Would you rather have our house or another freeway?

The good folks at the Cleveland Memory Project at Cleveland State University have digitized another gem, Cleveland's Forgotten Freeways.



Of note is the Lee Road Freeway, which would have gone right through our house. It can be seen in bold on this map of the greater Cleveland area.



The introductory letter, dated 4 October 1966 states: The suggested location and design for the freeway are believed to be compatible with the present-day social developments of the communities involved and, more importantly, a pre-requisite to their continued economic and cultural well-being in the future. Read: it'll make it easier to flee to the exurbs.



Another part of this massive highway plan, the Clark Freeway, brought the surrounding communities together in opposition. The freeway, shown in bold above, would have cut right through the center of the Shaker Lakes, ruining this last vestige of nature in the adjoining inner-ring suburbs, Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights.



In this map, one can see the freeway over what would have been the former location of our house, and to the right, the interchange over one of the Shaker Lakes.



This detail map shows more clearly the exact route through my neighborhood. It would have destroyed the walkability of the community. Note the presence of the off-ramp dropping all that traffic right in front of the junior high (now elementary) school. This is a community where the kids walk to school. What the heck?

There was an alternate route that was also offered and which wouldn't have involved the demolition of our house. Here's the detail map. See. Not quite so awful. We'd just be living right next to the freeway. That's what this neighborhood needs, after all. Nevermind that we have better access to light rail service than any other community in the greater Cleveland area.



To me the most interesting part of the alternate route is the aerial photograph of my house. It seems that our driveway and our neighbor's driveway, which are shared, had a fence between them at the time. Also, our patio wasn't quite so big.

Looking for subway tile vendors

I'm looking for replacement tile for repairs for both of my second floor bathrooms. Like many of the projects I discuss here, this one awaits sufficient funds. However, being who I am, I want to complete as extensive research as possible.

The existing tile in the two second floor bathrooms is white, 6x6 ceramic, with a flat glaze profile. The floors are comprised of a round "penny" tile.

There are several areas where replacement tile is needed. The most notable is in the shower in the master bathroom, where the bottom 4 rows of tile as well as the floor were replaced with a bad match at the time that the shower pan was replaced. Another large section was replaced with a slightly better match behind the door in the non-master bathroom. Further, several of the trim pieces around the door to the shower stall broke and were replaced somewhere along the way. There are also some other assorted trim pieces here and there in the bathroom which have been clumsily repaired. I'm unsure as to whether I would want to repair or replace them.

The only vendor I've seen thus far that meets my needs is Subway Ceramics. They have several shades of white and all the trim pieces I need. Clay Squared lists the basic tile at $20 a square foot and the trim pieces between $15 and $25 each.

Does anyone know of other vendors who might have similar tile available? I'm especially interested in seeing other manufacturer's tile so that I can compare the color, to find the closest match to the tile that I have.