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1986

The Gamut Looks at Cleveland, Special Edition, 1986

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Copyright ©1986 by Cleveland State University. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. At The Gamut we pride ourselves on our limitless scope. We like to say that we specialize in being general, that the variety of our articles is endless, on subjects as esoteric as the dying languages of Mayan Indians and as down-to-earth as forecasting the weather, as serious as a new definition of death and as whimsical as a history of dogs in church. But there is one area in which we do specialize - we are a regional journal, and in particular, a Cleveland journal. We have allowed ourselves to be partial to articles about the city by Cleveland writers, and those writers have not let us down. This collection gathers together, for the first time, some of our favorite articles on Cleveland from The Gamut's first six years. We aimed at a group that would be representative and diverse, and that would give some idea of our development as a publication. These articles bring forth aspects of Cleveland's past, show their effects on the present, and point to possible futures as well. To those who ask (not our readers, we hope), "What is there to write about in Cleveland?" we reply- Transportation: Sara Ruth Watson and John Wolfs discuss the history of "Movable Bridges Over the Cuyahoga River" and their involvement with the sociopolitics of early Cleveland. Culture: The dedication and maneuverings of Cleveland movers and shakers in combination to build "Severance Hall, Cleveland's Temple of Music" are chronicled by Elizabeth Kirk. Downtown: Walter Leedy explains in "Cleveland's Terminal Tower - The Van Sweringens' Afterthought" what gave shape to today's downtown Cleveland. Life Style: Mary-Peale Schofield collects some of the most inter­ esting Meade and Hamilton houses in Cleveland. Cemeteries: In "Marble Mirrors of Society: Cemeteries in Cleve­ la nd, 1797-1984," Candace Shireman reports on the changing styles of funerary landscaping. Nostalgia: Michael Samerdyke memorializes and mourns a de­ funct Cleveland institution in "Spellbound at the New Mayfield." The Future: "Arthur Geoffrion's Landmark Complex" is a highly speculative view of the Cleveland waterfront. The following pages will give you a look at Cleveland from The Gamut's point of view. The articles make a statement about our unashamed local bias, but we think that they reaffirm our policy of variety and substantial information as well. Read on and be­ come acquainted with The Gamut's Cleveland. The Gamut Looks at Cleveland

Contents

Marble Mirrors of Society: Cemeteries in Cleveland, 1797-1984 (From Number 11, Winter 1984) Candace S. Shireman / 1

Arthur Geoffrion's Landmark Complex / 15 (Frol1l Number 4, Fall 1981)

Severance Hall, Cleveland's Temple of Music (Frol1l Number 18, Spring/Summer 1986) Elizabeth Kirk / 19

Cleveland's Terminal Tower - The Van Sweringens' Afterthought (From Number 8, Winter 1983) Walter C. Leedy, Jr. / 39

Meade and Hamilton's Livable Cleveland Houses (Frolll Number 6, Sprillg/Sul1lmer 1982) Mary Peale Schofield / 63

Movable Bridges over the Cuyahoga River (From Number 3, Spring/Summer 1981) Sara Ruth Watson and John R. Wolfs / 79

Spellbound at the New Mayfield (From Number 18, Spring/Summer 1986) Michael Samerdyke / 88 1

Candace S. Shireman Marble Mirrors of Society: Cemeteries in Cleveland, 1797-1984

Near the entrance of the Bedford, Even relatively recent history can be il­ Ohio, cemetery is an oblong-shaped monu­ luminated by a study of cemeteries. Those of ment with a gabled lid, said to contain an Cleveland, for example, reflect the city's de­ above-ground sarcophagus. Rumor has it velopment from a simple village modeled af­ that the tomb was constructed in this man­ ter the New England prototype, to a ner to avoid the consequences of burial in the complex, multi-cultural metropolis. In earth: the deceased was believed to be a vam­ Cleveland's cemeteries can be seen certain pire! Whether or not this particular rumor general trends in American attitudes toward has any basis, it is true that graves often tell death, as well as some idiosyncratic depar­ us a good deal about their occupants. All that tures. we know, for example, of Charles Dum­ perth, buried in Cleveland's Monroe Street From necropolis to bursting churchyard cemetery a century ago, is recorded in his ep­ The ancient Greeks and Romans estab­ itaph: he was called "schuftig" ("rascal"), lished laws against burial of the dead within and the city limits. Burial grounds were removed He had no wife, loved wine and song, from the cities and generally took the form of Had many a friend, did no man wrong.' imposing, above-ground tombs arranged along the main roadways to the cities, or cat­ Much can be learned about the life not acombs constructed in caves or under­ only of an individual but of a civilization, a ground. Such extramural burial, often society, or a community by observing what it interpreted as evidence of aversion to or fear does with its dead. Architecture, in Eric Jo­ hannesen's words, is "an index of a place's of the dead, also reflects an awareness of the physical and spiritual identity,'" and in the health hazards posed by deteriorating architecture of death - tombs, monuments, corpses. Cremation was an accepted prac­ and memorials - we can see the builders' tice, and many catacombs had honeycomb­ conceptions of themselves and their world. like structures called columbaria, "pigeon In fact, it is often only through funerary re­ holes" where the ashes of the deceased were mains that we are able to glean information safely sealed in urns or other containers. about the lives of peoples and cultures long Other portions of the catacombs or mausolea vanished. were constructed with shelf-like compart-

Candace S. Shireman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and grew up in Rushville, a small rural town southeast of there . She received a BFA degree in studio art (painting and drawing) from Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, and currently manages the visual art collection of the Cleveland State University Library. Of her attraction to the present topic she writes: "I've had an interest in old cemeteries for as long as I can remember. I know this comes from all those hours I spent as a child following my mother from court­ house to library to cemetery as she diligently unearthed the family 'roots ,' long before Alex Haley made that activity a popular pastime. I would fidget in the courthouses, nap in the libraries, but when we hit the cemeteries, I knew I was in my element . "Mom always impressed upon me the relation­ ship between knowing family history and knowing oneself. When my friends tease me now about my 'fascination with death,' I just tell them it's really a fascination with life ." 2 CANDACE S. SHIREMAN

ments or crypts where the remains were in­ In early times many Christians, espe­ terred in stone sarcophagi, the precursors of cially the wealthy and noble, sought the the elaborately carved tombs in Medieval privilege and status of interment within the and Renaissance churches and of the mod­ church itself. They were laid in a shaft in the ern casket. We still use the term "mauso­ church floor, lined or unlined with masonry, leum," derived from the tomb of Mausolus of oriented toward the altar, and covered with a Caria (died 353 B.C.), and our contemporary slab. As demand increased, burial places ad­ structures of that name more closely resem­ jacent to the church were required. Author­ ble those of ancient custom than other inter­ ized in 752 by Papal decree, churchyards vening forms. The ancient Greek or Roman were enclosed by walls and consecrated by a necropolis (literally "city of the dead"), typi­ bishop to ward off evil influences. Thus we cally set in a natural landscape abounding can see a fundamental change in attitude to­ with pines, cypresses, ivy, myrtle, and ward the dead, which were no longer re­ roses, became the model for the great garden garded with the aversion of antiquity. cemeteries of nineteenth-century Europe When burial took place in church­ and America, and the same trees and shrubs yards, the most desirable plots were those continue to be associated with places of bur­ near the chancel; the churchyards became in ial. effect extensions of the walls of the church From Hellenistic times, altars were for purposes of interment. 7 The open space erected in tombs and catacomGs, and some surrounded by cloisters was also used for pagan burial rites, together with rituals at the burial, and spaces under the eaves of many tombs, were absorbed into early Christian cloisters, called charnels, were used to store observances. (Christians and Jews buried old bones that had been dug up in an attempt their dead underground in the catacom~s to cope with overcrowding. during the Empire as prescribed by Roman With the Reformation, funerary archi­ law.) These altars "ensured a church-like tecture, especially in Protestant countries, quality in many parts of the cemeteries. became increasingly a matter of "taste and When churches were later built over places individual demand.'" From the sixteenth of burial or near places where martyrs had century, churches began to be filled with died, altars were erected that contained frag­ huge funerary monuments, with Britain ments of bone from the catacombs. " 3 The leading the way in this development (e.g. , presence of saintly remains was perceived as Westminster Abbey). The American colonies having a redeeming effect on those buried in repeated the European practice of church close proximity, and so relics were sought for floor and churchyard burials, though with the aura of sanctity they provided. Thus fewer and more modest tombs. guardianship of the dead gradually passed to Because the church profited from bur­ the Church, which eventually derived con­ ial within or near the church building, it ig­ siderable financial gain from burial prac­ nored the rising clamor of a few reformers tices.' concerned wi th public health. Burial As new churches were built away from grounds became increasingly congested; old burial sites, the dead were then buried bodies were interred in layers right up to the under or beside the churches, and this even­ tops of the walls, so that many churches ap­ tually came to be regarded as the only possi­ peared to be built in pits.' Such overcrowd­ ble place of sepulture for Christians. 5 For the ing continued until nearly the end of the average individual in the Middle Ages, bur­ eighteenth century; something had to give, ial was directly in the ground instead of in and in the case of the Cimetiere des Inno­ catacombs and tombs. Sometimes the cents in Paris, it literally did. This church­ shrouded bodies were laid directly in the yard was so full that in 1780 the pressure earth, but some type of container was the caused the basement walls of an adjoining norm from early times. Protection of the apartment building to give way; the area was corpse from dispersal was encouraged by the permeated by a noxious miasma; Paris was Christian belief in a material resurrection, properly scandalized and nearly asphyx­ which in fact ruled out the previously accept­ iated. 10 The ensuing public outcry forced the able practice of cremation almost until our closing of Les Innocents and other old ceme­ own century.6 teries, and the systematic removal of the MARBLE MIRRORS OF SOCIETY: CEMETERIES IN CLEVELAND,1797-1984 3

Early nineteenth-century painting showing funeral cortege arriving at the gateway of Pere Lachaise Ceme­ tery in Paris. (From Famou s and Curious Cemeteries by John Francis Marion. Reprinted by permission.) bones to an ossuary south of Paris called the pany now stands. Historical accounts de­ Catacombs, dedicated in 1786. Plans for the scribe it as surrounded by bushes and black­ first extramural, "modern" cemetery (as we berry briars, behind which stretched forest. know it today), Pere Lachaise, were begun in "A little south on Ontario was a large 1801. mound, said to be the work of the Mound Builders."" This plot was to remain Cleve­ Early Cleveland cemeteries land's only cemetery for nearly thirty years, Overcrowded cemeteries were not a and many noted pioneers and early residents problem in early America, but the concept of of the village were buried there. 13 In Decem­ the extramural burial ground is apparent in ber of 1825, the owner of the property gave the small burial plots that sprang up on hill­ notice of his intentions to develop Lots 97 sides or in shady groves through the coun­ and 98 for commercial purposes. Removals tryside as necessity dictated. Cleveland's began the following year upon the securing fir st burial ground is a good example. The of land further away from the village. This first boat of the second surveying party of the tract became the first official city burial Connecticut Land Company to the Western ground, the Erie Street Cemetery, still lo­ Reserve arrived here on June 1, 1797. Soon, cated between what is now East 9th and East news of the drowning in the Grand River of 14th streets. David Eldridge, one of the party traveling by But long before 1826, the settlement of land from Conneaut, reached the encamp­ the area had proceeded, with the arrival of ment on the Cuyahoga. Seth Pease, a sur­ more pioneers, who began converting the veyor with the first party as well as with this forest into farmland, and whose presence is second venture, records in his journal entry still evident in the small, scattered family for June 4, 1797: "This morning selected a burial grounds they left behind. Graves of piece of land for a burying ground, the north the Comstock family, dating from 1810, are parts of Lots 97 and 98; .. . attended the fu­ present in the old Hillside Cemetery in Val­ neral of the deceased . . Mr. Hart read ley View, a burial ground also referred to in church service. "" historical accounts as "Pilgurrah" or the "Old The cemetery on Lot 97 occu pied the Indian" burial ground. " corner of Ontario and Prospect streets where Another old burial ground is still pre­ the parking garage behind the May Com- served at Euclid and Nela avenues in East 4 CA DACE S. SHlREMAN

Cleveland on the hillside above Nine Mile the city, as already illustrated at Nine Mile Creek, adjoining the First Presbyterian Creek. It lacked the protection of a church Church of East Cleveland. A log church was congregation, however, and descendants of built here in 1807. 15 The oldest grave is that of its early families sought a solution to the Susannah Barr, wife of the first pastor of the maintenance problem in the formation of church, the Rev. Thomas Barr. The pastor their cemetery association. and his family probably lived near the origj­ The rise of such benevolent organiza­ nal log church on the site, then owned by tions, self-entrusted with the care of the de­ Thomas and Eunice McIlrath, and in 1812 parted, occurred throughout America from Susannah was buried near the home, as was the early 18OOs. Whether of religiOUS affilia­ customary, or near the church on the site. tion or privately organized and adminis­ This event provoked the congregation to tered, these groups performed a much consider the site for a cemetery, and the land needed civic service in the turbulent times of was probably purchased from the McIlraths rapid and often erratic growth. to secure a proper burial ground for the con­ When Scranton Road Cemetery filled gregation. Buried with the Barrs are the to capacity and the North Brooklyn Ceme­ McIlrath family, John Shaw (for whom Shaw tery Association could no longer function ef­ High School is named), Enoch Murray, first fectively on its behalf, the property reverted Mason to settle in the Western Reserve, and to the State of Ohio because of delinquent two soldiers of the Revolutionary War, three taxes and diminished assets. The large num­ from the War of 1812, and five from the Civil ber of graves bearing the Fish name - thirty War. " of them - in Denison Street Cemetery be­ According to William Rose's history of tween West 23rd and West 24th streets sug­ Cleveland, the burial lot on the Fish family gests that transfers from Scranton Road were farm became the oldest public cemetery west made: some stones here date from 1823, but of the Cuyahoga, now known as Scranton Denison Street Cemetery was not officially Road Cemetery at Scranton Road and Wade opened by the city of Cleveland until 1844. Avenue on the city's near west side. " Head­ Alger Cemetery at Lorain Avenue and stones here date back to 1808, although writ­ Rocky River Drive near Kamm's Comers also ten records for the cemetery exist only from developed from a family plot and nearly suf­ 1849, when the North Brooklyn Cemetery fered the same fate as that of Scranton Road Association was organized to maintain it. Cemetery. It was begun by the Alger family, Early members of the Association are buried early settlers to the area then known as Rock­ there, and their names are also preserved in port Township. Nathan Alger's interment the street names of the surrounding area: (in 1813) was the first, and his epitaph indi­ Branch, Castle, Brainard, Clark, Barber, cates the family's sentiments regarding their Meyer, and others. burial ground: The history of this cemetery illustrates My friends, I'm here, the first to come, certain trends of urban growth and develop­ And in this place, for you there's room." ment and the virtual disappearance of the family burial plot from Cleveland and the The cemetery indeed swelled with friends, American landscape in general. As old fami­ neighbors, and later residents in successive lies succumbed and their farmlands were generations. It was later deeded to the sold and subdivided in the course of advanc­ county; the pioneer status of the Algers ap­ ing urbanization, their burial plots became parently helped in securing its preserva­ vulnerable. The old attitudes regarding the tion. lO A notation in records at the Western sacredness and dignity of the dead were re­ Reserve Historical Society indicate that "In placed by a more modern standard - the 1977, the cemetery was still being used and value of real estate. James Fish's grave, for maintained. " example, "is said to lie under Scranton Road The Old Axtel Street Cemetery on near the cemetery,"l8 indicating that the orig­ Cleveland's southeast side and the Wagar inal family plot literally fell in the path of Cemetery were not so fortunate. The former progress. Its expansion with the burials of was demolished in 1881 to permit railroad neighbors and later residents in the vicinity construction, and the bodies transferred to is a phenomenon repeated in other parts of the newly-organized Harvard Grove Ceme- MARBLE MIRRORS OF SOCIETY: CEMETERIES IN CLEVELAND, 1797-1984 5

The stone "Gothic" entrance gate of Monroe Street Cemetery, erected in 1870, is similar to that of Erie Street Cemetery in downtown Cleveland.

tery nearby. Transfers from the Old Wagar custom of constant separation of the sexes. Cemetery and the Kidney family plot adja­ With characteristic Shaker efficiency, the cent to it, on the corner of Detroit and St. burial ground was situated and designed to Charles Avenue in Lakewood, took place facilitate expansion on the east and west throughout this century. By 1957, very few sides. Each quadrant contained forty indi­ stones were left standing and the grounds vidual plots, and the numbers could be aug­ were overgrown; what remained of the cem­ mented to any extent required. 22 etery was demolished that year to make In 1889, the remaining members of the room for a parking lot, the Kidney and Wa­ society at North Union (less than 30) moved gar families being transferred en masse along on to southern Ohio, leaving their cemetery with "84 unknown" to Lakewood Park Cem­ behind. When the Van Sweringen brothers etery on September 25, 1957.21 were developing the area in 1912, they suc­ The relocation of the original Shaker ceeded in having the eighty-seven neglected cemetery in what is now Shaker Heights is graves removed to the old Warrensville West another example of the primacy of profit in Cemetery further south on Lee Road be­ Cleveland's burial history. In 1824, the North tween Van Aken and Chagrin boulevards. Union Shaker colony laid out its burial According to an obituary list copied from the ground on the banks of Doan Brook, which original settlement manuscript, forty-one ran through the settlement's farm where deaths were attributed to "consumption," South Park Boulevard now curves toward the nineteenth-century term for tubercu­ Lee Road. The lot, about 100 feet square, was losis. William Cramer, although "not a Be­ divided into four quadrants by two alleys, liever, nor a Member of the Society, " still one running north to south and the other found enough favor there to be included east to west. The women were buried in the with the Sisters and Brethren, While Robert two northern quadrants and the men in the Matthews, a member but a suicide, "was two on the south side, following the Shaker taken away."23 6 CANDACE 5. 5HIREMAN

Municipal development: practical solutions ports of the Superintendent of the city's Divi­ As Cleveland continued to grow - its sion of Cemeteries from 1912-1914 empha­ population in 1826 reached 400 - people lit­ size the strained conditions of inner-city erally came closer together, and a larger cemeteries and make strong recommenda­ sense of community began to evolve." As al­ tions for transfers to help alleviate the main­ ready noted, the present Erie Street Ceme­ tenance burden. But at this point a group of tery was established when Leonard Case and civic-minded Clevelanders, fearing that Erie other civic minded men purchased land, Street Cemetery would disappear, in 1914 or­ then considered "far out of town," on Erie ganized the Pioneer Memorial Association to Street south of Prospect to receive remains assume responsibility and promote its pres­ from the Ontario Street lot, which was being ervation. commercially developed. Title was passed to The idea of re-using the land occupied the Village of Cleveland with the under­ by the cemetery did not disappear, however, standing that the land be used for burial pur­ and in 1923 a thorough report on the ceme­ poses,25 an important point when tery was made by the Chamber of Com­ discussions of abolishing the cemetery arose merce's Committee on City Planning in in the early part of this century. response to suggestions from various sectors Originally the site contained only two for a more "appropriate" (i.e., more profit­ acres, but it was later enlarged to ten. " 0 able) use of the site. By the early '20s the area regular register of the sale of lots or of burials had become the city's worst slum, with was kept before 1840, in which year the rampant crime and congested living condi­ whole tract was replatted and a complete re­ tions exacerbated by the incoming railroads cord opened and kept up thereafter. "1b By and concentration of the bulk of the city's in­ 1860 nearly all of the lots had been sold: in dustrial concerns there. Many officials sup­ just thirty-four years, the city had outgrown ported the demolition of the cemetery in the it. The cemetery's stone Gothic-style en­ curious (if genuine) belief that it was the trance gate was erected in 1870 at a cost of source of the area's criminal activities. 18 But $8,296. Similar gates were built that same in the end, the Pioneer Memorial Associa­ year at Monroe Street and Woodland Ceme­ tion, backed by strong public support, kept teries, both city owned and maintained. Bur­ the cemetery in its original site. ied at Erie Street along with the early settlers The year 1830 marks the initial aware­ are "Lorenzo Carter; Levi Johnson, an early ness in America of the cemetery reform builder; Samuel Dodge, business leader; the movement typified by the creation of Pere Rev. Stephen J. Bradstreet, pastor of the Old Lachaise in Paris and similar garden-type Stone Church; John W. Willey, the first cemeteries located in rural settings in Eng­ mayor; Joseph L. Weatherly, founder of the land. In 1831, luxurious and pastoral Mt. Au­ parent of the Chamber of Commerce; and burn Cemetery was opened in Boston and Leonard Case, distinguished lawyer. " V Also served as the model for similar public burial included are soldiers from every war with si tes throughout the United States. Boston, American involvement up to World War I, however, was a well established city by then, and two Indian graves, traditionally planted and Cleveland, still a frontier town, would with corn. The south side of the cemetery not catch up to the example of Mt. Auburn was also used at one time as a "potter's until the construction of Lake View Ceme­ field." tery in 1869. By the turn of the century, the Erie Life for newly-arrived immigrants here Street Cemetery, being full and therefore, was difficult, but they shared the responsi­ like nearly all of the older, city-administered bility of caring for their dead, as had the ear­ cemeteries, not contributing anything to the lier settlers. Around 1829, Settlement Road municipal coffers, had fallen into deplorable in old Rockport Township, now West 130th condition. The first suggestion of demolish­ Street, crossed fields owned by German ing it arose in 1907, three years after the farmers. It was in that year that a group of opening of city-owned Highland Park Ceme­ them formed the German Settlement Ceme­ tery out in Warrensville Township. Transfer tery Association to collectively purchase land of remains to this new suburban site had in­ in that area for a private burial place." They deed already commenced. The Annual Re- were all members of the newly-built Imma- MARBLE MIRRORS OF SOCIETY: CEMETERIES IN CLEVELAND, 1797-1984 7

nuel Evangelical-Reformed Church which began official record-keeping in city ceme­ adjoined the selected burial lot they called teries. On November 12, 1841, Monroe Street "God's Acre." Members of the group paid 50 Cemetery in Ohio City was dedicated by cents a year dues for the privilege of purchas­ Cleveland to provide much-needed burial ing plots at $5 per adult and $2 .50 per child. accommodations apart from Erie Street. Rockport became West Park, which was Bishop Rappe of the Catholic Diocese eventually annexed by Cleveland, and as the of Cleveland consecrated St. Joseph's Ceme­ descendants died or dispersed, the cemetery tery on January 22, 1849. It was the first Cath­ gradually followed the typical pattern of de­ olic cemetery in the city, originally totaling cline described earlier in this survey. Al­ fifteen acres on Woodland Avenue and East though largely unrelated to the original 79th Street. The layout of the hilly site is ba­ Association members, members of the adja­ sic, but picturesque, with its curving paths cent church continued to maintain the ceme­ and preservation of many old trees from the tery up through the 1960s. heavy forests that once blanketed the area. The earliest Jewish settlers in Cleve­ Many of the older stones bear Irish sur­ land immigrated from Germany and Austro­ names. On March 2, 1928, a Cleveland Press Hungary. Twenty members of the Jewish article announced the sale of a portion of the community met at the home of Samson cemetery by the Diocese to the Van Hoffman on Seneca Street (West 3rd Street) Sweringens for expansion of the Nickel Plate and formed the Israelitic Society, their first railroad, part of the general Union Terminal religious organization, in 1839. "Upon the project. 31 Earlier in Cleveland's history, death of an itinerant Jewish peddler the fol­ church affiliation had usually saved ceme­ lowing year, a burial plot was purchased in teries from such encroachment, but in the Ohio City for $100 and Willett Street Ceme­ twentieth century, profit prevails. tery had its beginning. "30 The establishment of St. Joseph's Cem­ As economic conditions improved, etery at the beginning of 1849 was providen­ Cleveland rallied and began to evidence an tial, for in June of tha t year Cleveland's worst awareness of the climate of social reform that epidemic struck. Contemporary accounts re­ was being felt throughout the country. In the fer to the "plague" of Asiatic cholera that 1840s Erie Street Cemetery was replatted swept the city and inspired reforms in the (i.e., the lots were renumbered), and the city form of a tax levy to establish an additional

Grave of Lizzie Ely, "Queen of the Gypsies," in Woodland Cemetery, with food, wine, and decorations that mysteriously appear every winter. 8 CANDACE S. SHlREMAN

St. John's Cemetery has many monuments, a characteristic typical of older burial grounds.

poorhouse and hospital. By 1851 , thousands land Park, and clear the grounds for redevel­ across the country had died of cholera. opment in the form of low-income housing Cleveland's death toll is recorded as 13Q, a projects; but within a year, the motion was figure probably reflecting deaths within the defeated by strong public sentiment. city limits only. Gravestones in Parma Among the older, more somber monu­ Heights' old cemetery on Pearl Road, indica­ ments still remaining, those of the newer ting six members of one family all dead Ely/Stevens plot stand out in bright contrast. within a week, tell the story for much of the The pink granite stones bear photographs of area. these members of an apparently English Cleveland's most solid response to this Gypsy clan - a European custom preserved epidemic was Woodland Cemetery on here by many immigrants. The grave of Liz­ Woodland Avenue and East 71st Street. By zie Ely, "Queen of the Gypsies," is distin­ the second half of the nineteenth century, guished from the others by a white wrought the idea of the rural garden cemetery had iron trellis and flanking cedars. During the penetrated to some of Cleveland's more so­ holidays in late December and early January, cially and economically prominent citizens, tinsel garlands and colored ornaments deco­ especially the notion of using cemeteries in rate her grave along with a customary bottle the European manner as green oases for rec­ of wine, left in festive remembrance. reation in the city in lieu of public parks. Un­ Across the street from Woodland, St. til the 1860s in Cleveland, demands for John's Cemetery was consecrated on thir­ public grounds apart from Public Square had teen acres of land purchased in May, 1855, been regularly defeated. Woodland Ceme­ largely to serve as the main burial place for tery, incorporating some of the new views, "Catholic priests who died while serving was dedicated on June 14, 1853; in 1870 the their parishes." l3 Gothic entrance was built, providing an of­ Another local effort to provide more fice, record vault, and visitors' room at a cost up-to-date cemetery accommodations oc­ of $7,500. Much of the original ornamental curred when a nine- to twelve-acre tract was stone and ironwork in the form of "mauso­ acquired in September, 1859, from Mr. and leums, monuments, individualized curb­ Mrs. Edwin Fuller by East Cleveland Town­ ings, benches, iron lace enclosures ... and ship authorities. 34 East Cleveland Cemetery other furnishings," along with a 60-foot In­ has its share of Revolutionary and Civil War dian mound, have disappeared over time. 32 veterans and, as in the case of other older city By 1952, much like Erie Street Cemetery cemeteries, the street names of the sur­ thirty years before, Woodland was sur­ rounding area are recalled in many individ­ rounded by a depressed area. A motion was ual and family grave markers: Coit, introduced in city council to demolish the Quilliams, Taylor, Silsby, etc. A number of cemetery, transfer all 83,000 bodies to High- these markers were reportedly quarried in MARBLE MIRRORS OF SOCIETY: CEMETERIES IN CLEVELAND,1797-1984 9 the old Doan's Corners area or from the contemplate the meaning and management bluestone quarries in the BelvoirlMonticello of their lives. " 35 To foster this new Romantic Boulevards area of Cleveland Heights. experience, burial places were sought even further away from urban areas and the un­ The rural garden movement pleasant reminders of the reality of death af­ Woodland and the other smaller ceme­ forded by their crowded, decrepit teries that departed from the traditional lin­ cemeteries. ear grid pattern of planning were reflecting It wasn't until .the creation of Lake not only social ideas imported from Europe, View Cemetery in 1869 that Cleveland but also literary and philosophical attitudes achieved a rural garden cemetery that ful­ that were widespread in England and filled the ideal exemplified in Boston's Mt. America. The eighteenth-century "grave­ Auburn, as explained in the writings of Dr. yard school" of poetry, exemplified by Jacob Bigelow and Andrew Jackson Down­ Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Church­ ing. Lake View was a grand vision executed yard," made fashionable the pleasing melan­ in an appropriately grand manner. The origi­ choly of meditation on life, death, and nal 200-acre tract (now 285) on Euclid Ave­ immortality among the yew trees and moss­ nue at East 123rd Street was purchased by covered tombs. And the English Romantics the Lake View Cemetery Association, a small popularized the idea of fleeing the bustle of group of wealthy and prominent east-side the city and absorbing the benign influences gentlemen. Under the leadership of their of rocks, streams, and trees. Emerson, Tho­ first president, Jeptha H. Wade, the non­ reau, and their fellow American Transcen­ profit philanthropic organization selected dentalists developed their own version of the the site for its sufficient distance from the city traditional notion that God is manifest in Na­ limits (then East 55th Street), and its abun­ ture; following Wordsworth and Coleridge, dantly forested hills with their commanding they emphasized communion with nature as view of Lake Erie (whence the cemetery's a means of spiritual and personal edification. name). These choices, reflecting an aware­ A cemetery landscaped like a park or natural ness of the natural surroundings, clearly woodland would, according to the new show the Association's criteria. views, permit a freer and more "natural" ex­ Improvements upon Nature were perience of grief and consolation. The be­ quickly undertaken. Tasteful landscaping, reaved would feel comforted and renewed incorporating the native trees and shrubs on by solitary or communal contemplation in the site with additional rarer varieties, re­ the "restorative rural setting," and at the sulted in a substantial arboretum that still same time, "away from the unnatural and serves as a sanctuary for many forms of wild­ unnerving pace of urban life, people could life. Winding paths progress upward from

Lake View Cemetery is a fine example of the ru­ ral garden style. Monu­ ment to President Garfield rises in the background. 10 CANDACE S. SHJREMAN

the Euclid Ave nue entrance to the upper granite and marble carving, Carabelli's busi­ slope topped by the memorial to President ness attracted many skilled artists and arti­ James A. Ga rfi eld and backed by Mayfield sa ns from Italy whose craftsmanship is Road . Nearl y every curve is accented by cl us­ prevaleAt in memorial sculptures through­ ters of trees, wisteri a, azaleas, crabapples, or out the cemetery. Many are in the distinctive rhododendrons as well as elegant mauso­ bluestone from the local east-side quarries leums and memorial stones executed in the mentioned earlier. As demand increased and popular reviva l styles of the peri od : Classica l more jobs became available, families from Greek and Roman, Egyptian, Gothic, Celtic, th e original Italian settlement along Wood­ and Art Nouveau. The eo-Classica l mode land and Orange avenues, together with seems to have been the most favored, and newly arriving immigrants, moved further picturesque vistas from any va ntage point east to the Murray Hill area adjacent to the throughout the cemetery - looking past the cemetery, now known as Little Italy. East unifo rm burial plots of more recent decades 123rd Street on Lake View's west side was - still yield the ori gi nal, highly desired ef­ once called Carabelli Avenue in honor of this fec t of an idealized Arcadian landscape. enterprising artisan. 37 Neatly tended blankets of ivy cover alm ost Lake View has always followed a pol­ every grave, masking the otherwise stark ap­ icy of nonsectarianism, accommodating all pearance of bare ground and softening the faiths, ra ces, and creeds. As with the early harsh edge of dea th. church burials in Europe, the presence of the Expense was not spared at Lake Vi ew, rich and famous within its stone and as it was intended from the beginning to be ironwork enclosure attracted others less the fin al resting place for Cleveland's most il­ prominent; Lake View became the "in" place lustrious citizens. Buried here along with for-' for interment, a symbol of having finally "ar­ mer U.s. President Garfield are John D. ri ved," if not figuratively in life then at least Rockefeller, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, Samuel literally in death. Although now over a cen­ Mather, John Hay, Jephtha Wade, Charles tury old, it was "conceived with such fore­ Brush, Leonard Case, the Van Sweringens, sight that . . . space is available to meet and many others who "made great contribu­ interment requirements for the next fifty tions to the area's and nation's industrial, years. neJll It is still operated as a nonprofit or­ civic, social and cultural development. "36 The ganization with management vested in a cemetery's master plan thus reflects the edu­ Board of Trustees whose members serve vol­ cational function of the nineteenth-century untarily without compensation. The concept garden cemetery. Not only were such places of civic duty exemplified by the earlier intended to provide respite from daily life nineteenth-century burial societies has been and a refuge for personal healing, but also to preserved here, a rarity in view of the con­ serve as places of public instruction - out­ temporary approach to cemetery manage­ door museums where one could pass the ment. time observing nature in the presence of the Not to be outdone in social awareness departed great, gazing at beautiful sculpture and civic pride by their neighbors across the and architecture, and reading uplifting pas­ river, the prosperous merchants and com­ sages on the monuments. Visitors would fortable middle-class families of the west side leave emotionally, morally, and intellectu­ also envisioned a spacious, beautiful, and ally improved. The purpose is still served to­ convenient garden cemetery to serve their day: with the Garfield Memorial and Wade own needs. Following Lake View's example, Chapel, currently listed in the National Reg­ the Riverside Cemetery Association was ister of Historic Places, and other monu­ duly organized and dedicated to the task of ments designed by notable artists and securing an appropriate location. In 1876, the architects, Lake View Cemetery attracts Association published a Prospectus , and many visitors throughout the year. eventually Titus Brainard's farm overlooking In 1880 Joseph Carabelli, an Italian the Cuyahoga River, in the area now sculptor and stonemason, arrived in Cleve­ bounded by Interstate 71 , West 25th Street, land and founded the Lake View Monumen­ and Denison Avenue, was chosen and pur­ tal Works on Euclid Avenue across from the chased over a period of twelve years. B.O. cemetery's main entrance. Specializing in SchwaegerI, landscape architect and engi- MARBLE MIRRORS OF SOCIETY: CEMETERIES IN CLEVELAND, 1797-1984 11

