A Bay Village timeline, part 3

1. Looking south across the mill pond east of the Cahoon homestead house shows new telephone poles and electric lines making an appearance.

Five events that had a great influence on the growth of the Village of Bay.

  1. Infrastructure improvements, 1905-1913. These improvements greatly changed daily life and made life easier for the families in the village. We had a new health warden and two new special policemen to help our marshal. In the spring of 1909, discussion centered on having water piped into the village. In 1913, the village has electricity; street lights are making their appearance. Telephone poles are going up along Lake Road.
  2. The Cahoon Family Will, 1917-1919. At the beginning of the year 1917, there were three Cahoon sisters still living. Lydia, 83, passed away in March, Laura became ill in June, and Ida died in November. With the death of Ida, the 115-acre Cahoon homestead property, now Cahoon Memorial Park, became the property of the citizens of the Village of Bay under the family will. This will was written by the family in 1884 when Joel Cahoon was old and very ill. Their attorney, Walter Wright (the grandson of Joel’s sister, Rebecca), structured the content of the will. Due to Ida being the last sibling to pass away, the will was forever remembered as Ida Cahoon’s Will. The will in its entirety can be found in the book, "Bay Village A Way Of Life," in the Government and Civic section. With the implementation of the will in 1919, life in the village improved. The south acreage was sold to the Board of Education and Parkview School was built on the property overlooking the new Memorial Park. The summer cottages in the park became rentals. In 1921, the farmhouse became Dover By The Bay Library housing the Pope and Cahoon books. Mrs. Pope and Mrs. Paul, dear friends  of the Cahoon sisters, living on the corner of Wolf and Cahoon roads, were asked to became the first librarians. School children left the front door of Parkview School and walked north down the sidewalk to the library. The new green space began to be used. Ball diamonds, a skating pond and a ski and sledding hills would appear as the years went by. Life began to revolve around activities planned in the park.
  3. Bay Presbyterian Church, 1917. The church was founded out of a Sunday School being offered by the Methodist Church to give their parishioners a church service closer to their homes east of Columbia Road. This Sunday School was taken over by the Presbyterian Ministry in 1917. Now there were two churches in the village. It seemed like the children at Forestview were Presbyterians and the children at Parkview and eventually Glenview were Methodists.
  4. Parkview School, 1922. New, two-story Parkview School made us broad. Housing grades 1 through 12, it opened its doors with students in grades from 1 to 9. Our students no longer needed to travel to the west side of Cleveland for the upper grades. The first graduating class was in 1927. This school served us well until it was torn down in 2003.
  5. Widening Lake Road, 1926. There had been talk for some years about widening Lake Road. As it was it was a narrow, slag and oil, two-lane road. In Rocky River, a new strip shopping center and three-lane Lake Road was being developed at Kensington Road. Right over the border in Avon Lake the road was three lanes and Kekic’s gas station on the south side of Lake Road sat just as you entered the town. Mayor Saddler and Council watched the progress and wondered if the Village of Bay wanted the same thing along our Lake Road. At the time, Lake Road was bordered by trees on both sides. A Sunday drive meant a beautiful drive under a canapé of mature trees. Mayor Saddler decided the village would enjoy our trees for as long as they lived. It was decided there would be no strip shopping centers, or gas stations or other business allowed on Lake Road. (The Wischmeyer Hotel was affected the most.)
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Volume 12, Issue 10, Posted 10:39 AM, 05.19.2020