• GordonOhioState Park
• Rockefeller Park including Rockefeller Greenhouse & Gardens
• The YMCA Midtown East
•    Forest Hills Park & Pools
• Glenville City Park/Recreation Center & Pool
• CoryRecreationCenter

The Park was originally bequeathed to the city          by William J. Gordon, a prominent Cleveland          commercial and industrial business owner, in          1892.Early in its history the park was highlighted          and embellished by flower gardens and          conservatories and wading pools with a large          bathhouse with a beautiful pavilion. (Kellogg,          1997)                     More recently it has become polluted and                  defaced by vandals and thugs.

This park is composed of two sections. One part is located along the lakefront from East 72nd Street and the East Shoreway at the beginning of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. The other part is inland just south of Memorial Shoreway. (Encyclopedia of Cleveland History)   Unfortunately, the park was bisected by the building of the Shoreway in 1953 and further degraded by the building of I-90 and polluted by nearby industry.

 
 

According to the Encyclopedia of ClevelandHistory, the land was deeded  to the city for use as a park by John D. & Laura Spelman Rockefeller on  April 5, 1897.The Cultural Gardens were constructed in 1920’s and  1930’s to honor the city’s various ethnic groups and nationalities.

Near the entrance to the Shoreway is Rockefeller Greenhouse which is according to Fodors.com, “the oldest civic horticultural center in the country.” The Greenhouse displays a variety of tropical plants, ferns, orchids and other seasonal flower and plant exhibits.

 

      Including in Connecting Cleveland: The Lakefront Plan is the Kirtland Quay/Gordon Park Small Area Plan, a development plan to
improve and enhance Gordon Park and the neighborhood areas between the Innerbelt Curve and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.