HUNTING VALLEY - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

HUNTING VALLEY, originally part of Orange Twp., incorporated as a village in 1924. It is an 11 sq. mi. residential village of private estates, farm acreage, and large suburban homes, located approx. 15 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland. It lies on the CHAGRIN RIVER, bordered on the north by GATES MILLS, on the south by MORELAND HILLS, on the east by Geauga County, and on the west by WOODMERE and PEPPER PIKE. The township was settled in 1815 and established in 1820. Some of the first families laid out their farms in the 1820s in the area where the Chagrin River and Fairmount Blvd. now intersect. During the 19th century, ORANGE was a thriving farming and dairy community (see AGRICULTURE). At the beginning of this century, Cleveland industrialists began to purchase property in this area. JEPTHA HOMER WADE II† bought 455 acres on Fairmount Rd. and called it Valley Ridge Farm. In 1913 ANDREW SQUIRE† developed a working farm and a horticultural and landscape gardening center, where Western Reserve Univ. (WRU, later CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY.) students studied the arboretum and the 95-acre pharmaceutical garden. In 1934 Squire bequeathed the estate, Squire Valleevue Farm, to WRU. In 1940 the population was approx. 336.

In the 1920s, ORIS AND MANTIS VAN SWERINGEN† bought a large tract east of SOM Center Rd. for their country home, called DAISY HILL. After their deaths, the property was sold and divided into more than 60 private estates. Many residents of the close-knit village are descendants of families that originally lived on EUCLID AVE.., later in WADE PARK, then BRATENAHL. A greenhouse, located at Daisy Hill, was the only commercial enterprise in the village in 1986. In 1970 UNIVERSITY SCHOOL established a 175-acre campus in Hunting Valley. The village, governed by an elected mayor and council, is part of the Orange Local School District. The population was 477 in 1950, rose to 600 in 1960, to 780 in 1992, and was 735 in 2000.

See also SUBURBS.

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