40 SUMMER 2020 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
I A
n the summer of 1924, the architect Bloodgood Tuttle submitted his plans
for a house on Van Aken near the Lynnfield Road Rapid station, which then was
the last stop on the Blue Line running along the thoroughfare. The house was
commissioned by The Van Sweringen Company as one of their “demonstration
homes,” meant to drive lot sales in the area and, importantly, exemplify the
expectations for single-family homes in Shaker Heights.
Just two years after Tuttle’s home went up, architect Abram Garfield, the
youngest son of the slain president, submitted his plans for a house around the
corner from Tuttle’s, on Parkland Drive. Where Tuttle’s French Provincial design
– “from the shores of Brittany” as the advertisement for it crowed – was meant
to draw attention, Garfield produced a modest Tudor Revival for a young lawyer
and his family.
Both architects found steady work in Shaker over the next decade. The
demonstration homes were a success, and Shaker’s population skyrocketed
from 1,700 in 1920 to nearly 18,000 in 1930, so there was plenty of work to go
around. While Tuttle passed away in 1936, Garfield would have a long career into
the 1950s, and his firm grew to include several additional partners and expanded
into commercial buildings (including the City Hall Annex).
That firm continues today as DLR Westlake Reed Leskosky, one of the oldest
architectural firms in the country. So perhaps it is ironic that Ronald Reed and
Vincent Leskosky, two of the principals of the firm started by Abram Garfield,
designed their new home, with its daring exterior streak of red, next to Tuttle’s
still-standing 1924 demonstration home.
DARING
STREAK
OF
RED
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE