Doan Brook Parks explores park landscape in the hand of natural and human forces. Find evidence for the rise of local bedrock, for bulldozing glacial ice and for Doan Brook’s cutting of a beloved ravine.Review the impacts of park development, including the outstanding Cleveland Cultural Gardens. See the recently completed Doan Brook Enhancement Project in terms of stormwater mediation and the restoration of local natural habitats.

1. © 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
glacial terraces – fossil beaches – stream courses – springs
current stream enhancement
Doan Brook Parks Nature
Portage Escarpment, St Clair Terrace, Lake Erie Plain
June 6, 2015
Hiking Rockefeller Park south
& Wade Park north
Roy Larick
Doan Brook Watershed Partnership
Sponsored by the

2. lake plain
Portage Escarpment
St Clair Terrace
Doan Brook Parks explores the
Rockefeller and Wade Parks
landscape in the hand of
natural and human forces.
On the hike, we will find
evidence for the rise of local
bedrock, for bulldozing glacial
ice and for Doan Brook’s cutting
of a beloved ravine.
We will also review the historic
weave of nature and culture in
park development.
Finally, we will view the
recently completed Doan Brook
Enhancement Project. The work
is designed to reduce
stormwater flows and restore
local natural habitat.
© 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
“Rockefeller Park contains a
total area of 273 acres and
consists of three sections:
Brookway, Cedar and
Fairmount. It contains 12
miles of beautiful driveways
and 5 acres of lakes. Two
separate boulevards, an
upper and lower, connect it
with Wade Lake and Gordon
Park . The ground was
purchased privately by Mr.
Rockefeller’s agents and
later presented to the people
of Cleveland.”
Postcard caption, c. 1910

3. sandstone terrace
bluestone terrace
Portage Escarpment
Schematic view looking
southward from Lake Erie
Doan Brook Parks hike area
The Portage Escarpment is Cleveland’s major terrain feature. This ancient bedrock massif resisted the
bulldozing effects of Ice Age glaciations. Below the massif, glaciers flattened the lake plain.
As the last glacier retreated northward about 14 thousand years ago, rushing melt water spawned our
‘escarpment run’ streams including Doan, Blue Rock and Dugway Brooks.
Wade and Rockefeller Parks straddle Doan Brook as it leaves the steepest part of the escarpment to find the
lake plain.
Bedrock deposition, glacial sculpting and stream cutting produced the parks landscape.
© 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
lake plain

4. Portage Escarpment Timeline
sandstone terrace
© 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
bluestone terrace
Portage Escarpment
Schematic view looking
southward from Lake Erie
Lake Erie rises to present level
Niagara River lowers Lake Erie
Final glacial retreat
Final glacial advance
Glacial advances begin
North American uplift
Euclid bluestone deposited
Chagrin Shale deposited
4
12.6
16
23
2.5
300
360
370
ka
ka
ka
ka
Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
Lay down – uplift – sculpt
Portage Escarpment bedrocks were laid upon the
Late Devonian sea bottom, >350 Ma (million years
ago). Mud built the shales (Chagrin, Cleveland and
Cuyahoga). Silt built the Euclid bluestone. Sand gave
Berea and Sharon sandstones.
Tropical sea bottom
Glacial sculpting
Devonian
earth
LMichiganLMichigan
L Huron
L Huron
About 300 Ma, our area uplifted from the sea. The
Ohio and Saint Lawrence watersheds began to form.
Much later, about 2 Ma, the earth cooled and great
glaciers began mounting in northern North America.
Uplift
we-are-stuff
pro-glacial lakes
Sixteen thousand years ago, the last glacier retreated
through our area. The ancestors of Lake Erie began to
emerge. Just 14 ka, Doan and nearby streams cut
through escarpment to create the ravines of today.
Just 23 ka (thousand years ago), the last glacial advance
bulldozed the rock sandwich slope (Portage
Escarpment) to create two terraces: one atop the
Berea Sandstone and one atop the Euclid bluestone.
Doan Brook Parks hike area
lake plain

