Euclidville. That's what Lyndhurst was named until June 8, 1920, when a community contest was held to rename the city, with proposed names coming from local schoolchildren. The name of Lyndhurst was submitted by a young resident who got it from the name of a city in New Jersey. Euclidville was, in fact, one of three villages (later to become cities - South Euclid and Euclid itself) that had been carved out of the original Euclid Township, which had been laid out by Moses Cleaveland. The area that would become Lyndhurst was a sparsely populated rural and agricultural area as late as 1920, when the population numbered all of 288. This even though it was on the plank roadway that ran from Cleveland out to the gristmills in Gates Mills in 1877. And there was the Eastern Railroad, which ran along about the same route, and which was built in 1899.

Water mains were installed in 1922, and, with the advent of the automobile, the Lyndhurst population started taking off, as it did in many of the surrounding communities. In 1940, the population was around 2,400, growing steadily after that.

One of the major pieces of property in Lyndhurst back when it was largely agricultural was Franchester Place, home of Congressman Chester C. Bolton and his wife, who became successor Congresswoman Frances P. Bolton. After they died, the land became the site of the old TRW headquarters, built in 1983. That land is now the home to Legacy Village and will soon house offices of the Cleveland Clinic.

By the way, the kid who won the naming contest, Bill Emshoff, got a grand total of $5 for his efforts. Like many Lyndhurst residents, he apparently spent his entire life in the city, running a service station on Mayfield Road.