New York, Chicago, & St. Louis Railroad Co., Dover Station, 28611 Lake Road, c. 1882
The 22nd in a series of articles to be published as a walking tour of Lake Road by the Bay Village Historical Society in 2026.
This building is now the home of Chatty’s Pizzeria on the BAYarts Campus in the Cleveland Metroparks Huntington Reservation.
The New York, Chicago, & St. Louis Railroad was developed quickly as a parallel and competing rail line to the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. It was nicknamed the Nickel Plate by a newspaper editor.
The original site for the depot was purchased from Dudley Oviatt in 1881. The station was located where the drive-thru portion of the CVS drugstore at 625 Dover Center Road now exists.
At the time of their construction the Nickel Plate stations were described as neat and tasteful, slate roofed, painted olive green and somewhat resembling Swiss cottages with projecting roofs.
A sister station still exists on its original site on Depot Street in Rocky River; it was ready for the inaugural run of the railroad in 1882. Most likely the Dover Station was too.
The Dover Station was moved to Huntington Park in 1962 for use by Baycrafters, the precursor arts organization to BAYarts. For many years it was used as a gift shop for Baycrafters.
William Krause
William R. Krause, retired as the Assistant Planning Director of the City of Westlake in 2020 after over 30 years with the city. He also served on the Bay Village Planning Commission for 9 years. He was a trustee for the Bay Village Historical Society from 2020 to 2021 and a former board member of the Westlake Historical Society. He was chair of their Lilly Weston Committee and was a member of the Reuben Osborn Learning Center Steering Committee. He is currently a Trustee of the Western Reserve Architectural Historians and the Gates Mills Historical Society. He has been married to Debra for 42 years and is the father of three grown children, grandfather of six and co-owner of a Yellow Lab named Sadie.