Why is it called ‘Wendy Park’?

Wendy Park draws its name from Wendy Moore, a native Clevelander who was captivated by the wild, rugged beauty of Whiskey Island’s shoreline. An artist,
Wendy would visit this land to photograph its graceful cottonwood glens, mythic granite piles, and tangled bramble patches. Her lens captured the peninsula’s sweeping views of Lake Erie, downtown Cleveland framed by bridges, and the Cuyahoga River’s gentle curves. She saw Whiskey Island as a lovely surprise, a pocket of untamed wilderness surrounded by industry and the severe lines of an urban landscape.

Like Whiskey Island, Wendy had a way of standing out. She packed a lot into her 29 years. She was the captain of Hawken School’s State Championship Swim Team in 1984. She graduated from Bates College with a B.A. in Studio Art and earned her Masters of Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. During her junior year of college, she went to Kathmandu for a year, where she became fluent in Nepali and apprenticed as a silversmith. A year later, she spent a summer painting at an artists’ colony in Provence, France. Following her studies, Wendy worked in the Los Angeles film industry as a set designer, set decorator, and assistant art director. She also continued her pursuit of fine arts and showed her artwork in solo and group shows in Los Angeles.

A passionate and devoted skier, Wendy frequently spent her weekends at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in the Sierra Nevadas. She died in March 1997 at age 29 as a result of a brain injury incurred while skiing there. 

At the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, The Wendy L. Moore Emerging Artist Series celebrates her artistic spirit by giving one young woman artist each year the honor of a solo show. Team Wendy, the helmet company formed in her memory, now manufactures energy-absorbing liners for combat helmets, now being used by the Army and the Marines.

The Cuyahoga County Plan for Wendy Park

The land that makes up Wendy Park and the Whiskey Island Marina has had a colorful and controversial past. It's been home to early Cleveland immigrants, whiskey "bootleggers" (hence the name) and used for both rail and shipping transportation purposes. In more recent history, Cleveland Industrialist Dan Moore led a group of investors that built and ran the current Whiskey Island Marina. With much controversy, the land was purchased by Cuyahoga County in December 2004. Dan Moore has been instrumental in the creation Wendy Park by contributing some of his own money for the initial land clearing phases.