Added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 31, 1984, the Shaker Village Historic District was created to recognize Shaker Heights' significance as a Garden City–influenced planned suburban community. The designation of Shaker Heights as a historic district helped to redefine the community's identity and reaffirm its intrinsic values. Roughly bounded by Fairmount and Lomond Boulevards, Green, Warrensville Center, Becket, and Coventry Roads, nearly 80 percent of Shaker is currently located within the district. While shaped to incorporate a handful of early Warrensville Township sites and structures, the historical significance of the area can be attributed to the Van Sweringen Co.'s success in creating a planned community that integrated architectural standards, landscaping, and public transportation. By developing an exclusive, highly regulated community, the real estate developers made good on their promise to those who invested in property - the enduring value of a home located within Shaker Village.

Dramatic changes to both cultural norms and the physical landscape characterized postwar American society. These changes challenged the foundation from which Shaker Heights grew to prominence as an elite community. Suburbanization and new routes of transportation redefined the role of both the suburb and the city. The diverse population of Cleveland increasingly began to settle away from the city's core. This postwar suburban growth encroached upon Shaker Heights' borders. Shaker Heights remained prosperous throughout this process, but the class and racial segregation that defined its early years became untenable in the context of the social upheaval of the 1960s. A shift in popular conceptions of class and race soon after visited the cosmopolitan community. While integration was initially met with strong resistance, Shaker Heights eventually earned its reputation as a bastion of progressive and socially liberal thinking. Within this new environment, the exclusivity that had both characterized Shaker Heights and helped reinforce its perceived value needed to be redefined.

The inclusion of Shaker Heights on the National Register reflected one strain of efforts to recreate a new community identity for the changing suburb. Since the 1960s, citizen groups had designated various historic landmarks throughout the suburb to affirm and preserve a unique Shaker Heights identity. Cemeteries, colonial homes, Shaker Square, and sites previously inhabited by the religious order of Shakers had become sites of public commemoration. These displays were a reflection of a larger movement in American society to use preservation as a tool of beautification, promote the development of an American identity, and help create order within the new urban landscape. An offshoot of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs, the National Register of Historic Places aimed to identify and protect historic sites in the United States. The designation of a district regularly enhanced property values, and was meant to foster a sense of community that encouraged the preservation of housing stock. When sites such as Shaker Heights were designated historic districts, they received federal tax incentives that encouraged rehabilitation. At the time of its inclusion on the National Register, nearly 5,000 well-preserved residences, churches, schools community buildings, and commercial structures built in the style of early 20th century colonial and revival architecture were located within the historic district. The district was a means to redevelop a foundation from which the community could both reaffirm a sense of and physically maintain its exclusive character, thereby helping to ensure the value of the structures and their surrounds.

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Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen, the brothers responsible for the construction of both the Union Terminal Complex and the Village of Shaker Heights, are two of the least remembered contributors to the development of Cleveland and its suburbs. The shy, reclusive Van Sweringens — absent even from the Terminal Tower's grand opening ceremonies in 1930 — worked their way up from modest beginnings to amass a multi-billion-dollar railroad and real estate empire by the 1920s. Their Union Terminal project helped to revitalize Downtown Cleveland's traditional center, Public Square, while their Shaker Heights development proved to be enormously attractive to wealthy city residents and remains a viable community to this day.

The development of Shaker Heights began around 1905 when "the Vans" began planning a picturesque community where both the design of the houses and the type of people allowed in would be strictly controlled. These restrictions were put in place in order to maintain Shaker's spatial and social distinctiveness from the increasingly polluted and overcrowded nature of big-city life in Cleveland.

The Terminal Tower complex grew out of the brothers' efforts to provide a system of rapid transit from Shaker to Downtown Cleveland for suburban commuters. Their original plan for a small terminal near Public Square morphed into the massive Cleveland Union Terminal project, which included a new central rail station for the city in addition to the 52-story Terminal Tower and three other office buildings.

The brothers died relatively young — and only a year apart from one another — in the mid 1930s. Much of their fortune had dwindled away with the onset of the Great Depression and the unraveling of their complicated series of holding companies. Many younger Clevelanders are likely unfamiliar with the story of the Van Sweringens, and one would be hard pressed to find a building or street in the area bearing their name. Their success at avoiding the spotlight has endured, leaving their contributions to Cleveland's history largely obscured.

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