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Mapping History of Cleveland. Definition of concepts used in this lecture. Methods of describing land (surveys). History of the Western Reserve. Original surveys of Cleveland. Early subdivisions & “Bridge War.” Example: Rockport Township and town. Example: Euclid Heights Allotment.
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Mapping History of Cleveland • Definition of concepts used in this lecture. • Methods of describing land (surveys). • History of the Western Reserve. • Original surveys of Cleveland. • Early subdivisions & “Bridge War.” • Example: Rockport Township and town. • Example: Euclid Heights Allotment. • Using maps in research.
Definitions • A representation, usually on a plane surface, of a region of the earth or heavens. (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language) • A drawing or other representation of the earth's surface or a part of it made on a flat surface, showing the distribution of physical or geographical features (and often also including socio-economic, political, agricultural, meteorological, etc., information), with each point in the representation corresponding to an actual geographical position according to a fixed scale or projection. (Oxford English Dictionary) • A diagram or collection of data showing the spatial distribution of something or the relative positions of its components. (OED)
Or.... • A car drives in random around a parking lot following a snow storm and its tracks are recorded by aerial photography. Is that a map of the car’s journey? • A fisherman drives out on frozen Lake Erie in a snowmobile, dropping buddies off at their holes. Would an aerial photo of his tracks be a map of their fishing trip?
“Framing” As larger parcels are divided into smaller ones and conveyed to different owners, they tend to have separate histories thereafter, meaning the original boundaries of the earlier parcels tend to remain and nest later parcels within them.
“Layering” As land is subdivided over time, the patterns tend to reflect the cultural and economic circumstances of the day. Since land boundaries tend to remain in place over time, the land configurations of different eras can be seen as layers, or time slices that can be uncovered and studied for what they tell us of that era.
“Palimpsest” A written document, typically on vellum or parchment, that has been written upon several times, often with remnants of earlier, imperfectly erased writing still visible, remnants of this kind being a major source for the recovery of lost literary works of classical antiquity. -- American Heritage Dictionary
Elongated parcels • Elongated parcels tend to represent unwanted, irregular terrain, or valuable access along the narrow frontage. • In early maps they are found running at right angles to rivers and roads. • Sometimes used to award ownership of unseen or useless land.
Regular parcels • Square or more regular parcels reflect better means of access and/or flatter terrain. • Larger parcels tend to be laid out as regular rectangles.
“Golden Rectangles” • “Golden” rectangles have sides with ratios just over .618. • The ancient Greeks deemed them the ideal shape. • In the diagram b/a = a/(a+b). • Successive Fibonacci numbers tend to create Golden Ratios. (5/8, 8/13, 13/21, etc.) • The 100-AC Lots are nearly Golden Rectangles (.625)
Metes and Bounds • Survey starts at a point, then proceeds point by point around the perimeter of the parcel, specifying directions and distances. • In Ohio, used in the Virginia Military Dist. • Wasteful method
Recorded Plats • Land surveyed and mapped, the map being recorded and becomes the official description of the land • Commonly used to create residential “subdivsions” or “allotments.” • (Note that diagram shows framing)
Rectangular Survey System • Surveys the land into grid of rectangular parcels with common borders. • Established by Land Ordinance of 1785 & NW Ordinance of ’87 for all Federal surveys • Used similarly in WR
Ohio as a Surveying Laboratory • As first area settled west of the Appalachian Mts., Ohio became a testing ground for many survey systems, each survey having its own method of describing the land. • The Western Reserve of Connecticut (#4) was one such survey in Ohio.
Geology of Cleveland • Leading edge of the Appalachian Plateau is the Heights. • “Water level route” along south shore of Lake Erie important since 18th century. • Cuyahoga Valley divides city e-w.
Kurdziel’s thesis • Problem with the lakefront is not so much bad choices made in situating railroads, highways and waterfront developments as it is the cliffs, which bar ready access. • Cleveland is divided east-west not by the Cuyahoga River, which isn’t so wide, as by the valley’s cliffs, east and west, which impede regular communication.
Connecticut “reserves” its land • Articles of Confederacy government proves too weak, so Constitutional Convention establishes new federal government. • New federal government needs land to sell to raise money for its operations. • States with western lands are persuaded to give up their claims. • Connecticut does so, but reserves 120 miles of its western lands as compensation for loss of the Wyoming Valley land to Pennsylvania. • Sells it to the Connecticut Land Company.
Connecticut Land Company • Connecticut wants to sell all 3,000,000 acres in one transaction. Several parties (including the Holland Land Co.) consider it. • The $1.2 million asking price is too high for individual investors, so a group of rivals come together temporarily to pool their funds, purchase the Reserve and immediately divide it up amongst themselves for individual sale. • General Agent Moses Cleaveland sent to the Reserve to survey and assess the land for the subsequent “draws” by lot by the investors.
A Western Reserve map • (This is a illustrative drawing and not an original map) • Squares are the 25-mile-sq. townships • Current county boundaries shown for reference. Came into being much later.