neer, was entrusted to make a thor­ the individual and designed to promote soli­ ough topographical survey and prepare tary communion with nature, was, by the plans along the lines suggested in the Pro­ 1870s, supplanted by the new "park" or spectus: "In accord with our higher and holier "lawn" ideal, "which subordinated individ­ sensibilities, cemeteries should repel from uals to society [and] paralleled the species the mind of the visitor all sense of recoil, and perspective of death. "43 while they constrain us to feelings of venera­ The park lawn design has dominated tion and repose, they should in turn call cemetery planning up to the present day. In­ about us a spirit of quiet charm and beauty in stead of wooded hillocks threaded with keeping with our reflections .. . Landscape meandering pathways and accented with architecture, as applied to modern ceme­ monuments and tombs, the park lawn ceme­ teries, is doing much to ensure this result. "39 tery features gently rolling grassy meadows The first burial in Riverside took place with selective clusters of foliage placed to in the spring of 1876, and elaborate formal "accent the openness of the plan instead of dedication ceremonies followed on Novem­ [picturesquely] shadowing the gravesites."" ber 11 of that year, with U.S. President-elect Only a few paths subdivide the lawn which Rutherford B. Hayes, then governor of Ohio, visitors cross to reach the gravesites. Few if in attendance as guest speaker. An impor­ any vertical monuments mar the desired ef­ tant portion of Cleveland's history ·is con­ fect of a vast, uninterrupted, "post card" tained in the German family names of many vista; small bronze or stone tablets placed of the monuments: "There are brewers such flush with the turf are substituted instead. as the Schlatters, Gehrings, and Leisys, the An address by the Rev. E.E. Baker in Weidemans who were wholesale grocers, 1900 to the recently organized Association of and the Spangs of bakery renown. "40 The Ja­ American Cemetery Superintendents re­ mes F. Rhodes family plot is also here. Many veals the convictions of his constituency and of the monuments were produced by the resounds with the prevailing contemporary nearby American Granite Works, estab­ viewpoint: lished in 1890 by Frank and James Uher, brothers originally from Bohemia. Although This is an age of organization . .. We must now separated from the river by the Jones & cease our individual activities. No man liveth unto Laughlin steel plant, the cemetery once af­ himself alone, and no man dieth to himself alone. forded a panoramic view of the valley's natu­ This is an age of social life, and the social point of ral beauty; gone too are the artificial lakes view, co-operation and conference, working not with rustic bridges that, along with many independently and alone, but together for the mu­ flowers and trees, once made the grounds so tual advancement of all that we represent and all that is dear to us for home, for the city, and for the romantic, as it was for couples like W.G. nation'5 Marshall, founder of what is now the Cun­ ningham Drug Store chain, and his bride, In the park lawn cemetery, all reminders of who drove through the cemetery on their individual death were eliminated. Regula­ 4J honeymoon long ago. The construction of tions forbade fences, curbings, elaborate Interstate 71 reduced the cemetery to its cur­ plantings, burial mounds, and conspicuous rent eighty-nine acres, but the declaration of markers on graves - all of which made their Riverside as a Cleveland landmark by the maintenance easier and less expensive. The Landmark Commission in 1976, the ceme­ institution of "perpetual care," whereby the tery's centennial, should halt further en­ deceased's survivors pay the cemetery man­ croachment. agement to care for the grave "in perpetu­ ity," meant the complete and final transfer of The park lawn plan responsibility for the dead from the individ­ Even as Riverside Cemetery was being ual to the corporation. With the control of constructed, the country was experiencing a one's own death now out of one's own new spirit of "Progressivism," marked by the hands, the homogenization of treatment of consolidation of business and the organiza­ the dead was quickly accomplished. tion of labor, and the abandonment of "indi­ Cleveland's 'adoption of the park lawn vidualism for cooperation .. . localism for model for its cemeteries seems to have been a cosmopolitanism. "41 The rural garden ceme­ gradual process. Cemeteries constructed tery, based upon a Romantic emphasis on here in the last two decades of the nineteenth 12 CA:\'DACE S SHIREMAN

Whitehaven Memorial Park on Clevela nd' far east side exemplifies the park plan style. Individual grave markers are at ground level, so that from a distance the cemetery looks like an uninterrupted greensward.

century and the first decade of the twentieth both included extensive undeveloped prop­ show marked differences between their old­ erty for future growth that eventually took est portions and subsequently developed shape in the park lawn style, producing the sections. The original part of Harvard Grove same visual dichotomy. fronting LanSing Avenue was laid out in In 1925, Whitehaven Memorial Park on 1880 in a simple grid pattern. Numerous old S.O.M. Center Road north of Wilson Mills monuments, mausoleums, and vertical Road on the city's far east side was pur­ markers of all shapes and sizes are packed in chased by a group of local businessmen. Its among tall trees. The back part of the acreage profitable return as an investment was as­ extending to Harvard Avenue, however, sured by effective advertising describing it as consists of a wide sloping lawn dotted with Cleveland's first park plan cemetery. It had a flat horizontal markers arranged in neat par­ huge marble mausoleum with chapel and a allel rows. Subdivided by a single Y-shaped "Tower of Memories" rising 150 feet at its road, the lawn is sparsely planted with center, the whole approachable via a 100- shrubbery and only a few trees. foot-wide esplanade. Amplifiers installed in Mayfield Road Cemetery Oewish, ded­ the tower would provide music from a con­ icated in 1887), Calvary (Catholic, 1893), and cert pipe organ for outdoor services. Highland Park (city-owned, nonsectarian, "Mounds, tombstones, and private monu­ 1904) all show similar juxtapositions of ments [were] eliminated at Whitehaven, wooded portions filled with monuments and making it appear like a beautiful private park-like sections where flat tablets predomi­ park. " '6 What more could any modern, so­ nate. With the possible exception of May­ cially conscious individual want for a place of field, which shows an admirable attempt to final repose? blend with its adjacent neighbor Lake View, True to the materialism of a rapidly these later cemeteries either began or grew developing consumer society, splashy ad­ from transfers of graves from older burial vertisements in The Plain Dealer and The Sun­ grounds. Such activity usually meant move­ day News between 1929 and 1931 announced ment of monuments as well as bodies, and so the development of Crown Hill Cemetery on the sections marked for relocation in the Route 91 at Twinsburg, midway between newer cemeteries have an older appearance. Cleveland and Akron. If the time was ripe for Even Lake View and Riverside, although ini­ something bigger and better, Crown Hill tially conceived in the rural garden mode, promised to deliver the ultimate, located so MARBLE MIRRORS OF SOCIETY: CEMETERIES IN CLEVELAND,1797-1984 13

far from Cleveland as to be almost perma­ not the American dream then at least an ad­ nently insured against undesirable en­ vertiser's dream, was not a complete disas­ croachment in future years. Its out-of-town ter, however. The formation of a Crown Hill promoters touted its departure "from the Cemetery Association by local businessmen co nventional cemetery in that it seeks to and the establishment of an endowment res­ make the resting spots of those who people it cued the life savings of many contrite a part of the natural scheme of the 256 acre Greater Clevelanders, and the cemetery is tract." Tombstones were discouraged, re­ still in operation today. strictions were placed on family monu­ Acacia Masonic Memorial Park on the ments, and the use of "Old English" east side and Lakewood Park and Sunset architecture "complimentary [sic] to the rus­ Memorial Park on the west side are only a ticity and stately beauty of the acreage" was few among many cemeteries following to complete the vision. We are left to wonder Whitehaven's lead. They serve a wide range at how the rainbow-hued fountain, water­ of people while preserving the unifying park fa ll s, and tinted marble corridors of the mau­ lawn ideal of cemetery planning, now the soleum ("as fine as kings had a few short sole contemporary model in Cleveland as it yea rs ago and yet in reach of average peo­ is throughout the rest of the country. But ple") fit in with the "natural rusticity'" hardy individuals can still express their atti­ We were not to know, as the projected tudes toward life in alternative burial prac­ $1,500,000 plan later proved to be an elabo­ tices. Riverside Cemetery preserves ra te attempt to defraud the public of thou­ "personal landscaping opportunities"; the sa nds of dollars in adva nce burial lot corn that is still planted on the Indian graves subscriptions by mea ns of false advertising. in the Erie Street Cemetery and the adorn­ The ensuing scandal culminated in the con­ ments occasionally visible on the grave of vic tion of the cemetery's promoters, who Lizzie Ely, "Queen of the Gypsies" indicate had perpetrated the same scheme in Chicago that the spirits of some of Cleveland's own a few years before. This telling instance of, if are not easily bought.

NOTES

I Epitaph cited by George Davis, " Play Ball on Burial Lot," Cleveland Press, Aug. 14, 1937, sec. 2, p . 9. , Eric johannesen, Clevela nd Architecture 1876-1976 (Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1979), p. ix.

1 james Stephen Curl, A Celebra tion of Dea th: Introduction to Some of the Buildi ngs, Mo numents, and Settillgs of Funerary Architectllre ill the Weste rn Eu ropean Tradition (N ew York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980), p . 69 . , Curl, p . 69. ' Curl, p . 74. ' Curl, p . 72. - Curl, p . 74. • Curl, p. 103. , Curl, p . 135.

10 joh n Francis Ma ri on , Famolls alld Cu rio li S Cemeteries (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1977), p . 4.

II S. j . Kell y, "The First Cemetery of Cleveland," Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 11 , 1939, p . 6. I' Will ia m Ganson Rose, Cleveland: the Ma king of a City (Cleveland: World Publishing Co ., 1950), p . 35 .

I' Although Erie Street Cemetery, opened in 1826, is considered the first o ffi cial city cemetery, its fo u nding by civic- minded Clevelanders is predated by an earlier community effort further east. In 1823, "job Doan and associates, acting as The Society for a Publick Burying Ground in the East Part of Cleaveland near job Doan's Esq r. ," purchased about an acre and a half on the northwest corner of Euclid Avenue at Ea st 105th Street, then ca ll ed Doan's Corners. "Stately elms bord ered the pro pe rty, the no rth end used as a cemetery w hile the south end served as a village common," a combination prevalent in early New England (Rose, p p . 99-100). The cemetery still existed in 1857; in 1895 the Euclid Avenue Congregational Church was built at the co rner, and this site eventuall y ca me under the ownership o f the Cleveland Trust Compa ny in 1905. The developments in the general area suggest that the old cemetery was demolished around this time. 14 CANDACE 5. SHIREMAN

" Pilgurrah, meaning "pilgrim's rest," corresponds to the name of the Moravian missionary settle­ ment founded in that general area in 1786, predating the village of Cleveland by a decade. The "Old Indian" designation may refer to Indian burial mounds in the vicinity. Also buried in this cemetery is Silence Hathaway, a direct descendant of Priscilla Alden. Uo hn Sabol, "Pioneer Graveyard Needs Help," Cleveland Press, Sept. 28, 1970.)

15 Elle n Laughry Price, A History of East Cleveland (East Cleveland, Ohio: 1970), p. 44. I. Rose, p. 70. ,- Rose, pp. 67-68.

18 Rose, p. 68. " Rose, p. 70. ,. Cuyahoga County Cemetery Inscriptions, typescript compiled by the Lakewood Chapter D.A.R. and Western Reserve Hi storical Society, Cleveland, 1978, p. 1. In the Western Reserve Historical Society.

11 Cuyahoga County Cemetery Inscrip tiolls, 1978, n.p.

22 Cuyahoga County Cemetery irl scriptions , typescript compiled by the Western Reserve Historial Society, 2 vols., Cleveland, 1934, p . 322. In the WRHS. According to Ca roline Piercy's Valley of God's Pleasure: a Saga of the North Union Shaker Community, this portion of the Western Reserve was then known as North Union, hence the Shaker society's name. The Believers th emselves called their settlement "The Valley of God's Pleasure." (Piercy, N.Y.: Stratford House, 1951 , pp. 3, 219.)

13 Cuyahoga . . Inscriptions (1934) , p. 322. ,. Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Committee on City Planning, Erie Street Cemetery: Report (Cleve- land, 1923), p. 7.

25 Rose, p. 106. " Cleveland Chamber of Commerce Report , p. 5.

27 Rose, p. 725.

1M The report ci ted "occasional use of the old burial ground as a rendezvous for thieves or as a temporary cache for their loot. The space behind the old va ult is used as a distributing market by illicit dealers in cocaine, opium and other drugs. Even old gra ves have been 'raided' more than once by officers of the law for contraband liquor. " (Cleveland Chamber of Commerce Report , p. 7.) ,. Robert E. Tidyman, '''God's Acre' Now Lies Amid Ruins," Plain Dealer, March 12, 1959, p. 50. )() Rose, p. 166.

J1 "Cemetery To Be Moved For Nickel Plate," Cleveland Press, March 2, 1928, sec. 2, p. 21.

J2 Robert J. Liederbach, Cleveland Past: with No tes (Cleveland: DillonlLiederbach, Inc. , 1975), p. 57 .

33 Rose, p. 315. " Ownership of this cemetery, located on East 118th Street just north of Euclid Avenue, has been in question since East Cleveland was annexed in 1892. It is usually referred to as East Cleveland Cemetery,. was once known as Wade Park Cemetery, and also bears the official name of East Cleveland/Cleveland ~elght s Cemetery. As recently as 1960, the city of Cleveland was still disclaiming all rights and responslblhhes as owner.

35 James J. Farrell, In ven ting the American Way of Death , 1830-1920 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980), p. 109. 36 The Lake View Cemetery Association, Lake View Cemetery (current promotional pamphlet, n.d.). " Gene P. Veronesi, Italian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland (Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland State University Ethnic Monograph Series, 1977), pp. 188, 198-99,224.

J8 Lake View pamphlet, n. p.

39 Cleveland Riverside Cemetery Association, Prospectus (Cleveland, 1876), pp. 4, 6.

40 Cleveland Pt:ess~Sept. 27, 1978.

41 Ibid . " Farrell, pp. 117, 118. " Farrell, p. 118.

44 Farrell, p. 116.

45 Farrell, pp. 116-117. The founding of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents (AACS) in 1887 marked the establishment of that occupation as a respected profession and provided an organized forum for the spread of the park plan, which its members consistently supported . .. Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 15, 1928. 15

Arthur Geoffion's Landmark Complex 16

Cleveland's situation at the edge of a large body of water has always fascinated architects, builders, designers, and the residents of the city. They have proposed various projects to exploit it: airports, landfill s, malls, entertainment centers. One of the more imaginative proposals is that of Arthur Geoffrion of Willowick, Ohio, who worked with Waco CG gliders during World War II and was until his retirement an art director at TRW. Geoffrion's idea, expressed in the plans and renderings reproduced here, has three components: it is a landmark, a transportation base, and an entertai nment center. The landmark aspect is revealed in the drawing below, which shows an immense, graceful arm holding a sphere suspended from its end and pointing over the lake- in Geoffrion's words "a sophisticated sculptural edifice w hich . . . Would ri va l the Eiffel Tower or the arch at St . Louis." The arm is a launching ramp for gliders (see sectional Fig.I). Each glider would hold twelve paying passengers and be launched by means of a catapult from a moving platform sup­ ported on a cushion of compressed air. The glider ride might be for amusement (a silent turn through the air over the city) or transportation (a flight to Canada or Put-in-Bay). As the figure shows, the arm can be turned in any direction to project the gliders, which are designed to land on any smooth water - they are equipped with retractable hydrofoils and auxil­ iary motors for taxiing. Gliders that land at a distance from the Landmark can be economically towed back over the lake. They are stored in the base of the complex until ready for use. The most striking part of this unusual idea is the ball on the end of the arm. As Fig. 2 shows, the ball is a globe 70 feet in diameter suspended by cables from the arm and regularly moving up and down to receive and discharge customers. The globe has six levels, including an entrance, restaurants, and a lounge, with total room for 700 eaters, drinkers, or spectators. The project is in the planning stage but its author has received some publicity in local news­ papers. Although the entire complex would cost some hundreds of millions to build, Geoffrion is at present seeking $10,000 for a scale model, which he believes would convince skeptics of the beauty and practicality of the Landmark. He also maintains that the restaurant, entertainment activities, and glider rides would make his Landmark a financially profitable operation. While this la st point is difficult to judge, few would dispute that the plan is bold and ingenious.

