Lorenzo Carter Cabin Demolished To Make Way For Public Boat Slips

Updated: 11:37 a.m., Monday, June 21, 2021

A replica cabin on the Flats East Bank that served as an example of how early settlers on the Cuyahoga River lived has been torn down as Cleveland Metroparks makes way for new boat slips.

The Lorenzo Carter cabin in Heritage Park had fallen into disrepair and the state of the wood posed a safety risk, according to a statement from Cleveland Metroparks.

The boat slips will be built in its place some time next year, according to the statement.

Lorenzo Carter was Cleveland’s first permanent settler, arriving in May 1797 and eventually building a log cabin and a tavern that was used as an inn, jail and informal town hall near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, on its eastern bank.

While the circa-1976 replica cabin was not the original structure or on the Carter family’s original settlement site, it was one way to preserve the history of the Cuyahoga River, said Tim Donovan, volunteer senior advisor and former executive director of Canalway Partners.

“It’s not that the history needs to be forgotten,” Donovan said. “It’s whether or not the storyline itself depends on a cabin being there, and I’m not sure it does.”

There are other ways to tell the early story of Cleveland and Carter, Donovan said, like walking tours and interactive programming about the first wave of people to recognize the importance of the Cuyahoga River as a public asset.

“The big story of the time is really the establishment of the canal itself as part of America’s first transcontinental transportation system,” Donovan said. “Cleveland has many stories and which ones need to be highlighted is an ongoing discussion and consideration.”

Metroparks’ current plans for the property could bring more people in to learn about the history and make use of the riverfront, Donovan said.

Replica artifacts from the cabin will be used in future programming, Cleveland Metroparks said.

An earlier version of this story stated the cabin sat on the West Bank of the Flats. It's on the East Bank.