The Van Sweringen Company, developers of Shaker Heights, commissioned several demonstration homes. These are not demonstration homes as we think of of them now, but rather suggestions of the sort of houses that buyers of lots might build and might expect their neighbors to build. The build and design quality of these houses is impressive, to say the least.
Five of these houses sit next to each other, on my block. All were designed by architect Bloodgood Tuttle and built in 1924. Most have impressive gardens and a great street presence, the result of double lots.
The five models are shown here, from west to east. To the east of this group is a sixth house, not a model, of similar proportions, also on a double lot.
My favorite is probably the fourth one, with the blue-green windows. I'm not sure whether that color is original to the house, but it was one of the suggested color schemes provided by the Van Sweringen Company at the time that the house was built.