Arthur Geoffrion , designer of the Landmark Complex . LANDMARK COMPLEX (CONSTRUCTED OFF-SHORE ON LANDFILL)

GLIDER ABOUT TO TAKE

C ABLE S ~ r >­ oZ ESCALATING GLOBE 3:: 6UOER .....mATED PlATfDRll 16 OBSERVATION & RE STAURANT fLOO lEUCTROMC MAGNETlC PROPUlSION) >­:;;:> A no SURFACE OF CIRCULAR RAMP GLIDER RETURNING 3:: (FOR GLOBE FROM SOARING TO COASTAL CITIES >;) HAR \ r tTl ><

CIRCULAR AREA INSIDE RAMP TUNNEL INLET {fROM HARBORI 1125 fT. BY 1y , MI. CIRCUMfERENCE (EXHIBITS' SPORTS' CONCESSIONS' PARKING ) CATAPULT - ROTATES TO FACE WIND GLIDER (REUSAB LE) : EMBARKI NG LEV ELS INLETS FROM ARTIFICIAL LAKE SERVI CIN G AREAS ELEVATOR

Fig . 1. Schematic view of catapult base.

...... 'I 18 LANDMARK COMPLEX

SUSPENSION CABLES -----1 110Ft 0;'.1 18 C..IUII'SI OBSERV. nON LOUNGE GLOBE REVOl VfNG "ECHANIS" / 'R<.f'.sh.ltn'IS . $anC.uich(>S 1

ILOUNGE Seal tno 42) CHAIRS (Wllh Side _TT:" :Y';I ~~~;~~'I

OTTOMANS (Wl1" Stde Tray.' 51h FlOOR RESTAURANT ISeallno 26 Adul l. 1120 Customers) Of 30 Ct"~r.,,) FlOOR RESTAURANT (188 Customers)

FOOD COUNTERS 3I'd FLOOR RESTAURANT , EI1(: " F IOOfI f 188 Customers)

DUMB WAITER (2)

WINDOWS ------ftt'-t;-r-r

GALLE v I FOOd Prepar.llon F()( Restaur.n'll

E l( V ATORSHAFT-~-~II~r1~~rl VIEW

WINDOWS

LAVA TORIES ,0 0 A ll FlvorSI

COuNTER GAllEY AREA I For Food PteP'lf. llon,

!,l-t1t--'"I"IL~.-!!I-- OU M B W AITER

TRA V COUNUR IF or WaH." , Dumb Wall __ , ElE VA TOR

2nd FLOOR GALLEY & RESTAURANT (Cross·S.ctional View at Point Shown in Top View) Fig. 2. Landmark Complex: escalating globe. Elizabeth P Kirk Severance Hall, Cleveland's Temple of Music

Visitors to Cleveland's University Cir­ chestra, completed in 1931 in the depths of cle, where most of the city's major cultural the Great Depression. For some Cleveland­ institutions are clustered, are immediately ers at the time, this architectural gem, stately struck by a massive yet graceful edifice over­ without, tastefully sumptuous within, was a looking the Art Museum's lagoon on one feast of extravagance at a time when food side and the campus of Case Western Re­ and jobs were scarce. For the millionaire serve University on the oth er. The building is principal donor, it was a deeply personal me­ Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Or- morial to his beloved wife (it has been called 20 r LIZABETH P KIRK

Cleveland's Taj Mahal). For a ll who view it, ca me the nucleus of a natural and cultural Severance Hall is a testa me nt to the achieve­ preserve. It was the first of several donations ment-and a few of the mistakes- possible that created an extensive chain of park land when a numbe r of wealthy, public-spirited reaching from Lake Erie to the new residen­ amateurs join forces with their community in ti al area in Cleveland Heights and Shaker a major civic e nte rprise. Heights south and east of University Circle. By 1928, w hen the dreams of an or­ Shortly after Wade Park was donated, action chestra hall finally began to be realized, was taken to preserve the surrounding prop­ Cleveland was a cit y in it s prime. The 1928 erty for cultural development. In the 1880s, City Directory boldly proclaimed C leveland to both Western Reserve University and Case be " The Fifth Ci ty in the Nation in Popula­ Institute of Applied Science were established ti o n; The Comme rcial, Financial and Indus­ on properties adjoining it. Wade's grandson, trial Metropo li s of O hio; A City of Progress, J. H. Wade, arranged to have land designated Beauty and Industria l Acti vity and Achieve­ so th at the Cleveland Museum of Art could men!. " Two-thirds of a ll Creat Lakes ship­ be built on the Wade allotment in 1916. With ping was owned or cont ro ll ed by Cleveland the Museum and the two schools in place, business. It was a nati o na l leader in manu­ University Circle's destiny as a cultural cen­ facturing and the g reate t iron ore marke t in ter was assured. the world . Plans for an orchestra hall first took Influential Clevela nders, wishing the root in the discussions of the Cleveland Con­ city to refl ect the ir glo ry, erected fine build­ ference for Educational Cooperation (later in gs and set them off w ith ex te nsive park known as the Conference for Educational lands. The " Croup Pl an " for developme nt Planning) in 1924. Organized by Frederick o f the downtown mall area was rapidly being Allen White, Director of the Cleveland Mu­ reali zed in an impressive g ro up of civic seum of Art, this conference brought to­ buildings.' The City Directory urged trad e gether the officers and executives of nineteen and profeSS iona l o rganizati ons to bring th eir major educational and cultural organizations next conventio n to C leveland, citing as e n­ in the area.' In the course of the conference, ti cements the cit y's parks, art gall e ri e , mu­ representatives of Western Reserve Univer­ seums, and coll eges. Clearl y, culture and ed­ sity and the Musical Arts Association discov­ u ca tion were fl o uris hing a long with ered their mutual need for an auditorium com mercial success. and began to discuss possible cooperation in The area's park syste m grew rapidly erecting a single building. between 1880 and 1900, along w ith the new The Cleveland Orchestra had been cultural center in University Circle. Jeptha leading a nomadic existence since its found­ Wade had transformed acreage at the far ing in 1918. Performances were given at the eastern end of the city into a park, " in which Cleveland Grays' Armory, which was also the skill of the landscape artist had touched used for commercial exhibitions and poultry the attractions of nature but to adorn," and shows. The Orchestra moved to the more donated it to the city in 1882' Wade Park be- spacious Masonic Auditorium after the first

Elizabeth P. Kirk, a I/ative of Toledo, Ohio, has th ree acadelllic degrees: a B. FA. in music history (froll1 Lake Erie College), an M. A. il/lllllsicology, al/d an M. S. in library sciel/ce (both froll1 Case Westem Reserve Ul1i ver­ sity). Sh e says that she is inquisitive by nature: " One way or aI/ oth er, Illy three degrees all relate to procuril/g illforll1ation. " Ms. Kirk 's fascil/atioll with Severance Hall began ill 1975 when she interned with Klall s Roy, publications director for the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1980, she worked as a consultant involved in the celebration of the fiftieth anl1iversa ry of the Hall, and wrote the text for th e souvenir book, Severance Hall - The First Fifty Years. From 1981 to 1985 she served as Executive Director of th e Young Audiences program in Cleveland. When she recelltly decided to launch into a career as a free-lance writer, the building of Severa li ce seemed a natural topic to begin with. SEVERANCE HALL, CLEVELAND'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC 21

Adeli a Prentiss Hughes (ca. 1910), a moving force John D. Rockefell er, Jr.: he initially declined to con­ behind the Cleveland O rchestra and its home, tribute to a new orchestra hall, though eventually Severance Hall . he gave substantial help. season, but scheduling around Masonic cer­ ow that the Musical Arts Association is definitely emonials was a problem. Tours were usually established in s upport of a permanently e ndowed arranged for times when the hall was un­ orchestra and as a result of this, there is no doubt available, but still various rehearsal sites whatever of its undertaking to build a home for the were often required. Sometimes the Hanna Orchestra in the next few years. I once more want to ask yo ur consid eration of donating that piece of and Ohio Theatres were used, sometimes ground to the Musical Arts Association for that Euclid Avenue Baptist Church or Keith's Pal­ purpose. There is a large sum of money for a Music ace Theatre. As one critic remarked, orches­ Hall promised to us by one of our most interested tra manager Adelia Prentiss Hughes "was supporters, but I am not now at liberty to go into never driven to occupy the East 9th Street details. .In the nature of things, I ca nnot go on pier or the Public Square, but she had a lively indefinitely and it would be a great satisfaction if run about the city, attempting the appropri­ the quarter century could be reached and a perma­ ate presentation of her artists. '" Being a ten­ nent building for music assured in Cleveland. ant was hard enough, but Mrs. Hughes fi­ Just who that donor might have been re­ nally lost patience when Orchestra members mains unclear. Rockefeller denied the re­ were unable to concentrate for the buzzing of quest, advising, "When the time comes that vacuum cleaners readying the Palace Theater you will undertake the building of a music for an afternoon show.' hall definitely, regardless of whether we Adella Prentiss Hughes was a woman make a contribution or not, yo u may write to of great determination and her plea, "Would me again. "6 But Adelia Prentiss Hughes did music never be given the first consideration not give up. Plans for a music hall at East anywhere?" became a call to action. Long be­ 40th Street, by architect Frank W. Bail , still fore the Cleveland Conference for Educa­ exist' ti onal Cooperation, she investigated alterna­ tives for a permanent Orchestra Hall. First Welcome support finall y appeared in she turned to former Clevelander John D. the Educational Group Planning Commis­ Rockefeller, Jr. , for assistance. Trading on her sion . Discussion progressed from wheth er an friendship with his family, Mrs. Hughes ap­ orchestra hall was necessary to where one pealed to him for donation of some Rockefel­ could be located . Initially the Musical Arts ler property at Euclid Avenue and East 40th Association Executive Committee had mixed Street, in an April 6, 1920 letter: reactions to the proposal of University Circle 22 ELIZABETH P. KIRK

as a location. Some members were convinced Turner. Severance donated extensively to the that moving so far from Public Square would leveland Mu eum of Art's coIIections, chief kill the struggling organization. Two event among his gifts being the Court of Armor simplified the decis ion . Inquiries determined and Tapestries. It is not surprising that a per­ that the cost of lots near Public Square was son of his wealth and interests should be prohibitive. And a survey by Mrs. Hughe cho en to head the boards of the Musical revealed that the highest concentration of or­ Art Association and the Cleveland Museum chestra subscribers and Maintenance Fund of Art. donors was centered around University Cir­ Severance's response to McCornack's cle and in th new east rn suburbs. plans was encouraging. His only major ob­ The decision to locate in University Cir­ jection was that the main auditorium needed cle was progress, but the fu ture of the orches­ to have a real stage, with equipment for pre­ tra 's home was still uncertain. Three critical senting operettas and plays, rather than one steps remained: to determine specific require­ designed exclusively for an orchestra. Mc­ ments fo r a hall, to secure financing, and to et Cornack's plans were discussed, then re­ a precise locati on fo r it. The Musical Arts As­ vised through most of 1928. Price estimates sociati on granted Wal ter McCornack, archi­ based on square footage of these plans sug­ tect for the Cleveland Board of Education from gested that the building could be erected for 1912 to 1925, permission to submit drawing $950,000. for a fac ili ty. McCornack studied his subject The University proposed that the hall extensively. He traveled east to examine con­ be located at the corner of East Boulevard cert hall s, incl uding Philadelphia's Academy and Euclid Aven ue, on land previously of Music and Carnegie Hall, and consul ted owned by the First Church of Christ, Scien­ with acoustical engi neer Clifford Swan. By tist, and intended as the site of a church.' "It February, 1928 he had sketches ready for was only because the Educational Group Adeli a Prentiss Hughes. These consisted of Pla n had behind it the power of a group, as the bare essentials: a symphony hall with distinguished from that of anyone or two in­ boxes and foye r, and another, small er hall at stitu ti ons, that it was possible to acquire [this the stage end of the buil ding for use by the lot] ... , where plans fo r a most attractive Universi ty and the Orchestra' buildi ng had been completed and arrange­ Jo hn Lo ng Severance was among the ments made to start the work. "10 Western Re­ firs t to review these pla ns. H is involvement serve University purchased the property in at th is time was as Presid ent of the Musical 1927, wi th the idea that an auditorium might Arts Associati on, not as prospecti ve donor of be constructed there. University President the new building. Severance was a descen­ Ro bert Vinson brought John Severance a ten­ da nt of Clevela nd 's pioneer fa milies. H is tati ve layout of th e pro perty made by Frank great-grandfa ther, David Long, came to the Wa lker and Abram Garfie ld, consulting ar­ city in 1810 as its first practicing physician. chitects fo r the Universi ty. John Severance had inherited wealth from Detail ed restrictions had been im posed his father's successful ventures in the Stan­ by the Wa de Realty Company on the dimen­ dard Oil Company, and increased it th rough sions, purpose, and cost of any building business dealings as President of the Cleve­ erected in that locati on. The Wa de fa mi ly had la nd Arcade Company a nd a director of donated and still controll ed much of the Cleveland Trust. He was a financier with an property in Uni versity Circle; any plan con­ interest in a steel firm , Youngstown Sheet sidered by the Musical Arts Association for and Tube, and many other enterprises. His that site would need approval by the Wade tastes in the arts were well developed . He interests. Consideration of alternati ve si tes was reputed to have a fin e tenor voice and was abandoned whe n the University trust­ visitors to the Severance estate, Longwood, ees approved donation of the Euclid-East could depend on having first-rate musical Boulevard lot at t.h eir June, 1928 meeting." entertainment. Before Severance assisted in Their only condition was that $500,000 to founding Cleveland 's orchestra, he was $600,000 be raised to support the mai nte­ helping to sponsor touring artists . Long­ nance of the new building. wood housed Severance's famous art coll ec­ By late summer, the appearance and tion, which included works by Reynolds and location of the new music hall seemed far SEVERANCE HALL, CLEVELAND'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC 23

First Church of Christ Scientist, designed by Severance Hall architects Walker and Weeks, and originall y planned to occupy the site of Sever­ ance Hall. The resemblance is obvious. The church was actually built about a half mile to the east, in Cleveland Heights.

more definite than did any method of paying materially enhance the feeling of gratitude felt by fo r it. Vinson had approached Severance ear­ the citi zens of Cleveland. It is a gesture-if the gift lier that year about a donation. Severance of a million dollars may be described as a gesture­ was interested, but would not commit him­ which expresses all the deep interest, loyalty, and self. Various Orchestra su pporters had devotion which John Severance fee ls to and for talked of making endowment contributions, Cleveland. It is tangible evidence of hi s belief in but even promises were few. The stage was our future. " set for a decisive action to break the stalemate Severance Hall became a more per­ and drive the project forward. The wait was a sonal ca use than Severance had anticipated. short one. Scarcely a month after the anniversary con­ On December 11, 1928, the Orchestra cert, Elisabeth DeWitt Severance died of a celebrated its tenth anniversary with a gala stroke at their Pasadena, California home. In co ncert at the Public Music Hall. Given the a March 25, 1929 letter to Frank H . Ginn, Mu­ festive mood of the evening, it is unlikely sical Arts Association trustee and Building that either audience or musicians were sur­ Committee chairman, Severance made it prised when Musical Arts Association Vice clear that the hall would be dedicated to his President Dudley S. Blossom walked out wife and all aspects of its equipment and con­ onto the stage before the Orchestra dis­ struction should be fitting for a memorial. persed for intermission. Conversatio ns Severance assumed all costs of building and stopped as attention turned back to the stage furnishing the hall that exceeded the original and the audience waited for Bl ossom to gift. Throughout the next two years, he de­ speak. Delight and astonishme nt swept voted his time and income to creating this through the auditorium at Blossom's an­ tribute. nouncement that John and Elisabeth Sever­ In addition to Severance, several other ance had agreed to give $1,000,000 for a new powerful Clevelanders played key roles in hall, providing the University donated the the construction of the new Hall. Like most land and friends of the Orchestra raised an people who were deeply involved with its endowment of $2,000,000 to $2,500,000. Sev­ planning, AdelIa Prentiss Hughes had also erance had provided timely leadership. The been a force in establishing the Orchestra. Cleveland Bystal1der later summed up public Her career as a musical entrepreneur began reaction by saying, at Vassar College when she managed a tour Great gifts bestowed with a wisdom commensu­ by the college banjo club. Cleveland's cul­ rate to the magnitude of the gift are rare indeed. tural life owed much to her promotional ac­ The thought and fine appreciation of the urgent tivities. Beginning in 1898, until she became needs of this city evident in the million-dollar completely absorbed in founding and man­ benefaction proffered by Mr. John Long Severance aging The Cleveland Orchestra, Mrs. 24 ELI ZABETH P KIRK

