Westlake is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb located 12 miles (19 km) west of downtown Cleveland. The population was 34,228 at the 2020 census.
At a Glance
- County: Cuyahoga County
- State: Ohio
History of Westlake
The area now known as the city of Westlake was first settled by European Americans on October 10, 1810. At the time, it was part of Dover Township.
In 1901, the northern part of the township seceded to form Bay Village. In 1912, a southern portion left to join North Olmsted. The remaining township residents formed Dover Village in 1913, taking with it a portion of Olmsted Township.
In order to avoid confusion with the city of Dover in Tuscarawas County, Dover Village was renamed Westlake in 1940. The village of Westlake became a city in 1957.
In September 1966, a house in Westlake which had recently been bought by John R. Compton, a black pastor, was firebombed. No one was injured, although the bombing did cause around $10,000 of damage, equivalent to $99,231 in 2025. According to the Cleveland Press, the mayor of Westlake, Alexander R. Roman, "criticized the parties involved in the sale of the home… He said no one was notified so the community could be prepared to accept a Negro family."
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Westlake, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.