AMBLER HEIGHTS

AMBLER HEIGHTS is located in the southwest corner of CLEVELAND HTS., OH. The boundaries include Cedar Glen Rd. (north), S. Overlook Rd. (east), Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd. and N. Park Blvd. (south), and Ambleside Rd. and Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd. (west). Streets in Ambler Hts. include Chestnut Hills, Denton, Devonshire, Elandon, and Harcourt roads. The area is named after Dr. NATHAN HARDY AMBLER (1824-88), a dentist who came to Cleveland in 1852 from the gold fields of California. As he practiced dentistry downtown, Ambler also dealt in real estate on the outskirts of Cleveland, quitting his practice in 1868 to manage his money and real estate dealings. By 1872 he had purchased land past DOAN'S CORNERS Ambler Heights on Fairmount St. (now Fairhill Blvd.), where he built a mansion at the top of the hill now occupied by the grounds of the Baldwin Filtration Plant. To aid in the management of his real estate holdings, Ambler brought an adopted son, Daniel O. Caswell (1857-1906), from Lodi, OH. Caswell helped foster BLUE ROCK SPRINGS HOUSE, a mineral-water spa at the intersection of Cedar Rd. and DOAN BROOK. In addition, Caswell negotiated for sale some 350 acres of land to be known as Ambler Hts. Starting ca. 1900, Caswell, with Wm. Eglin Ambler (1845-1925), nephew of Dr. Nathan Ambler, began a housing development in Ambler Hts., which consisted of large houses in such styles as Colonial Revival, Tudor, and Tudor Revival built to designs by architects such as FRANK B. MEADE, CHAS. S. SCHNEIDER, and ABRAM GARFIELD. This neighborhood was also called Ambler Park, and later Chestnut Hills.

A team of Engineers survey the partially completed Ambler Parkway in 1895. WRHS.
Engineers survey Ambler Parkway, 1895. WRHS.

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