Hughes provided citizens w ith cultural u ­ hand. His love of music was undiminished te na nce, engaging vi iting orche tra , fa ­ by the accident. Blossom undoubtedly mou soloist , a nd to uring o pera companie . shared Severance's conviction that music She brought a li vely a ppreciati o n for the had an important place in the community practical sid e of the art to he r job a rche­ and he did much to support it. Though a tra Ma nager. A a me mb r of the Building heart attack in 1928 left Blossom an in valid o mmittee, Mr . Hug h immer ed hers If for well over a year, he still agreed to under­

in the uti litarian a pe t of hall planning . I) take the Endowment Campaign. Frank inn wa a natural choice a The Endowment Campaign actually Build ing Committee cha irma n . He and Sev­ tarted long before the public fund drive of erance had worked tog ther in fo unding the April 11-19, 1929. Many of the large gifts Orchestra and as uring it continued g rowth were quietly solicited, and by February,,1929, by serving o n the Mu ical Art A ociati on BI os om telegraphed Severance to say that Board . A prominent orporate a ttorney in $2,000,500 had already been pledged by the firm of To ll e , Ilogsett, a nd Ginn (now twenty-one people. Bl ossom and his wife Jo nes, Day, Reavis, and Pogu ), fo r many Eli zabeth led the field with a substa ntial con­ years he wa a ociated w ith the real e tate tribution of $750,000. John Severance intere t of the Va n weringen bro ther (who pledged an additional $250,000 for the en­ created haker He ig ht ), a nd he wa a direc­ dowment on top of his gift for the hall . Sam­ tor of two of the ir ra ilroad . uel Mather, the Cleveland mill io naire whose G inn's commitment to mu ic e tended wealth came from his ex tensive interests in beyond the O rche tra. He wa a member of mining and teelmaking, gave $400,000 and the orthe rn O hio pera A ociation and an John D. Rockefell er, Jr., ca me forward with ac ti ve supporte r of cha mber mu ic. When an unexpected donation of $250,000 . the leveland tring Quartet \Va founded in The newspapers enthusiastically sup­ 1919, G inn took a personal inte re t in it wel­ ported the Campaign. A Pla;1l Dealer h ea ~ ­ fare, and for many year the e nsemble per­ line on March 16, 1929, read, " Can MusIC fo rmed a monthly Sunday evening concert in Reach the Pocketbook? Melody is Salve for hi s home. G inn a l 0 sha red verance's in­ Chafed Soul s, But Orchestra Asks tere t in art. He had a large collecti on of $2,500,000." On April 7, 1929, in Th e News, paintings, specializing in modern Fre nch Archie Be ll took a different tack, alluding to works that he frequently I nt for exhibits . the multiple uses of the Grays' Armory: When Dudley BI os om announced the " Cleveland Habit of Mixing Music With Severance gif t, he assumed leadership in giv­ Poultry Shows, Trac tors and Trained Seals ing Cleveland a fitting orche tra hall. Unlike Will Come to an End With Completion of the Hug hes a nd G inn, Bl ossom was not in­ Orchestra's ew Home." volved with physical planning . His responsi­ Over 500 volunteers directed by fifty bility was money, and he was unique ly team leaders flocked to campaign headquar­ suited to the role. Bl ossom was involved with the community through his work as ters at the Hotel Cleveland to kick off the City Welfare Director. Area financial leaders Campaign. PTAs, sc hools, and community were already well acquainted with his fu nd­ groups took part. The Orchestra E nd owm ~ nt raising effo rts on behalf of the Community had become a public cause. The CampaIgn Fund, and Blossom had invaluable contacts tall y revealed that over 3,000 people were en­ whe n he became C hairman of the O rchestra gaged in th e drive to give their orchestra ItS Endowment Campaign . home. Contributions ranging fro m seven Blossom was a fine amateur violinist cents to hundreds of thousands brought the and for many years he enj oyed taking part in End owm e nt Campa ig n to its total o f musical productions of the H ermit Club. One $2,363,070, and the Maintenance fund re­ cold winter night in 1924 Blossom's car broke quired by the Univers ity to a grati fy ing down and he was forced to walk several $650,000. The initiative to build the Hall miles to get help. Both of his hands were se­ started with 'O nly a few dedica ted people, but verely frostbitten and though he retained use soon became a city-wide commitment. of them, Blossom's violin playing was cur­ Once a major portion of the endow­ tailed by the loss of two fingers on each ment money had been pledged, it was possi- SEVERANCE HALL, CLEVELAND'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC 25

ble for the Musical Arts Association to make definite plans for an architect. McCornack's agreement had been provisional. He had wi thdrawn from the firm of Warner, Mc­ Cornack, and Mitchell in October, 1928, and wa without the su pport of an office. The Building Committee wanted to consider new alternatives. A flurry of correspondence en­ sued among Gi nn, Severance, Blossom, and McCornack. Ginn telegraphed Severance with an urgent message on January 4, 1929: " Have received from Dudley Blossom im ­ portant and reliable information on account of which Dudley and I seriously doubt Mc­ Cornack's qualifications as an architect. " He followed this up wi th a letter three days later say ing " Bo th Dudley a nd I agree that ... [we] much preferred to have the work done through an established office and organization .. .. My own preference is Wa lker and Weeks, as I feel they are the best Key figures in the building of Severance Hall. Top architectural organizati on in Cleveland and left: John L. Severance, who contributed the funds are best equipped to do the work from all for the actual construction and furnishing of the standpoints." Severance agreed w ith Ginn, hall . Top right: Frank H. Ginn, Building Committee though he pointed out that " There are many chairman. Bottom: Dudley S. Blossom, chairman of good things about his [McCornack's] plans the Orchestra Endowment Ca mpaign. that I like .. . . It is possible that Fritz Walker, while incorporating the general design of the auditorium proper could design th e external appearance of the building and make it equall y pleasing while eliminating much of this waste space."" McCornack heard rumors about Blos­ som 's allegations against his professional 26 [L/ZAB · H r KIRK

Longitudinal m the original plan of tJ.t..· ""., ..,

. ", ro u « ·&.) .l,

competence, and he wrote to Severance on longer supported by a firm . They agreed March 21, 1929, " I understand that a lack of with Robert Vinson's suggesti on th at Gar­ confidence in my ability to execute my plans field and Wa lker be given a chance to submit has arisen, and that I have been approached plans beca use of " their association wi th a to sell them. There are some things in life that number of people who will be contributors to are more important to me than money. My the Endowment fund," but they did want to time can be bought, but my professional rep­ treat McCornack fa irly. " utation in being able to carry through to com­ Walker, Garfi eld, and McCornack were pletion any building I design ca nnot be ques­ already acquainted with each other and the tioned or bought .. . . With the project so proposed building site. They had been archi­ well developed, it is a reflecti on on my pro­ tectural advisors on the University co mmis­ fessional standing to be replaced." sion to recommend a scheme fo r future de­ Neither Ginn nor Severance was anx­ velopment of the University Circle area. ious to deny credit for what McCornack had Severance preferred Walker's firm, Walker done on the project, but he had become un­ and Weeks, and the Building Committee en­ pleasantly contentious. Whether or not their dorsed his choice. On May 10, 1929, Frank suspicions about McCornack's ability to Ginn asked the Musical Arts Association Ex­ carry out his plans were true, he was no ecutive Committee to rescind their Decem- SEVERANCE HALL, CLEVELAND'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC 27

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];'. ber, 1928 resolution authorizing McCornack sca ttered throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, to make drawings for the Hall , and to arrive and Indiana; Cleveland alone had forty­ at a contract with Walker and Weeks as the seven major structures by them, including architects. The Musical Arts Association pur­ th e Guardian Building (National City Bank, chased McCornack's drawin gs for their use. 1915), the Fe d eral Reserve Bank (1923), To alleviate hard feelings, both Garfield and Cleveland Public Library (1925), and the Al­ McCornack were named as architectural con­ len Memorial Medical Library (1926). sultants on the project, and McCornack was Their reputation was founded on beau­ evidentl y pacifi ed by this solution . Building tifully crafte d , monume ntal buildings . Committee correspondence s uggests that Walker and Weeks interpreted Clevelanders' neither of them played an active role in fu­ desire to celebrate their city's prosperity ture planning. through rich architectural statements. The Severa nce's ch oice of Walker and firm 's designs tended to synthesize various Weeks was unsurprising, give n the time and styles in a harmo ni ous eclecticism. Frank place that the Hall was being built. It was a Walker had studied at the Ecole des Beaux­ leading architectural firm in Cleveland fr om Arts in Pari s and his work retained classical its start in 1911 until Harry E. Weeks's death elements that bl e nded with other styles. in 1935. Buildings designed by them were Walker and Weeks's buildings used rich ma- 28 ELIZABETH P. KIRK

I'hoto made January 20, 1930, shows beginning of construction.

teri a ls a nd decorations: marble and gran it e with stru ctural soundness. For better or both in side and out; bronze, iron, and alumi­ worse, Severance Hall became a design in num for railings, g rilles, and ornaments; compromise. fr escos, sc ulptures, and murals which be­ The planners had various ideals of came an int egral part of their designs. It is what the building should be. Severance s mall wonder that John Severance chose wanted a beautiful monument to his wife, an Wa lker and Weeks to des ign his monumental auditorium which would have splendid Hall after viewing the splendors of Cleveland acoustics and facilities to stage dramatic Public Library and the Federal Reserve events. In deference to Mrs. Severance's Bank." wishes, he also stressed the need for the Hall Building Committee members worked to be accessible and comfortable for patrons. closely with the architects; even minor deci­ The Building Committee was concerned with sions about decorative materials and designs efficiency of time and cost. The University had to be approved by Severance or Ginn. was concerned that concert facilities be Severance was kept abreast of developments adaptable for lecture and assembly space. w hile he was vacationing by regular letters Walker and Weeks had to accommodate from Gi nn, Hughes, a nd Vinson. Walker and these varied priorities and at the same time Weeks sent detailed reports and photo­ design an architecturally beautiful and tech­ graphs to Severance when he was wintering nically excellent structure. It was no easy at his home in Pasadena, California. Ginn task. kept a tight rein on the proceedings and The Euclid Avenue-East Boulevard lo­ either met or corresponded with the archi­ cation imposed severe limitations on the ar­ tects weekly. Few aspects of the construction chitects. The lot was an unusual triangular and furnishing of Severance Hall escaped his shape facing a busy intersection. The Wade scrutiny and all contracts and payments were restrictions dictated guidelines for the build­ authorized by Ginn. ing's design and its use: the new hall could Walker and Weeks had the task of rec­ be used only for educational or religious pur­ onciling structural and esthetic demands in a poses and not for commercial ones; it had to building already partially designed by an­ cost a minimum of $125,000 and have walls other architect. There were occasions when covered with marble, granite, or another priorities of the donors conflicted with rec­ suitable stone. Even building placement on ommendations by the professionals. Beauty the lot was specified. The Museum of Nat­ and versatility were not always compatible ural History donated several feet of land SEVERANCE HALL, CLEVELAND'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC 29

Bv March 10, 1930, structural steel encloses the main auditorium. from their adjoining lot to better accommo­ creating an orchestra pit, at need. date the new hall. 17 The Building Committee had clear no­ The si te also posed estheti c chall enges. tions about seating. They spec ifi ed 800 main­ Stvli sti ca ll y, the building had to be compati­ fl oor chairs, primarily in front of the balcony, ble w ith the Museum of Art and the All en a full horseshoe of twenty-five boxes, and Me mori al Medical Library which flanked it approximately 900 dress ci rcl e and balcony on e ithe r side. There was danger th at a suit­ chairs to be arranged in sweeping curves ably grand hall would be obtrusive besid e its above them . Sight lines were to be given rig­ neighbors. A relief model was constructed of orous attention. The auditorium seated ap­ th e area so the problem could be evaluated. prox im ately 1900 (432 less than the Masonic Wa lker and Weeks planned a creative solu­ Audit orium), and the Chamber Music Hall tion by dividing the mass of the building 424. Mrs. Hughes extolled the virtues of a across the corner in a central rotunda wi th small e r facility: "Even th e fifty-cent seat wi ngs sweeping back on two sides. This hold ers wi ll be able to see and hear as well as avoid ed making a narrow fa cade and created the soloists." 18 a building of majesti c scope. Its symmetrica l The m a in a uditorium took s h ape lin es and restrain ed decoration would blend quickly. John Severa nce and Wa lker and well into the architectural surroundings. Weeks initiall y made a bold decision : scien­ Severance Ha ll was to provide id eal li s­ tific and acousti ca l demands should out­ tening conditions for audience and musi­ weigh consid erati o ns of visual beauty and cians alike. Usin g McCornack's drawings for co mfort in planning the hall. Dayton C. reference, the architects plotted out a new set Miller, a physics professor at Case School of of calculations. They began at the heart of the Applied Science, was ca ll ed in to assist with ma in a udito rium- the stage. How much acoustical desig n. Miller's studies and re­ seating s pace would the orchestra need ports gave acousti cal ca lculations for the alo ne' How much with full chorus' A pit main auditorium, the small er Chamber Mu­ seating the entire orchestra would be neces­ sic Hall, and the drive-through under the sary for staged productions. A flexible ar­ building, based on use of specific designs range m e nt in volvin g two e levato rs was and materials . His recommendations influ­ placed at the front of the stage, and a smaller enced the selection of materials and the dis­ lift was installed within the larger elevator tinctive shape of the main auditorium ceil­ for moving stage equipment. This ingenious ing.I' plan all owed for extending stage space or Many conditions that Dayton Miller 30 E:LlZABETH P. KIRK

the auditorium or tage. The orga n builder him elf, Ernest Skinner, was brought in as a c n ultant. The olution achieved by Skin­ n r and the archi tects was inevitably a com­ promi e. It benefited neit her the hall's acous­ ti n r the in trument. The vast organ was pIa d in an enclosed chamber hig h above th tage, ealed off by a large door when not in u e. When the door was opened, the or­ gan m u ic could drift downwards. This chamber fo rmed yet another sound-absorb­ ing cavity. Acou tical mea ures were taken for in­ sulating against unwanted sound as well as for nhanci ng the mu ic. The ex terior stone wall were lined with heavy layers of plaster and bl ck in ul ation. The plaster ceiling of the main auditorium was recessed and sus­ p nded to eliminate the ound of rain and hail. Elaborate precautions were also made to ke pound fro m traveling between different part of the build ing. The extensive system of duct and equipment fo r climate control needed to be designed for s il ent operation. Plaster- and-s teel " s l.. y dome" (s ince removed ) Machinery rooms were to be located in the seen from bacl..stage fl oor, made an effective th ea t­ basement, well away from the main audito­ rica l bacl..drop but deadened so und . rium and surrounded by layers of plaster and til e. speciiied fo r desig n of the main aud itorium John Severance, O rchestra Conductor were altered, with unfortunate acousti cal ikolai Sokoloff, and Wa lker and Weeks results.'" Scientific considerati ons did not al­ were fasc in ated by the potential fo r height­ ways prevail. Two m odificati ons deviated en ing musical experi ence through the coor­ substantia ll y fro m his in structi on that the d inati on of sound and lig ht. Professor S. R. stage be enclosed o n a ll sides by hard, reflec­ MacCandless, brought in as a special lighting ti ve su rfaces. The first of these was a cyclo­ consultant from the School of Dra ma at Yale, ram a or "sky dome " of p laster appli ed to was in strumental in pl anning th e co mplex w ire mesh o n a meta l fra me, added at Sever­ li ghting system. Through it a vast array of a nce's request to create a backdrop fo r d ra­ li ght intensit ies and colors co uld be reflected mati c producti o ns in place of elaborate scen­ across the auditorium ceiling and stage dur­ e ry. T hi s s tru cture c urved h o ri zonta ll y ing performance in sympatheti c response to around the stage back wall and formed a par­ the music. Lighting was also intended to take ti al d o me over the stage area. It was sixty fee t an important dramatic role during stage pro­ w ide a nd the to p overhung the base by ducti ons . MacCandless helped to pl an the nearl y sixteen fee t, reaching forty feet above sky dome as a vehicle for the intricate light­ the stage fl oor. The sky do me was covered ing system. The concave surface of the sky with a movable stage set during concerts, dome was intended to con vey a " designed making a hollow, sound-absorbing chamber illusion of infinite space and distance" as at the stage back. light refl ected upon it, enhancing the ac ti on The other major structural modifica­ on stage ." tion was the consequence of a generous gift. The unusual shape of the building ex­ A magnificent Skinner pipe organ was do­ terior demanded much pati ence and ingenu­ nated in memory of Mr. and Mrs. David Z. ity in arranging for the various entrances, Norton by their children . The architects stairs, elevators, public spaces, and the small could find no satisfactory method of incorpo­ chamber music hall. 22 The architects orga­ rating the instrument into existing plans for nized these symmetrically, to produce easy EVERA CE HALL, CLEVELAND'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC 31

