Ever wonder about Bertram Woods? His name lives on through our Bertram Woods library branch, at 20600 Fayette Road.
In an article in Library Journal, December 1, 1960 (p. 4282), Virginia Robinson, Librarian of the Shaker Heights Public Library, wrote:
"...the decision that expansion should come as a branch library, to be located in the fast-growing eastern section of the city. This general location also had a sentimental appeal, for it was near the birthplace of a library benefactor, Bertram Woods. Woods was a one-time railroad engineer and long-time resident of the area, who directed in his will (1949) that "at the death of my wife all that remains of my estate go to the establishment or maintenance of a public library." Eventually, to get a little ahead of the story, his bequest was used in the construction of the branch, and the building named for him."
The part of the story that Virginia Robinson skipped was that the Bertram Woods library isn't built exactly where Woods had grown up, in Warrensville Center. Warrensville Center was a community at Warrensville Center Road and Fairmount Boulevard, at the present-day Fairmount Circle (Bertram Woods' father, Henry Woods, had land on the north-east side of this intersection, now part of John Carroll University). Warrensville Center was eventually merged into the surrounding communities (Shaker Heights and University Heights).
Bertram Woods (1862-1948) was born and grew up on this farm. His will had to go to probate, because it explicitly stated it was to provide for "a public library at Warrensville Center."
However, the probate judge decreed that, as there was no longer any place known as Warrensville Center, "I think it is clear that Bertram Woods wished the people in this immediate vicinity, where he grew up as a boy, to enjoy the facilities of a library.... I believe that this bequest should not fail simply because there is no present library exactly at the old site which used to be known as Warrensville Center. It is not necessary to build a new library at that exact spot. I believe a substantial compliance of the will would result if this estate were given to the Trustees of the Library located at the northwest corner of Kinsman and Lee." That is, the Shaker Heights Public Library, formerly on Lee at Kinsman (now Chagrin Boulevard), and now located in the former Moreland Elementary School building next door. The judge's decision is quoted by promotional materials developed by the Shaker Heights Public Library in the 1960s.
These sources are both housed in our Local History Collection in the Shaker Heights Public Library (which is in the Main Library, not in the Bertram Woods branch!).
In an article in Library Journal, December 1, 1960 (p. 4282), Virginia Robinson, Librarian of the Shaker Heights Public Library, wrote:
"...the decision that expansion should come as a branch library, to be located in the fast-growing eastern section of the city. This general location also had a sentimental appeal, for it was near the birthplace of a library benefactor, Bertram Woods. Woods was a one-time railroad engineer and long-time resident of the area, who directed in his will (1949) that "at the death of my wife all that remains of my estate go to the establishment or maintenance of a public library." Eventually, to get a little ahead of the story, his bequest was used in the construction of the branch, and the building named for him."
The part of the story that Virginia Robinson skipped was that the Bertram Woods library isn't built exactly where Woods had grown up, in Warrensville Center. Warrensville Center was a community at Warrensville Center Road and Fairmount Boulevard, at the present-day Fairmount Circle (Bertram Woods' father, Henry Woods, had land on the north-east side of this intersection, now part of John Carroll University). Warrensville Center was eventually merged into the surrounding communities (Shaker Heights and University Heights).
Bertram Woods (1862-1948) was born and grew up on this farm. His will had to go to probate, because it explicitly stated it was to provide for "a public library at Warrensville Center."
However, the probate judge decreed that, as there was no longer any place known as Warrensville Center, "I think it is clear that Bertram Woods wished the people in this immediate vicinity, where he grew up as a boy, to enjoy the facilities of a library.... I believe that this bequest should not fail simply because there is no present library exactly at the old site which used to be known as Warrensville Center. It is not necessary to build a new library at that exact spot. I believe a substantial compliance of the will would result if this estate were given to the Trustees of the Library located at the northwest corner of Kinsman and Lee." That is, the Shaker Heights Public Library, formerly on Lee at Kinsman (now Chagrin Boulevard), and now located in the former Moreland Elementary School building next door. The judge's decision is quoted by promotional materials developed by the Shaker Heights Public Library in the 1960s.
These sources are both housed in our Local History Collection in the Shaker Heights Public Library (which is in the Main Library, not in the Bertram Woods branch!).
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