Historic Euclid Golf Allotment 

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The History of Euclid Golf

Marketing Euclid Golf

Deming was as much a marketer as a real estate developer.  His use of many different marketing media suggests that he understood the importance of exposure, and the ultimate success of Euclid Golf as a business venture, rare in real estate development at the time, suggests that his emphasis on marketing paid off. 

Deming’s first advertising consisted of billboards erected throughout Euclid Golf.  Billboards on the outskirts proclaimed the name of the allotment, and billboards erected at the foot of each street advertised the features of the lots prospective residents could buy.  Individual construction sites often sported large for sale signs as well. 

                           

Deming also erected attractive offices where prospective purchasers could stop, review allotment maps and blueprints, and purchase their new home site.  Deming’s first office was on Coventry at Fairmount, and the main office was at the corner of Demington and Fairmount.

            

Deming utilized print media extensively.  The earliest advertisements appear in The Cleveland Leader and feature allotment maps and long descriptions of the improvements planned for the allotment.  Later advertisements were far more poetic, featuring illustrations of picturesque houses typically accompanied by descriptions of the beauty of Euclid Golf.  In Cleveland Town Topics alone, over one hundred seventy-five such advertisements appear from 1913 to 1928. 

Just six years after Deming began development of Euclid Golf, he referred to Fairmount Boulevard as “The Euclid Avenue of the Heights”.  Again in a 1920 advertisement, Deming expounded upon the idea: “the splendid neighborhood at Ardleigh Drive and Delamere Drive in Euclid Golf development, where these beautiful streets intersect with Fairmount Boulevard, has naturally, by virtue of just its location, become the home site for many of Cleveland’s first families”.[1] Was he the first to make this claim?  Was the phrase “Euclid Avenue of the Heights” simply a creation of his marketing department?  We may never know; however, Deming was certainly correct in noting that many prominent Clevelanders had made their homes in Euclid Golf.

We know about some of these homeowners from an extensive article about Euclid Golf in the May 1921 issue of The Architectural Forum.  The article recognizes Euclid Golf as an outstanding example of suburban real estate development.  It praises the B.R. Deming Company and Howell & Thomas Architects for creating a residential community that was both architecturally pleasing and financially successful.  “To [Clevelanders],” it says, “[Euclid Golf] signifies a district centering about a wide curved boulevard, crossed by a dozen or so winding streets of generous width, an abundance of fine old trees and a sprinkling of substantial houses which are, as suburban houses go, quite likely in size and character.”[2]

The article shows photographs and floor plans for eleven Euclid Golf homes, designed by Howell & Thomas.  Three of the homes are Fairmount Boulevard mansions, while the rest are more modest side street domains.  The Fairmount Boulevard homes include those of A.C. Ernst, Esq., founding partner of Ernst & Ernst Accountants (2540 Fairmount); Mrs. W. C. Scofield, widow of a sales manager for Lake Erie Iron Company (2602 Fairmount; and Mr. Fred Nichols, an attorney (2626 Fairmount). 

Those on the side streets include the homes of several prominent businessmen.  Two of these men were involved in Cleveland’s early automobile industry: Mr. Thomas White, Vice-President of White Motor Company (2335 Delamere) and Charles A. Forster, President of the Packard Cleveland Motor Company (2231 Delamere).  At least two were involved in real estate: Mr. John C. McNutt, President and Treasurer of the J.C. McNutt Company (2272 Woodmere) and A.C. Blair, President and Treasurer of the A.C. Blair Company and Vice-President of Best Realty Company (2248 Woodmere).  The remaining homes are those of Mr. William R. Mitchell, Secretary of Selicci Products (2346 Woodmere); Mr. Raymond G. Pack, an advertising executive (2224 Tudor); and Mr. Roland W. White, President of the Colonade Company and Treasurer of The Fuller Canneries Company (2222 Delamere).

The extent to which B.R. Deming desired to protect his allotment from undesirable influences is shown by his purchase of three lots on the South side of West St. James Parkway from another developer and the design of pleasing cottage houses to block the unsightly view of “a poor class of investment houses with no restrictions”.[3]  Mr. Howell designed number 2600 West St. James, Mr. Thomas designed number 2594 West St. James, and they both designed a double house, number 2580-82 West St. James, at the boundary of the allotment on West St. James Parkway.  These three houses, though not technically part of Euclid Golf, are included in the Historic District because of their high-quality design and construction and their unique role in protecting Euclid Golf.

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[1] Cleveland Town Topics, June 12, 1920, page 20.

[2] Smith, Howard Dwight.  “’Euclid Golf,’ Cleveland, Ohio”, The Architectural Forum, May 1921, page 165.

[3] Ibid., pages 171–172,.

 

 

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