Plaster model shows Henry Hering's design for pediment above fro nt portico. traffic flow , ati fying Severance's de ire to raced steps converged, then swept upwards make the building convenient and accessible across an Ohio sandstone base to the com­ for patrons. The drive running beneath the manding portico set back and above the hall from Euclid Avenue to East Boulevard street level. The effect was balanced and im­ provid ed a covered acce within the ele­ posing. The architects attributed its classical gantly appointed hall . elements to the English Renaissance style, The arch itect' plan gradually took while acknowledging the decorative embel­ shape and the con truction contract wa let li shments to be quite individual" The grace­ to Crowell and Little ompany. Severance ful low reli ef sculptures adorning the upper wie lded a il ver pade to break ground on portion of the Indiana limestone walls were ovember 14, 1929, a a trumpet call by Or­ designed by the Cleveland firm of Fischer chestra member Aloi Hruby rang out. In and Jirouch, which had already decorated February, 1930, Frank Ginn wrote to Sever­ many of Walker and Weeks's buildings. ance in California as uring him that the The portico was crowned with a strik­ building was going up a fast as possible, ing pediment sculpture by the distinguished though, "as usually happens, parts get ew York artist Henry Hering, who was al­ sh ipped out of order, and ome parts are mis­ ready familiar to Clevelanders through his laid or lost in the shop or in transit, and de­ sculptures fro nting the Federal Reserve lays result. "2.1 By late summer, though the ex­ Bank. Severance readily agreed to Walker's terior was completed and the interior suggestion that Hering design the pediment structure was taking form, there was little decoration. Ginn visited Hering's New York hope that the hall would be completed by the studio, and on April 5, 1930, he wrote to Sev­ opening of the 1930-31 eason as origi nall y erance, " I think he has a rea l idea but I did expected. not like the way it was worked out .... His Wa lker and Weeks designed Severance conception was musical instruments, listen­ Hall's exteri or with simple elegance. Ter- ing figures, and sound waves. The treat­ ment, to my mind was entirely too obvious and I suggested that the musical instruments themselves be indicated rather th an shown in detail; that there be incorporated the thought that music when produced is now li stened to all over the earth from one pro­ duction . . .. " Severance reviewed the pho­ tographs Ginn sent and decided that com­ bining elements fro m several drawings would be preferable. The finished sculpture was a direct result of Severance's advice. The restrained elegance of the build­ ing's exterior gave way to festive expression within. The grand foyer glittered with an or­ nate combination of Egyptian and art-deco Automobile drive-thro ugh (sin ce cl osed) provid ed motifs, unlike anything else in the Hall. Gilt, co nveni ent covered access for co ncertgoers. bronze, and variegated red marbles glowed 111/ ·\ '" ' " I' ~rr~ 1(

.'I/ ~"' , , , 1'I1l' Ch,lfllPl'r ~IU'll I f,l11 : 'lirnpllhllh dl" in lu sh profusion, By comparison, the main g,lIll'l' in .1 n·,'r.lIIll'd l'ighll'l'lllh" 'l'lllllrl' ,II'Il', auditorium's cool blue and sil ver lace tracery was subdued and refined. The Chamber Mu­ s ic Hall and Board Room reflected an elabo­ iiI" , ',I :, nil,,' " il'\\ (II lig ht li,tlln' .1nd p.lI11'IIing in thl' l h,lfllPl'r ~Iu,il ' 11 ,111 , rate eighteenth-century decor, achieved in the same lavish materials as the rest of the building, Many of Cleveland's finest artists and craftsmen have left their work on perma­ nent display in Severance Hall. Sculptural designs by Fischer a nd jirouch were used throughout, g ivi ng underlying unity to the interior, They modeled the foyer ceiling, and the wall and ceiling decorations in both th e C hamber Music Hall and the auditorium, Even the details of grill es and air vents were e nriched with their crafts ma nship, The Jo­ seph Harsch Bronze Foundry executed all of the architectural metalwork using Fischer a nd jirouch designs, Cleveland Institute of Art fa culty mem­ be r Elsa Vick Shaw designed the colorful mu­ ra ls in the g ra nd foyer. Adelia Prentiss Hug hes was concerned that the ancient in­ s truments re presented on these panels s hould be accurate as well as beautiful. She consulted Carl Engel and Oliver Strunk of SEVERA CE HALL, CLEVELA D'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC 33

Above: Main foyer glows and glitters with red mar­ the Music Divi ion at the Library of Con­ ble, gilt grillwo rk, and murals (over doorways) acc u­ gress. Strunk recommended illustrating rately depicting musical in struments of the past. man 's history through the evolution of musi­ Below: Rich appointme nts adorn the Board Room, cal instruments. Greek cu lture was to be re­ including marble door trims taken from a Renais­ flected by pipes of Pan, Egypt by primitive sance Italian palace. and ori ental instruments, and the Renais­ sa nce by lutes, recorders, and other in stru­ ments of the peri od. There had been some thought of showing a bagpipe, but this idea was rejected because the instrument had no descendant in the modern orch estra .'; Strunk's advice influenced the sequence and co ntent of Shaw's work in the direction of scholarly precision. The Joseph Sturdy Company deco­ rated the Board Room, Green Room, and Chamber Music Hall, using designs ranging from the graceful pastoral m urals of the Chamber Music Hall to the intricate ce iling and wood finishing of the Board Room. They ordered special zebra wood and avodire ve­ neers to complement their work in the Chamber Music Hall and attended to small details, such as painting the exposed radia­ tors and the hangers in the box cloak rooms to blend with their surroundings. 34 ELI ZABETH I' KIRK

Abol'e: The main auditoriull1 soon aft er cO ll1pl e­ tion . Severance devoted spec ial attention to furnishing the Board Room. The New York fi rm of French and Company secured a num­ Beloil': Close- up vie\\' of recessed lights dnd orna­ ber of mag nificent antiques for this purpose. m ental ce iling of ll1ain auditoriull1 . This meeting place was to have the atmo­ sphere of a mansion living room and Sever­ ance was prepared to go to considerable ex­ pense to achi eve it. Among the most remarkable pieces chosen for the room were the antiq ue white marble door trims and eighteenth-ce ntury ca rved Adams mantel. The door tri ms, sc ulptured with Renaissance ornaments, had been removed from the Pa­ lazzo Torlonia in Rome. Legend has it that th e trims were cracked in shipment and acci­ dentally discarded, and that Severance him­ self rescued them from the rubbish pile. Lighting of the Hall was planned to accent the decorati ons. Much of it was con­ cealed behind attractive fixtures, radiating off poli shed surfaces in a warm, indirect glow. The three fl ashed opal glass chande­ li ers in the grand foyer reflected across the gilded ceiling, their shap e complementing the patterned m arble terrazzo floor below. Delicate floral lighting fi xtures were subtly SEV ERA NCE HALL, CLEVELAND'S TEMPLE OF MUSIC 35 worked into the auditorium ceiling design . been mod ernized . Auditorium acoustics Tonal lighting was carefully planned to high­ have provoked the greatest amount of dis­ light the attire and complexion of fe male au­ cussion and revision. Both style and purpose dience members both day and night. had influenced the original design, and not The time between ground breaking always to good effect. Though Robert C. and dedication was less than a year and a Marsh suggests that the " combination of live half. Severance spared neither expense nor sound in a dead hall was very much in vogue detai l to make his monument a fi tting tribute at the time Severance Hall was built, and the to his wife and to the city in which they li ved . intentions of the architects and the acousti­ Severance Hall opened to fanfare and ac­ cian were perfectl y reali zed in the finished claim on February 5, 1931. With conductor structure, " 28 it is questionable whether Day­ Nikolai Sokoloff on the podium, concertgo­ ton Miller was satisfied. His specifications ers heard the "Evocati on" that Severance's had been disregarded in stage deSign, so the frie nd Charles Martin Loeffler had composed co mpleted auditorium was much less rever­ fo r the dedica tion, the Bach C Minor Passaca­ berant th an he had calculated. glia arranged fo r orchestra by Goedicke, and Several acousticians were consulted Brahms' Symphony No.1. Newspapers vied before substantial modifications were made. wi th one another in praising the new Hall . In 1947, the new Conductor, George Szell, " Music Lovers Find Splendor In New Tem­ was displeased by the sound quality and ple," proclaimed Th e News the next day. asked Clifford Swan to study the auditorium Newspapers across the country ran articles acoustics. Swan concluded, "Your hall is abo ut the dedication, praising the beauty beautiful and luxurious, but it is also' dead'; and comfort of the new hall. The discriminat­ one is responsible fo r the other.. .. Another ing Cleveland Press music critic Arthur Shep­ matter which , a ltho ug h less impo rtant, herd was even impressed wi th the acousti cs. should be considered is the stage set sur­ After attending the opening concert, he re­ ro unding the orchestra ."" ported th at, " The elu sive problem of sound Swan's criti cisms were echoed and am­ properties in the new building have appar­ plified by other experts. In 1953, Professors ently been triumphantly solved. "" He did Ar thur H. Benade and Robert S. Shankland mention th at the O rchestra would have to of the Physics Department at Case Institute adapt to the new space before it could of Technology were asked to make a detailed achieve maximum effecti veness. Festivities acousti ca l evaluation . Shankland summa­ continued through the opening weekend, rized hi s views on the auditorium to Plain with the dedica ti on of the Chamber Music Dealer cri ti c Herbert Ewell: " It is generally Hall on February 6, 1931, and two other sym­ ag reed that the volume of musical tone phony concerts. The Norton Memorial Or­ which an orchestra can produce in Severance gan was dedicated the following month . Hall is markedl y lower than that which is cre­ Few lavish buildings were dedicated in ated by the same orchestra in nearl y every 1931. The stock market crash in 1929 had ru­ other music hall in the United States or ined many fortunes and diminished others. abroad . .. The adverse conditions in Sev­ Completin g this splendid building must erance Hall are such that they can be reme­ have seemed bravely optimistic given the died by straightforward application of well troubled economy. Though Severance was kn own and tested principles of acoustical de­ not finanCially ruined, his fortune was seri­ sign that can be made without excessive ously affected by the financial disaster. The cost."" He went on to advise the removal of Hall had become a much greater burden than the sound-absorbing drapes and carpets and he could have foreseen in 1929. The total cost rebuilding the stage setting with heavy, reso­ of building and furnishing Severance Hall nant wood paneling on the walls and fl oor. rose to $2,800,000, and Severance carried Benade and Shankland's report prompted debts for it until at least 1935, the year before removal of drapes from the boxes and con­ his death." struction of a new movable stage set, but no Many changes in style and technology extensive renovation was authorized. have occurred since 1931. Though the beauty Three years passed before further of Severance Hall has remained undimin­ studies were undertaken. This time Heinrich ished, many of its technical aspects have Keilholz, the acoustician and chief recording 36 f-I IZABFTl I [' KIRK

George S/.e ll and Ihe on:hes lra o n Ihe sl age of Ihe newl \' re furbished (and aco ustica lly improved) main audilorium, aboul 1960.

eng ineer for Deutsche G rammo p ho n, was tive shell was built around the stage. The sky consu lted. Keilho lz's re port was not much dome and elaborate lig hting system were d iffe rent fro m Be nade and S hankland 's, but d ismantled and the organ loft closed to make it s ti m ing was more propit ious. The Musical way fo r the new structure. Maple veneer Arts Associatio n Boa rd fin a ll y approved a over basswood covered a seventeen-and-a­ thorough re novati o n of the mai n audito­ half-ton steel fra mework to for m parall el con­ rium . The Ha ll Committee Chairman, Wa lter vex panels. The side panels were fi ll ed with K. Ba il ey, ex pl ain ed h is committee 's support sand to a height of nine feet to prevent vibra­ fo r the changes by re markin g that " We not ti on and sound leakage. The hard -surfaced, only wanted to hear a p in d rop, but we curved panels were d esigned to refl ect sound wanted to hear it d rop longer."" The archi ­ simultaneously in different d irections with tectural firm of Garfi eld, Ha rris, Sc h afer, minimal loss of power. The projection of Fly nn, and Willia ms \Vas hired to undertake sound outward into the auditorium was the work during the summer of 1958. Robert aid ed by the new stage dimensions: forty Shankland was chosen as acoustical ad visor feet across at the rear w idening to fifty- two to the architects. Walter Ba il ey w rote him a feet at the front, and twenty-fi ve feet high at letter of thanks, saying " Yo ur confirma ti on the rear rising to thirty-four feet at the outer of w hat we were doing gave us the courage edge. Electronic speakers at the rear of th e to go ahead on what we were planning to shell carry the organ music from the loft onto do. "32 the stage. The renovation, which broug ht the Many of the luxurious, sound-absorb­ main hall to its present state, made striking ing fabrics were also removed . The heavy changes in the stage area, and lesser ones in stage curtain disappeared. Carpeting was the auditorium. A permanent sound-refl ec- pulled and replaced w ith sound-reflective SEVERANCE HALL, CLEVELAND'S TH1PLE OF ~ I US I C 37 matting. Precise control of te mperature and people, however, the improvement of add­ humidity was made by installing a new cli ­ ing over a second of reverberati on time more mate control system designed to m aintain an than compensated for the visual changes." optimal, sound-enhancing atmosphere. The Styles and techno logy will continue to Orchestra was even seated differently to en­ change, and Severance Hall , now in its mid­ hance the impact of the acousti cal change. fifties, wi ll d o ubtless undergo further modi­ Though great care was taken to preserve the fi ca ti ons. John Severance's gift was m ad e in beauty of the auditorium, new sights as well support of musical excell e nce during his life­ as sounds greeted returning concertgoers. time, and it has continued far beyond. The The plai n wooden shell was a stark contrast hall remains a supe rb example of the best to the familiar surroundings and not every­ that priva te wealth and taste can accomplish. one was pleased with the effect. For most

Gra teful acknowledgelllen t is lIIade to th e Archives of the Mllsical Arts Associatioll alld its Archivist, Denise Horstlllall, for ill vaillable assistallce to Illy research all this article. Ill llstratio/IS all th e fo llowillg pages are reproduced courtesy of the Mllsical Arts Associatioll Archives: pp. 27 (Carl F Waite); 34-35,36, 37,38,39,40; 41 (Carl F Waite ); 42 (top); 44 (Has tillgs-Willinger& Associates) Th e photograph all p. 42 (bottom) is printed with th e kil1d perlllissioll of th e West em ResenJe Historical Society. Ph otos all pp. 29 alld 33 are fro m the Press collectiol1 at Clellelalld Stat e Ulliversity.

NOTES

'These included the Fo urth Di stric t Federal Re serve Bank, City Ha ll , the C uyahoga County Court House, the Federal Bui lding, Public Auditorium, and the Public Library. Eric johannesen 's excell e nt book, elcue/alld Architecture 18 76-1976 (Cleveland : Western Reserve Historical Society, 1979), g ives a detailed exam­ ination of many architectural developme nts me ntio ned here, including the C roup Plan . 'Carlto n Matson a nd Harold Clark, " The Cleveland Educational Croup Plan," Your Cardell 1:11 (March, 1928), p. 422. 'White o rgani zed the conference w ith a $50,000 grant of support from the Carnegie Foundation. Parti­ cipa nts included: john L. Severance a nd Willia m C. Mather, Cleveland Museum of Art; Frank R. Walker and Abram Garfield , Clevela nd School of Architecture; Dudley S. Bl ossom and Adeli a Prentiss Hug hes, the Musical Arts Association, which operated the Cleveland Orchestra; a nd Robert E. Vinson, Weste rn Reserve Universit y, a mong o thers (Matson and Clark, pp. 442-443).

