Some of our West Creek residents

Development of Northeast Ohio, west of the Cuyahoga River, began in 1805 after the treaty of Greenville ended the river's role as the western boundry of the United States. The 19th century economy emphasized farming. Settlement did not get fully underway until after the Ohio & Erie Canal opened between Cleveland and Akron in 1827, creating the first viable transportation system.

Early maps of the area mark West Creek first as Skinner Creek. It is likely that the creek took its modern name from the West family who lived along a tributary of the creek in Independence Township, at least in the mid-to-late 19th century. There were no east-west roads within the township that crossed its entire breadth. The deep gorge that housed the wandering creek, later called Quarry Creek, was the natural boundry that kept East Parma and West Parma apart for more than 130 years.

A significant historic resource exists along one of the proposed routes for the West Creek Greenway. Behind the homes on the south side of Rockside Road in Seven Hills is a series of mid-19th century sandstone quarries that date to the canal era. Berea sandstone is a high quality sandstone that has been shipped around the world as a build material. Locks along the Ohio & Erie Canal were constructed from Berea sandstone. Evidence of the quarries include quarry pits and unfinished millstones littering the ground. The 1849 Berea sandstone home of the Henninger family, which was involved in the quarrying operations, still stands at Rockside and Broadview Roads.

In 1919 and 1920 Cleveland's Metropolitan Park District considered including West Creek in their park system. The 1920 annual report for the park district calls the area "Glen Valley" and reports: "Nature seems to have endowed this section with all the advantages of a natural park. 'Rocks and rills and templed hills' are found in abundance, covering some 200 acres." (McShane 1995:10-11)

Until the 1950s, Parma retained its rural atmosphere of a farming community. After then, however, Parma exploded with post-war suburban construction, forever changing the feeling of the community. Despite the loss of open space since the 1950s, nature has not been held completely at bay. In the height of the farming economy, West Creek Valley was much more open, with most of the trees cleared. In areas undisturbed since then, forests have regrown.