Brook Park (Images of America Series): A Book Review by Bob Morris
James Van Keuren
Arcadia Publishing (June 2023)

An informative microcosm of life in the U.S. during the last 100 years

For over 20 years Arcadia Publishing has reconnected people to their community, their neighbors, and their past by offering a curbside view of hometown history and often forgotten aspects of American life. Composed in a unique pictorial format with over two hundred vintage images and accompanying captions, Arcadia books animate the cherished memories, people, places, and events that define a community. From the iconic Images of America series and Images of Aviation series to Postcard Histories and so many more, these richly illustrated histories bring to life small-town America. The 20 specific series include American Century Series, Black America Series, Images of America, Images of Sports, Making of America, and Then and Now.

The Images of America, for example, celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.

What we have in Brook Park is James Van Keuren‘s concise but substantial discussion of each of six specific historical components of the Brook Park, Ohio, community. It is located 14 miles southwest of Cleveland and known for its farmland. It was incorporated on June 3, 1914. The village started to be transformed in 1925, when it became the site of the Cleveland Municipal Airport (now the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport). The arrival of the airport started an international revolution that led to the establishment of the NASA Glenn Research, Center, the Cleveland Bomber Group, the Cleveland Tank Plant, and Ford Motor Company’s Cleveland Casting Plant and Engine Plants Numbers #1 and #2.

These are the six historical segments on which Van Keuren focuses: Early Beginnings, Cleveland Municipal Airport, Cleveland Bomber Plant, NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland Tank Plant, and Ford Motor Company. Readers will appreciate hundreds of archival photos, each accompanied by Van Keroen’s comments serving as a caption.  They are strategically placed within his lively and eloquent narrative. Van Keuren adds a bibliography for those who wish to learn more about the primary subjects.

I live near Brook Park in Rocky River, also one of the local communities featured in several volumes in the Images of America series. The two villages share much in common with each other and both share much in common with countless other small towns throughout the United States. One of the most valuable benefits of Arcadia’s Images of America series is that it celebrates each of the featured subjects but also suggests the nature and extent of what they share in common with metropolitan areas such as Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo in Ohio as well as cities elsewhere throughout the United States. In this context, I am reminded again of Margaret Mead’s observation, “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”