'Archie Bell , Th e Nell'S (April 7, 1929). (Records of Marketing and Public Relations, Archives of the Musical A rts Associati o n .) ' Adeli a Prentiss Hughes, Music Is My Life (Clevela nd and New York: World Publishing, 1947), p . 76. -Hughes, p. 76. 'Ke n Die ner cites the existe nce of this pl a n in a n unpublished paper fo r Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Clevela nd's Taj Mahal, " 1982. (Reference file, Arch ives of the Musical Arts Associa tio n .) ' Letter from Adelia Prentiss Hug hes to john Severance, February 2, 1928. (R ecords of the Board of Trustees, Archives of the Musical Arts Association .) ' Matson a nd Cla rk, p. 447. The C hristi an Science Chu rc h was built o n Overlook Road in Clevela nd He ights a nd designed by Walker a nd Weeks, the architects of Severance Hall. There is a striking s imilarity between the two buildings. " Matson and Clark, p. 447. "The history of this crucial perio d in Severance Hall 's development is based on the Musical Arts Associatio n Building Committee corresponde nce. Much of the information about events in 1928 came from a re po rt by Adeli a Hughes to Mrs. Dudley Blossom, dated july 13, 1928. (Records of the Board of Trustees, Archi ves of the Musical Arts Association.) 38 f· LlZABFTIl I' KIRK

I2Carle Ro bbins, The Bystander (March 30, 1929). (Records of Marketing and Public Relations, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) "For more information on Adelia Prentiss Hughes and her contribution to the founding of the Orches­ tra see Mary Reeb, "Adelia Prentiss Hughes and the Fo unding, Fostering, and Financing of the Cleveland Orchestra," The Gamut, #15 (Spring/Summer, 1985), pp. 62-68. "Letter from John Severance to Frank Ginn, February ]4, 1929. (Records of the Board of Trustees, Archives of the Mus ical Arts Association.) "Related correspondence: Frank Ginn to Adelia Hughes, December 29, 1928; Frank Ginn to DudJey Blossom, December 29, ]928; a nd Frank Ginn to John Severance, January 4, 1929. (Records of the Board oi Trustees, Archives of the Mu ical Arts A ociatio n .) "For further informatio n about Walker and Weeks, ee: Eric Johannesen, Clevelalld Architecture, pp. 146-49; Wi lma Salisbury, Plaill Dealer Magazille (March 13, 1983); Architectural Review of the Mississippi Basin 1:1 (Summer, 1930); John D . Baker, " Anonymity and American Architecture," Historic Preservatioll (July-Sep­ tember, 1972), pp. 13-17. " Letter from Dudley Bl ossom to L.B. Williams, May 7, 1929. (Records of the Board of Trustees, Ar­ chives of the Musical Arts Association.) "Quo ted by Roelif Loveland, Clevelalld Press (December 12, ]928). (Records of Marketing and Public Relatio ns, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) "A deta iled account of hall planning was given by C. W. Stedman of Walker and Weeks in an address before the Cleveland Chapter of the Society of Illuminating Engineers, February 21, ]931. (Reference File, Archives of the Mus ical Arts Association.) 20 Diener offers a more detailed explanation of this matter in his paper, pp. 15-16.

21S t~dman , p . 12. " Stedman, p . 5. " Letter from Frank Ginn to John Severance, February 10, 1930. (Records of the Board of Trustees, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) " Ruth F. Stone of Walker a nd Weeks, a statement about the Hall dated January 20, 1931, just prior to the building's dedication. (Reference File, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) " Letter from Oliver Strunk to Adelia Hughes, February ]8, 1930. (Records of the General Manager, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) "Arthur Shepherd, Clevelalld Press (February 6, 1931). (Records of Marketing and Public Relations, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) " Related correspondence: Harry Weeks to Frank Ginn, June 9,1932, and January 10,1933; John Sever­ ance to Frank Ginn, January 20, 1934; Frank Ginn to John Severance, January 11, 1933, January 17 and 29, 1934. (Records of the Board of Trustees, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) " Robert C. Marsh, Th e Cleveland Orchestra (Cleveland and ew York: World Publishing, 1967), p. 40. " Letter from Clifford Swan to Carl J. Vosburgh, December 30, 1947. (Records of the Board of Trustees, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) " Letter from Robert S. Shankland to Herbert Ewell, April 15, 1957. (Reference File, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) "Walter K. Bailey quoted by Orchestra Manager Beverly Barksdale in an October 7, 1958 announce­ ment. (Reference File, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) " Letter from Walter Bailey to Robert Shankland, November 13, 1958. (Reference File, Archives of the Musical Arts Association.) " For further information: H.]. Ormestad, R.S. Shankland, and A.H. Benade, " Reverberation Time Characteristics of Severance Hall," Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 32:3 (March, 1960), pp. 371-75; R.S. Shankland and E.A. Flynn, "Acoustics of Severance Hall," Joumal of the Acollstical Society of Alllerica 31:7 (July, 1959), pp. 866-71; and K.C . Roy, " The Gilt-Edged Second," Stereo Review (March, 1960), pp. 69-73. 39

Walter C. Leedy I Jr. Cleveland's Terminal Tower The Van Sweringens' Afterthought

The Terminal Tower, imposing archi­ Before automobiles became common, the in­ tectural center and symbol of the City of terurbans provided s hort- to medium­ Cleveland, actually came into being as a last­ distance transportation, hauling freight as minute addition to a train station that was well as passengers. They were the forerun­ years in the planning, but that is itself now ners of today's bus and truck lines.' abandoned and largely forgotten . Where Cleveland's Terminal Tower In 1910 a visitor to Cleveland would al­ complex now stands were dilapidated old most certainly have come by train. If he had buildings covered with rust, soot and adver­ travelled from Washington or Kansas City, he tising, which bore witness to Cleveland's first would have bought his ticket a t the new union mercantile age. Once considered a beautiful station in one of these cities. 1 But when he ar­ corner of the city, the southwest quadrant of rived in Cleveland, he might have gotten oHin Public Square and lower Superior Avenue any of fifteen locations, depending on which had experienced a continual decline in real es­ railroad he patronized. If he had taken the tate values, as business enterprises moved to New York Central, he could have gotten off at newer and more modern buildings located to the old lake front station, located at the foot of the east - strung out along Euclid Avenue. West Sixth Street, from where he could have Public Square was no longer the center of wa lked to Public Square, the hub of Cleveland gravity of Cleveland's business or financial trolley lines, to catch a streetcar to his destina­ community. On the north side of the Square tion in the city. Or he could have taken an was located the Old Stone Church (1855) and interurban - a self-propelled electrified rail­ the medieval-revival Society for Savings Bank way car - to any number of cities in north­ (1889). On the east side was the new Federal eastern Ohio and beyond. At that time Ohio Building (under construction), the pioneering had one of the most extensive interurban net­ but plain Cuyahoga Building (1893), and the works, with over 2000 miles of track. Williamson Building (1900) .' (In spite of vig-

Walter Leedy, an Associate Professor of Art at Cleveland State University, was born in Detroit and grew up in Dear­ born. He received the degrees of Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan , and did graduate work at the University of California/Santa Barbara, and at the Courtauld Institute of Art of the Univer­ sity of London , where he received a Ph . D. in the History of European Art, majoring in Medieval Art and Architecture. He is a specialist in medieval fan vaulting, and an article by him on that subject appears in the February, 1983 issue of Scientific American. His book Fan Vaulting: A Study of Form, Technology, and Meaning, was published in 1980 by the Scalar Press in London , and he is author of numerous articles and papers on medieval architecture. His interest in the construction of the Terminal Tower arose after he spent a summer studying dozens of boxes of old papers and drawings stored in an abandoned employees' la vatory in the Tower; this led him to 90 filing cabinets of Terminal Tower records in the possession of Mr. Gerald Adams, who has since do­ nated the materials to the CSU Libraries. At the right, Pro­ fessor Leedy is shown with a small portion of these archives. (Photo: Milic) 40 WALTER C. LEEDY

The southwest corner of Euclid Avenue and Ontario Street as it appeared in 1922, before demolition for new constructi on. The site is now occupied by the Higbee Company, part of the Van Sweringens' efforts to create a high-density development. The writing on the photograph indicates land parcels that the Van Sweringen interests were acquiring. Photo: Gerald Adams collecti on.

orous objections, these last two were demo­ Furthermore (important for the Terminal lished in 1982 to make way for the Sohio head­ Tower project 35 years later) he questioned quarters.) the City's legal righ t to permit the erection of a In the southeast quadrant could be building not to be under city control, and not found the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and to be used for strictly public purposes, on ci ty Sailors' Monument, the siting of which property. It took an Act (passed in 1888) of the caused considerable controversy in the late Ohio Assembly to make the use of the south­ 1880's. ' It was originally to have been located east quadrant legal for the Monument's loca­ in the middle of Public Square, at the present tion . junction of Superior Avenue and Ontario Street. But the streetcar companies gained A "City Beautiful" mall for Cleveland control of these streets for the placement of Although the buildings on Public their tracks, and thus deprived the Monu­ Square were a source of pride to many of the ment of a central location, though Public city's residents, there were some critics. Writ­ Square's function as an important transporta­ ing in 1910, Samuel Orth, a historian of the tion node was reinforced by this outcome. The city, said, "The stately Williamson Building controversy then shifted to the appropriate­ . . . overlooks [the Square] with majestic dis­ ness of the southeast quadrant. Judge Samuel dain."; Public Square lacked a cohesive visual E. Williamson, the owner of a property on the image. To many, the glory of the Square had corner of Euclid Avenue and the Square, in a evidently departed. By 1890, the stately elms letter to the City's Park Commissioners (Octo­ were all gone, and the sycamores that were ber 3, 1887), expressed the fear that, because plan ted every year only sickened and died as a of the size of the Monument, his property would no longer front on a park, but on a result of the sulphurous air pollution. The street, thus decreasing its value, and that the character of Public Square and especially of Monument would completely obscure the the southwest quadrant did not reflect the em­ view from Euclid Avenue across the Square. erging greatness of the growing city. CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 41

The Burnham Commission's plan for the Cleveland Mall, including buildings projected for the near and dis­ tant future. From 1903 until 1919, the anticipated site for the new Union Station (1) was to be at the end of the Mall near the lake. Recognizable in this rendering are Public Square (2) and Euclid Avenue (3) . Drawing from the Commission Report, reproduced in Charles Moore, Daniel H. Burnham (1921).

Public Square had been and was the tra­ porton the proposed Group Plan in 1903. The ditional center of civic life. It was the site of the public at large was not consulted: Burnham first execution in the county. It was where dig­ was not a believer in town meetings. nitaries, like Abraham Lincoln, were greeted The Commission's Report called for and where public debates were held. And it placing a "civic center," now known as the was where, during the Municipal Centennial Mall, just northeast of Public Square, running of 1896, the Pageant of Peace marched under a from Superior Avenue all the way to the Lake. great triumphal arch of victory especially built The conception - a grouping of monumental over Superior Avenue for the occasion. But civic buildings around a grand open space­ since the early 1890's, plans had been in the was derived from the City Beautiful move­ making that would change all that. Prompted by the factthat federal, county, and municipal ment: a show city of dazzling public buildings governments were all in need of larger new illuminated by street lighting inspired by the Columbian Exposition of 1893. buildings, a group of citizens and Cleveland's Architectural Club promoted the idea of creat­ By the early twentieth century some ing a unified grouping of public buildings in a planners, such as Jens Jensen, were critical of central location.' Populist Mayor Tom John­ City Beautiful schemes as grandiose, inhu­ son, after his election in 1901 , endorsed the mane, imperialistic and undemocratic: "The idea of a Group Plan proposal and made it part more formality in its design the less democ­ of his program, in the hope that public archi­ racy in its feeling and tendency. "7 And by the tecture and landscaping would symbolize the early teens taxpayers across the country, in­ city's riches and would stimulate civic pride. cluding those in Cleveland, were reluctant to Johnson appointed a commission headed by pay for architectural magnificence when ur­ architect Daniel Burnham which made its re- gent practical problems confronted them. 42 WALTER C. LEEDY

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The Union Station that never was: one of several proposed schemes done between 1915 and 1917 for the new terminal to be located on the lakeside end of the Mall. Drawing by the architectural firm of Graham, Ander' son, Probst and White. Gerald Adams collection.

The building of the Mall constituted a was needed. Theold station, builtin 1864, was large-scale redevelopment near the core of the inadequate and hardly represented the first city, which was then primarily a clutter of wa­ impression that the city's leaders wished to terfront dives, bordellos and slums. Progres­ give to the visitor. By 1903, after some debate, sive citizens had for years demanded the im­ it was decided that the station would be relo­ provement of this area, especially since it was cated at the north end of the Mall, since the "downtown." By the end of World War I, over railroad tracks were already along the lake 25 million dollars had been spent on it. And at front. Almost twelve years of continuallitiga­ least 5-10 million more would be needed to tion about the price the railroads would be finish the job. This task was perceived both as charged for the site were to follow this deci- an improvement of the quality of life in the city sion. and a visible symbol of the city's collective im­ Finally, in 1915, the Pennsylvania and age. There was little apparent concern for the New York Central Railroads entered into an people to be displaced by this project, and no agreement with the city, approved by a public effort was made to help relocate them. On the referendum, that appeared to settle the long whole Clevelanders supported the project. dispute.' The railroads were to pay the city The average citizen was fond of palatial gran­ about one million dolIa'rs for the new site next deur, and dedicated architects were willing to to City Hall, and the city in turn was to use that provide it. Mayor Johnson was in touch with sum to acquire more land for the Mall, thus popular taste. relieving the need to burden the taxpayer Along with the plan for the Mall arose a with the costs of the project. America's entry sense that a new lake front railroad station into the War caused further delays, and CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 43

III"RTIS J. VA" SWERUfGE" O. P. VAIl SWERl lfGE if

Oris Paxton (b . 1879) and Mantis James (b. 1881) VAN SWERINGEN came from a farming area near Wooster, Ohio. Their father was for a time an engineer in the oil fields of Pennsyl­ vania and fought in the Civil War, receiving a wound at Gettysburg. After the death of their mother, the family moved to Geneva, Ohio, and two years later to Cleveland, settling at East 105 Street and Cedar Avenue. They attended Bolton and Fairmount Schools, where they were proficient in mathematics. Their formal education ended with the eighth grade. After being employed by others, and after suffering several early business failures, they entered the real estate business. At first they were unsuccessful in Cleveland's new west-side suburb of Lakewood. They then moved their business to the east side, where they subdivided properties for large residences. Success was slow in coming, but the an­ nouncement in 1910 of a rapid transit system gave impetus to land sales in Shaker Heights. By 1929, their holdings were valued at $3 billion, mostly as a result of the high valuation of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange. For this reason, the stock market collapse of 1929 ultimately led to their financial destruction. M.J. Van Sweringen died in 1935 and his brother in 1936. The caricatures above are taken from Cleveland Club Men in Caricature, drawings by Associated Cleveland Artists, Jay M. Caughey, director (East Aurora, N.Y. : Roycrofters, 1910). as late as November, 1917, alternative archi­ Enter the Van Sweringens tectural plans were still being prepared for the Meanwhile, Oris Paxton Van Swerin­ proposed station.' It began to look as if con­ gen and his brother Mantis James Van Swerin­ gen were trying to develop Shaker Heights struction would never start and Cleveland into a suburban housing community.!OTheir would never have its new station. To make lots were selling slowly, and they concluded matters more complicated, the railroads had that the cause was inadequate transportation. begun to realize that a new passenger station It simply took too long to go by streetcar from on this site really did not address their impor­ downtown to their new development on the tant needs for improved freight service. Heights. Transportation along a private 44 WALTER C. LEEDY

RAPID TRANSIT ZS I ~GROW~

---...... --- ; --- ~ ...