5. sandstone terrace
Humans
bluestone terrace
Portage Escarpment
Schematic view looking
southward from Lake Erie
• Reviving the natural regulation of
stormwater at low cost and high
community benefit.
• Reconnecting fragmented natural
habitat areas as a means to build
local biodiversity.
In learning natural history and
the ways in which natural &
human forces interweave, we
can better address two crucial
local environmental issues:
We have buried our streams
and flattened our features.
With development,
environment is degraded and
biodiversity is reduced.
Doan Brook Parks hike area
© 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
lake plain

6. © 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
Two centuries of human impact
Rockefeller Park, c. 1900
North
K. Roberts
K. Roberts
USGS LiDAR underlay
Google Earth aerial viewer
Stream culvert data courtesy of NEORSD
R. Larick
Blue Rock spring, c. 1900
Rockefeller Park, 1897
R. Larick
Rockefeller Park Spring, 1911
Parks-on-Doan
Cleveland
Heights
Cleveland
The Nature-Culture Weave
Ambler spring, near Fairhill Rd
Wade Park Spring. 1900
CMP
CMP: Cleveland Memory Project
ceveland.about.com
Wade Oval, 1874
Rockefeller Park
Rockefeller Park
CMP
CMP
CMP
CMP
WRHS
East Cleveland
Early settlers valued clear
(Wade, Rockefeller).
Victorian water cure
valued mineral (Ambler,
Blue Rock).
Eddy gristmill, 1809
Cozad gristmill
Crawford sawmill
Springs
Mills
E105th
Wade Park
Euclid
D.J. Lake
hike pathway
Wade Park bridge, 1911

7. Springs &
Small Streams
Wade Park spring
The feature lies at the head of a small Doan Brook tributary. During his land tenure, 1872-1882,
Jeptha Wade assembled boulders and a rustic sandstone staircase. Some of the physical
components are still present at the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Japanese Garden.
Rockefeller Park spring
Little has been recorded about this feature which was improved with J.D Rockefeller’s bequest of
1896. A boulder assemblage lies on the east bank of the Doan Brook ravine opposite the
Rockefeller Park lagoon. In a nearby low spot, a sewer grate may indicate the spring outflow.
Cleveland lies on a sandwich of alternating
porous and impervious rocks. Such conditions
breed springs.
Springs provided drinking water and social gathering
places. They also played into the Victorian era
hydrotherapy movement. Private springs were thus
commercialized. At public springs, the settings were
often ‘improved’ by assembling glacial erratic
boulders around the outflow.
Wade Park Spring. 1900
Doan Brook cuts through an area where fossil
beaches (porous) lie over glacial clay (impervious).
Early settlers here found numerous springs.

8. Rockefeller Park spring
June 2015, Rockefeller Park

9. Wade Park spring
June 2015, CBG Japanese Garden

10. Wade Park spring
Wade Park, man at Spring Valley Ravine,
west from new Garden Center building
WRHS 2833
"The Spring" in Wade Park WRHS 2800

11. Rockefeller & Wade Parks 1898
Cozad mill
Wade Park spring
Rockefeller Park spring
next slide

12. Spring Pond Brook
Rockefeller Park
E93rdSt
Wade Park spring
In 1881, Spring Pond Brook was a Doan Brook tributary draining an area now covered by the
Cleveland Clinic and Fairfax. The name derives from spring –fed wetlands in the Amesbury-E 93rd-
Lamont area. The stream is now entirely buried with outflow near the Rockefeller Park lagoon.
lagoon
Lamont Ave

13. Wade Park
north, 1881
Wade Park spring
The Wade Park spring feeds a small stream (let’s call it
Cozad Run) that flows westward to Doan Brook. Jeptha
Wade ‘improved’ the land with several features.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History now sits on the
stream course, including the area of Wade’s ‘iron
bridge’. In the mouth area, Wade’s carp pond now holds
the Cancer Survivors memorial and the new bioswale.
carp pond
CMP

14. Cozad Mill
One of the pair of Cozad’s granite millstones
is on display on the east side of the lagoon.
Doan Brook millpond
Samuel Cozad’s gristmill was of the latter
type. To create a millpond, Cozad
dammed the north end of a large Doan
Brook meander. Jeptha Wade later
expanded the millpond. This is the origin
of the current Fine Arts Garden lagoon.
The East Side’s earliest water powered
grist mills were built at bluestone
waterfalls on the Portage Escarpment
(Mill Creek, 1799; Dugway Brook, 1809;
Euclid Creek, 1809).
Later, milling moved down onto the lake
plain. On the plain, a millpond had to be
built to provide the necessary hydraulic
head.
WRHS

