e46.jpg":{"id":12713,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Counterpart to the PEACE Arch in Kettering, OH","description":"Artist Barry Gunderson&#039;s Coventry Arch reflects his talent in working with aluminum. A similar but unique counterpart to the arch may be seen at Lincoln Park Civic Center in Kettering, Ohio (outside Dayton). Song and Dance, like Coventry Arch, dates to 2001. | <a href=\"https://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/files/show/7053\">Ohio Outdoor Sculpture</a> | 2021 | Arpi Anderson (CC-BY-NC)","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/8b22942d408ce2cb90a3202163444e46.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/89165f20e6c1a70c6acef7147b852239.jpg":{"id":12707,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Youth of Coventry","description":"Members of the Youth of Coventry, an organization formed to bring a teen perspective to issues of importance to Coventry Village, pose in a fitting place — beneath the Coventry PEACE Arch. Formed in 2011 after unrest marred the annual Coventry Street Fair, the group sought to foster peace and reconciliation. | 2012 | FutureHeights","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/89165f20e6c1a70c6acef7147b852239.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/5648125a8596beac02092d0b365f9504.jpg":{"id":12726,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Creating the Urban Mini-Forest","description":"Volunteers from Heights Tree People, a local nonprofit organization, planted 188 trees in a new &quot;urban mini-forest&quot; on the eastern edge of the Coventry PEACE Campus. Heights Libraries received a grant for the project from the Cuyahoga County Urban Tree Canopy program and worked with Heights Tree People to plant and cultivate the forest. Mulching (shown here) got underway in 2023, with planting commencing the following year. | 2023 | Heights Tree People","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/5648125a8596beac02092d0b365f9504.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/938297866ea2d4818a972059051df262.jpg":{"id":12706,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The New Coventry PEACE Park","description":"This view from Euclid Heights Boulevard shows that the transformed playground is much more open. Playground equipment is environmentally sustainable and is geared toward offering fun for people of all abilities. | August 24, 2025 | J. Mark Souther","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/938297866ea2d4818a972059051df262.jpg"}}}