1967 Fun Facts includes a Community College and the Mooreland Mansion

1967 Fun Facts:

• McDonalds test markets the Big Mac
• Congress creates PBS
• Carl B. Stokes becomes the first African America Mayor
• Mickey Mantle hits home run number 500
• Green Bay 35, Kansas City 10 in Super Bowl I
• Lakeland Community College is founded

This piece of local lore actually got is start nearly nine decades earlier when Edward W. Moore moved to Cleveland.  Moore arrived in Cleveland in 1880 with nothing more than a common education.  By 1901, this upstart banker and Cleveland industrialist left an indelible mark on the NEO landscape.  Moore founded the Western Reserve Trust and invested in street and suburban electric railways.  Between 1895-1901 his railways spanned Cleveland, Detroit, and 15 interurbans in three states.  While living in his Euclid Avenue home, Moore commissioned a summer country home to be built in Lake County in the early 1900's.  Set on 1000 acres, this 42 room country house known as the Mooreland Mansion remains a piece of living history.  Mooreland Mansion was originally a retreat for wealthy industrialists and noted guests.  Polish Prime Minister and pianist Ignace Paderwski stayed at Mooreland.  First Lady Eleanore Roosevelt was a house guest.  Edward W. Moore died in 1928.  His wife and four daughters left Cleveland and lived at Mooreland for the remainder of their years.  The family Mansion remained basically intact through 1960.  The last surviving Moore daughter lived there into the early 1980's.

In the year 1964, twenty-two people held an impromptu meeting at Mentor Recreation Park.  Mr. Erwin Maus III, editor of The News-Herald, noted a nationwide trend of community colleges had developed and sparked the group into promoting this cause.  With some assistance from The League of Women Voters, a 1.7 million dollar Lake County college construction levy was passed in 1965. Dr. Wayne Rodehurst was hired and Lakeland Community College opened on June 9, 1967.  Twenty-six professors and 1,073 students reported to a Painesville YMCA, a Trust Building, and Methodist Church for classes.  An abandoned mortuary building served as the first college administrative offices.  In 1968, Lakeland Community College bought 400 acres of the Mooreland Estate including the mansion.  As part of the $600,000 deal, Moore's daughter Margaret was allowed to live at the mansion.  Margaret remained in the family country home until her death in 1982.  Lakeland Community College opened its new site on the 400 acres in three phases ( 1971-1972-1975 ).  The Mooreland Mansion was taken over entirely by the college in 1988 and is now serves the community in multiple ways.  1993 saw the Mooreland Mansion achieve its last recognition as it became a site on the National Register of Historical Places.