Detroit Shoreway

Detroit-Shoreway is in the northwest section of Cleveland and is connected to Lake Erie and the 419 acre Edgewater State Park by the West 65th Street bike/walking trail and the West 76th Street walking trail. Gordon Square was the heart of the area until the late 1930s and the restored Gordon Square Arcade at W. 65th and Detroit has again become the commercial center of the neighborhood. To learn more about Detroit-Shoreway visit the Detroit-Shoreway Community Development Organization.

Headquarters

Find maps, parking, information and restrooms at:

Labyrinth Garden
W 65th St & Clinton Ave
Cleveland, OH

Neighborhood Map

Gardens in Detroit Shoreway

Gardener Stories

Bernd & Civita Blaske

Bernie and Civita met in an English language class shortly after they had both emigrated to the US. Bernie came from Germany at age 19 and Civita from Italy at age 16. They have been married for 52 years and raised 5 daughters in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.
Zvonimir Mirceta aka Alex

The house at 1329 West 65 street was built by a carpenter for his family in 1900. In 1942 the Isabella family bought the house for $5,231.00. Mr Isabella was a baker and he and his wife raised 9 children in the house. Ann Isabella, a daughter, described it as" a happy house", when she sold it to the present owner on Christmas Day in 1989. Alex remembered that day, ”My cousin, Branko, with whom I grew up in the former Yugoslavia, was present.  He took a photograph of me holding the key to the house.  It was my first house, at the age of 40...”

The neighborhood was rugged, loud and uncertain.The surrounding houses were occupied by transient tenants, coming and going, leaving their unwanted wounds on the tree lawn behind them. 
Mark DiDonato with chicken
Mark and Fran Di Donato

Mark was born in Akron and came to Cleveland in 1994 to attend John Carroll University. He left after college and returned in 2004, living initially in Ohio City, before buying his present home in 2005. Mark’s back yard looks like a little farm with raspberry and blackberry bushes growing next to a concrete driveway and numerous containers seeded with vegetables. Mark has six hens, an arauchana who lays blue eggs and two handsome black and white rock hens. Mark and his grandfather built the multi-level henhouse which provides an area to lay eggs and a lower level where they scratch for worms in last year’s composting leaves. Mark is planning to build a spiral herb garden where the micro climes within the spiral accommodate different types of herbs.
Charles McKnight and Randy Shorr

Charles and Randy  bought their home in 1988. The house had been a boarding house for the previous thirty five years and every inch of the garden was paved over for parking. Once all the cement had been removed they found several inches of sand, which Charles discovered indicates that the land was once lakefront property.  Initially Charles mapped out what he wanted in the garden. They reused  sandstone slabs they found to create walkways and designed and built the deck which wraps around the west side of the house from the back.  A hemlock, weeping cypress, and pussy willow can be found in the back yard. Charles is very proud of his hosta gardens, gladiolus and hydrangeas which bloom prolifically thanks to the coffee grounds he digs in around their roots.
Dave Roswurm

Dave was born and raised in Parma. He and his wife Sharon Hines moved into their present home in 2004 and have been developing the garden ever since. Dave wrote up a proposal so that he could rent land from the railroad. Three years ago they planted their orchard on that land which is directly behind their lot. They have the following fruit trees, apricots, peaches, plums, cherries, apples, a grape vine, blueberries and brambles a paw paw and a butternut tree--- a total of about 30 trees. Dave installed his second bee hive this past weekend. The hives are kept on the garage roof. Dave and Sharon also have a traditional vegetable garden and four hens. The yard is decorated with Sharon's artistic flourishes and well placed yard art.