15. Wade Park
south, 1881
Cozad mill
preserved millstone
1876
CMP

16. Wade Park
Fine Arts Garden
Samuel Cozad millstone

17. MLK Jr Drive
Melan Arch
E 105th concrete
arch bridge
stone parapet
carriage road
Melan Arch
Historical bridges
Cozad mill© 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
stone parapet

18. Rockefeller Park
Wade Park Ave
masonry arch bridge
Designed by Charles Schweinfurth
(1856-1919)
Built, 1897-1900
Partially funded by the J.D. Rockefeller
bequest of 1896

19. Gasparini, Vermes & Conley.
Cleveland's historic bridges:
architectural and engineering
masterpieces.
Wilbur J. and Sara Ruth Watson
Bridge Book Collection, CSU
Special Collections. 2002.
Revised, 2003.
Wade Park carriage road
arch (missing spandrel wall)
MLK Jr arch with Berea
Sandstone spandrel wall
Concrete-Steel Engineering Company,
‘Successors to the Melan Arch
Construction Company,’
Park Row Bldg, New York NY
1907
Wade Park
Melan Arch bridges
About 1900, the City of Cleveland
contracted for two Melan Arch
bridges in Wade Park. At an early
date, the Melan Arch system
combined steel truss and cast
concrete construction. The
bridges are now historic.

20. carriage rd
Melan Arch
MLK Drive
Melan Arch
Rockefeller & Wade Parks 1912
Rockefeller Park
Minus its decorative sandstone spandrel walls, the carriage road Melan Arch
is still in place as the outflow of the Doan Brook University Circle culvert.
carp pond
CMNH construction on Cozad Run, 1960s CMP

21. Doan Brook
Enhancement
Project
Doan Brook Enhancement Project
2013-2014 (+2-yr warranty period)
4 acres covering 1,700 lineal ft of the DB channel
upstream start: MLK Blvd culvert inflow (at Jeptha Dr)
downstream end 1st MLK bridge after the lagoon
$4.3M ($2.5M Cle/$1.8M NEORSD)
lagoon
DoanBrook
North
Cancer Survivors Memorial
Rockefeller Park spring
Wade Park Ave
E105thSt
CWRU
Sun Farm
VA Hosp
Mt Sinai Dr
deep
riffle
structure
shallow
riffle
structures

22. Improve aquatic life habitat
stable pools, riffles and grade controls
low-flow channel along thalweg to reduce dry spell stagnation
use terraced flood plains of re-used wall materials
use plantings that fit the park setting
Goals:
Stabilize stream channel with dimension and profile to handle local flows
reconstruct historic walls to slow slope & stream bank erosion
reduce bank erosion & deteriorating walls
create areas where the stream can safely access a floodplain
Maintain current stream channel alignment
Minimize impact to the historic Cultural Gardens
Doan Brook
Enhancement
Project

23. Doan Brook Enhancement Project
Bio-retention basin and footbridges
Bioswale with native planting in area of the Wade carp pond

24. Boulder-cobble point bar reflects high velocity culvert outflow
Doan Brook Enhancement Project
emerging from the MLK – E 105th – Mt Sinai Dr culvert

25. Doan Brook Enhancement Project
Rockefeller Lagoon parking lot bioswale
parking lot outflow bioswale inflow

26. Doan Brook Enhancement Project
Rockefeller Lagoon segment deep riffle structure
Looking upstream
Stream bank native planting
in foreground
mid
ground
Looking downstream

27. Doan Brook Enhancement Project
Rockefeller Lagoon segment shallow riffle structures
Structure 2
Looking downstream to Structure 1
Structure 1

28. Roy Larick
Walk back in time
Look to the Future
Euclid bluestone outcrop
Doan Brook, Cleveland OH
Bluestone Heights
© 2015 Bluestone Heights
R. Larick
A production by
bluestoneheights.org
roylarick@gmail.com