Garden City Dreams: Shaker Heights and the Van Sweringens

Join Makialani Kanewa-Mariano, Education & Outreach Manager at the Shaker Historical Society, on January 15 to explore how the innovative Garden City Movement inspired the Van Sweringen brothers to develop Shaker Heights, Ohio’s first planned garden style suburb. Discover how their vision blended nature, architecture, and modern infrastructure into a model of early 20th-century community design that continues to be studied, admired, and celebrated today.

Presented in partnership with the Shaker Heights Public Library, this talk will be held on January 15, 2026 from 7:00-8:30pm in the Shaker Library’s Boulevard and Fernway rooms as part of the America250-Ohio celebration of Ohio’s Firsts and Originals. This is a free event, but registration is required: givebutter.com/gardencitydreams