This prospectus illustrates how other entrepreneurs jumped on the Van Sweringens' band wagon, hoping for magnificent profits through real estate sales and speculation. Pamphlet, author's collection. right-of-way (to avoid street congestion) was the working people of the great American needed to shorten travel time. And the fares cities. Arguments on behalf of rapid transit, had to be low. With this in mind they began to however, lingered into the 1920' s and affected lay plans for a rapid transit system. This solu­ the plans being made in Cleveland. tion was hardly innovative, for many (includ­ At first the Van Sweringens planned ing the liberal U.s. Senator Frederic C. Howe only the Shaker line, to connect downtown and New York planner Edward Bassett) had with their land development. This objective realized that the housing problem in the rap­ prompted them to purchase land in the vicin­ idly growing metropolitan areas hinged on ity of Public Square as early as 1909 to provide easy and cheap transport to the suburbs. At a terminus for their rapid transit line. II By this time, suburban life was coming to be re­ 1926, as their ambitions expanded, they pro­ garded as the ideal of human existence, and jected and started building additional lines to decentralization was perceived as a blessing cover the entire county, including some sta­ and a necessity. tions on what is now the Airport-Windermere Across the country, planners mistak­ line. I' Their plans for "Super Transit" were enly assumed that the new transit facilities to based on traffic studies and surveys charting be installed would be self-supporting. But se­ population growth. They were also interested vere inflation during World War I and legisla­ in buses and hoped Cleveland would emulate tion that fixed fares at low levels, as here in Detroit with a highway program that would Cleveland, made rapid transit an unprofitable permit a commuter to take the bus to the rapid investment, and so brought an end to the and the rapid to work. J3 These plans stimula­ dream of low rent and country living for ted further land development by other entre- CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 45

Map from Engineer's Report of March, 1917, showing the track layout for the stub-end station planned at that time for the southwest quadrant of Public Square. Plans were still going ahead for a Union Station on the lakeside end of the Mall. Gerald Adams collection. preneurs who visualized land development they add plans for steam railways, following stretching from Painesville in the east to Lo­ the suggestion of an official of the B&O Rail­ rain in the west. Today it is obvious that, be­ road.1S cause of high suburban land values and the Asa resultofthis suggestion, by the first unemployment which accompanied rural de­ of March, 1917, the engineers of the Erie, the population, rapid transit did little to help the Wheeling and Lake Erie, and the New York, poor escape from the city. Even at the time, Chicago and St. Louis Railroads, plus the critics of the Van Sweringen plan for compre­ Cleveland Terminal Company (a Van Swerin­ hensive rapid transit said it was not economi­ gen enterprise) produced a report!· conclud­ cally feasible . The railroads favored the idea, ing that a new freight and passenger terminal however, because they did not want the re­ was feasible not only physically but economi­ sponsibility of providing commuter transpor­ cally. The plan arising from the report in­ tation, which previous experience had taught cluded a station located between Ontario and them was not self-supporting. West Third Street and extending from Public The Van Sweringens realized that, if Square to Huron Road. The main entrance their plans for a Public Square station were to was to be at the southwest corner of Public succeed, they would have to include all the Square - where it actually is today - with electric railways - streetcars, rapid transit minor entrances from abutting streets. It and interurban lines - as well as local freight would be immediately adjacent to the 1000- and warehousing facilities. 14 But only la ter did room Hotel Cleveland (now Stouffer's Inn on 46 WALTER C. LEEDY

the Square), which was being built by the Ter­ a high-level bridge - the bridge that was ulti­ minal Hotels Company, another Van Swerin­ mately built, and today is still used by the Air­ gen enterprise. The railroads hoped for a large port Windermere rapid transit lines - to re­ increase in passenger business because of the lieve the congestion on the lake front tracks location on Public Square, which made it eas­ and accommodate more through freight busi­ ily accessible to all city and interurban lines, ness as well as freight-to-water business. and its contiguity to the large new hotel. Trav­ Since warehouses could be built next to or elling businessmen, then as now, demanded over the new right of way, this arrangement comfortable accommodations. But the deci­ would have the advantage of eliminating the sion for a "union" station at Public Square, need to truck goods from trains to warehouses one which would house all the incoming and would save merchants money. At this steam railroads, had yet to be made. time Cleveland ranked first of the eight largest The 1917 plan provided twelve stub­ U.s. cities in growth of product manufactur­ end tracks for the steam passenger trains, ing; freight traffic was expanding at 7 percent with loops for local and interurban cars above a year. Freight facilities had to be expanded if them between Prospect Avenue and Huron growth was to continue. Moreover, the addi­ Road. The space above the tracks was to be tional railroad frontage would permit indus­ developed for stores and office buildings. trial expansion. Cleveland needed this pro­ Thus the idea for the development of air rights ject which was in tune with the expansionist over the station- the concept that ultimately tendencies of that era. The Van Sweringens led to Terminal Tower - was settled early in foresaw great personal profit in developing 1917. The Van Sweringens no doubt antici­ new freight and warehousing facilities . pated profitable results from the creation of high-density development in this location. 17 Wheeling and dealing But events outside the Van Sweringens' Before 1918, Warren and Wetmore, the control also played a great role in the develop­ architects of Grand Central Station in New ment of the terminal complex. Contracts gov­ York, had given architectural advice abou t the erning use of the proposed facilities had just station near Public Square. It seems likely that been distributed to the participating railroads they were the ones who gave the Va n for their consideration when unexpectedly, Sweringens the idea for air rights develop ­ on January 1, 1918, control of the railroads ment. But in 1922 they were paid $12,000 in passed to the Federal Government under the exchange for a release from further obliga­ United States Railroad Administration tion 19: the brothers, being politically astute , (U .S.R.A.). This event made additional ap­ once they had decided to build a union sta­ provals necessary before construction could tion, knew that the architectural contract begin. Early in 1918 O .P. Van Sweringen was would have to go to Graham, Anderson , called before A.H. Smith, then regional Direc­ Probst and White, who not only had designed tor of the Eastern Division of the U.s. R.A. and the Cleveland Hotel next door, but as the suc­ an old friend and business partner of the cessor firm to D.H. Burnham, designer of the brothers. Smith asked whether the proposed Group Plan Mall, were at present commis­ facility could be sufficiently enlarged to in­ sioned to provide the design for the lake front clude the railroads using the lake front sta­ station. tion. Thus it was Smith who initiated the idea The idea of changing the location of the for a union station on Public Square. " station from the Mall to Public Square engen­ Van Sweringen immediately took up dered a heated debate in 1918 which was to the idea and with typical audacity suggested end with a public referendum on 6 January, stub-end tracks be extended straight north 1919. Some critics said that the entire Mall pro­ from the proposed station site and connected ject depended on the train station. Out of this through to the lake front rail lines. Smith discussion came the suggestion of closing the would not accept this proposal, for it failed to Mall loop with a monumental peristyle - a accomplish the very thing he was after, relief colonnade. Obviously, the Mall scheme could from the rail congestion east of the Cuyahoga be reversed, with the peristyle serving as River to Collinwood on the main line from background rather than functioning as gate­ New York to Chicago. He proposed a through way to the City of Cleveland. Furthermore, 3tation with tracks which crossed the river on the Mall location had been decided on by CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 47

F ------==------==------~----=------~------~

Design for the Union Station on Public Square, as of August, 191 8. The Hotel Cleveland (right wing), already built, was to be a subordinate element in the overall design . Reproduced from Engineer's Report, 1919, CSU Archives.

Johnson and reaffirmed by his successor there was little land left for private develop­ Newton Baker (Mayor 1911-15), now Secre­ ment adjacent to the Mall area. Thus, theyar­ tary of War in Woodrow Wilson's administra­ gued, there would be little opportunity to add tion. How could this idea be abandoned after to the tax rolls, whereas a new station would so many years of nurturing? What was to be­ surely stimula te develop men t around it. (This come of the Mall? Without the station, how argument - developers still use it today - would it emerge as the symbol of the city? goes back to Roman times.) Critics of the Van Critics of the Public Square station Sweringen scheme described it as a ruse to pointed out that the topography of the Square further their own real estate interests. There would require steep grades and curved plat­ was obviously some truth in this charge. forms for the trains, and they urged that the in terests of the city as a whole would be best Long before the public debate about the served by avoiding the kind of concentration proposed site took place, preliminary archi­ that had occurred in downtown New York tectural and engineering studies for a union and Chicago. But the Union Depot at Public station at Public Square had begun, in May, Square had the advantage of providing a uni­ 1918. After a meeting in New York with Ernest fie d transportation system. It would reinforce Graham, the architect, W.E. Pease of the Ter­ Public Square as the center of the city, thus minals Company went to Chicago to discuss almost demanding high-density develop­ the project with Graham's partner, Pierce An­ ment of the surroundings. Trains, interur­ derson. lO From all the available evidence, it bans, rapid transit, and streetcars would be seems that Graham secured the commission brought all together, and nine existing pas­ for his firm, while Anderson was the actual senger stations would be abandoned. The partner in charge of the work. A few days Van Sweringens saw these circumstances as a later, on May 28, 1918, representatives of the reason for going ahead. They realized that railroads met with Van Sweringen. Anderson WALTER C. LEEDY

presented plans for the terminal. The railroad On 23 October, 1918, the city council men, who were far from committed to the pro­ passed enabling ordinances which led to the ject, were shocked at the Van Sweringens' battle over the proposed site for the station. " precipitousness, and demanded that the ar­ Al though O. P. Van Sweringen was a member chitect prepare no more plans until certain of the City Planning Commission at the time, studies had been completed. At this time, as he was not allowed to vote on the terminal the needs of the future users of the terminal project. On 29 October, 1918, Mr. Smith of the had not yet been determined, the design was U.S.R.A. wrote to the Mayor of Cleveland being drawn from the outside in' saying it was now necessary that the ordi­ In the summer of 1918 an Engineering nance be approved by popular vote for the Committee consisting of representatives from matter to proceed further with the Rail road the railroads began studies of population Administration and railroad corporations in­ growth, ticket sales, numbers of trains, etc. volved. To the railroads he wrote this rea ssur­

(what is now called a market analysis). 21 They ing note: "It is not the intention to do any ex­ ultimately decided on a station capacity that tensive construction under present war would suffice for 25 years, and insisted that prices. It is estimated by the time the prelimi­ their needs for storage yards, coach storage, nary steps are taken a readjustment of prices engine repair shops and the like be taken into will likely have taken place. "" But the Ci ty account. One of the key questions, the city's wanted and took steps to have the project attitude toward steam operations so close to completed quickly. Prices did not fall and the the center of the city, was eventually an­ railroad executives continued to be concerned swered when the city insisted on electrifica­ about increased costs: by 1921 the estimated tion between East 37th Street and West 30th cost had risen to over $54 million, and by No­ Street to avoid the emission of large amounts vember, 1925, to over $106 million. of smoke and soot in the downtown area. The Engineering Committee, on 6 De­ On August 13, the Committee issued a cember, 1918, reported that a passenger sta­ preliminary report calling for a double-deck tion approached directly from Public Square station with a concourse in between, located was feasible and practicable. 2S After many at or near Public Square. The lower deck was months of negotiations with the City and d e­ to be planned and leased as a separate facility bates in Council, a public referendum on the and terminal for electric, interurban and local question of the site was held, on 6 January, rapid transit service. For steam trains there 1919. The Public Square site for the Union Sta­ were to be 15 tracks with a provision for ex­ tion was approved by the citizens of Cleve­ pansion to 24 . Warehouses were to be built land. No doubt civic pride played an impor­ over the passenger tracks from Broadway to tantrole in this vote. Everybody could see that Eagle to East 23rd Street. The cost for these Cleveland's present passenger facilities were would be borne by the Van Sweringens' Ter­ inadequate. At the time, this action must have minal Company. Cost for the total project in­ pleased the lake front railroads, for they cluding the right of way was estimated at thought they were going to save the large ex­ more than $41 million. penditure for the monumental construction After this tentative Engineering Report, contemplated for the Mall site because the the Cleveland Union Terminals Company Van Sweringens were to develop the air rights was incorporated to oversee the design, con­ over the station. The Cleveland Terminals struction and management of the station by Company expended over $25,000 for adver­ the Van Sweringen interests;" during 1918, tising and printing costs to influence a fa vor­ however, it was a dormant corporation: it con­ able vote. 26 ducted no operations and had no income. The entire stock of this company was eventually transferred to the railroads, but even then Further delays O.P. Van Sweringen was authorized to vote The dream of a Union Station that in­ the stock for the election of directors until cluded all the railroads was dashed when the completion of the depot. The Van Sweringens Pennsylvania Railroad withdrew in Decem ­ were in control of the project. The railroads ber' 1919. Not only did the ordinance have to needed them to negotiate a favorable deal be revised in order to proceed without it, but with the City. this decision was greatly to affect how the sta- CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 49

tion was to be designed. The Pennsylvania By the beginning of 1922, only tentative Railroad in reaching its decision stressed the plans had been drawn, and no final decisions advantages of decentralization in city devel­ were made. Since O.P. Van Sweringen was opment as opposed to intensive concentra­ now President of Cleveland Union Terminals tion in central areas. It also objected to plat­ Company - a company owned but not con­ forms encumbered with the columns required trolled by the railroads - a committee consist­ by construction in the air rights, and to track­ ing of representatives of the railroads was age with excessive curvature resulting from formed to protect their interests and empow­ the narrowness of the property. 1:1 In the latter ered to act for them in matters of land pur­ part of 1919, the City Planning Commission chase, design, and construction. again brought up its recommendation that This Railroad Committee met for the Ontario Street be widened to reduce conges­ first time in January, 1922 in New York. They tion. The Terminals Company refused, em­ approved the leasing of 21 ,000 square feet of phasizing the impracticability of the sugges­ office space at 323 Lakeside for personnel, de­ tion because of the physical requirements of sign and construction. More important, they the Union Depot Building itself. Retrospec­ formed nine subcommittees to work out the tively, it is easy to see that the Company's un­ details of the project: (1) Tracks, (2) Track Con­ willingness to give up any of its property was struction, (3) Electrical Operation, (4) Electric due to its interest in the air rights develop­ Power Production, (5) Express, Mail, and Bag­ ment, since the train station itself would be gage, (6) Station Plans, (7) Auxiliary Spaces entirely below grade (street level) along On­ and Conveniences, (8) Mechanical and Elec­ tario, and hence not affected. trical Equipment, and (9) Heating. Because of Still another hurdle arose with the pas­ the immense technical complexity of the pro­ sage of the Esch-Cummins Act in 1920: the ject, the Railroad Committee clearly saw the need for approval of the Interstate Commerce architects as a branch of their engineering de­ Commission. After extensive testimony and a partment, and told them so. Many design de­ reversal of an earlier decision, the Commis­ cisions and solutions were made in-house. sion finally issued a Certificate of Conven­ The project owes as much to engineering as to ience on 6 December, 1921. '" Legal expenses architecture. amounted to airnost$74,000. In the same year, The engineering expense in proportion the entire stock of the Cleveland Union Termi­ to construction costs was high, because of the nals Company was purchased by the partici­ large number of studies required for the var­ pating railroads, and the Company then en­ ious parts of the project. The labor force of the tered into agreements with the Cleveland Cleveland Terminals Company's Engineer­ Traction Terminals Company, which was to ing Department fluctuated widely. Clerks, lease the traction terminal and concession draftsmen, engineers, instrument men, areas at an unrealistic $850,000 per year plus linkers, rodmen, inspectors, etc. were em­ taxes, insurance, and depreciation, in addi­ ployed and laid off from time to time to meet tion to bearing the cost of the interior finish of the needs of the project. The same Engineer­ the concession area; and secondly with the ing Department also did taskwork for the Cleveland Terminal Buildings Company, New York Central, the Big Four, the Nickel which was to develop specified air rights Plate, the Cleveland Traction Terminals Com­ areas. All of these companies were controlled pany, and Terminal Building Company. To by Van Sweringen interests; in fact, the Cleve­ safeguard everyone's interests, changes were land Traction Terminals Company was, for all continually monitored by an auditing com­ practical purposes, a paper company. 29 mittee. At last, it looked as though construction was about to begin. But much of the land had Fitting the station into the city yet to be acquired and the plans were yet to be In the early 1920's, the Van Sweringens made final. In fact, as is the case in most con­ tried unsuccessfully to re-route the proposed struction projects, the plans were fluid, and Huron-Lorain bridge right into the Terminal changes of major consequence were made as district. JO Their intention was to share the cost time went on. At this time, nobody had any of the bridge with the County - trains could clear vision of the full extent of the eventual cross the valley on a lower deck, automobiles project. on the upper - thus saving the project con- 50 wALTER C. LEEDY

siderable construction costs. Furthermore The interior arrangement of the station they believed, correctly, that Cleveland's was not reflected on the Public Square facad e. greatest growth of moderate-priced residen­ Visual emphasis was placed on the super­ tial districts for the future would be in a south­ grade construction, which was to consist of westerly direction, given adequate bridge eleven-story buildings accented by a central, connections. They also made economic feasi­ twenty-story tower. The idea of harmonizing bilitystudies to determine whether to "extend the new station with the Hotel Cleveland , Woodland Boulevard" right downtown to thereby combining the south and west sides

Ontario Street. 31 They did everything possible of the Square into one large composition, and to increase traffic density through their devel­ of placing the tower above a diagonal entrance opment, thereby hoping to increase real es­ in the middle, imparted a grandeur to the tate values in the area. The railroads went scheme that would not have been possible if along with their ideas, hoping to share in the the main entrance and facade had been placed profits, though they disagreed about the pos­ on the sou th side alone. This nearly symmetri­ sibility of increased land values as a result of cal composition with accented inner comer re-routing the Huron-Lorain Bridge. was to have even more important visual con­ Congestion was apparently going to be sequences later on, with the decision to build a problem in front of the new Union Station. a 52 -story office tower. The building functions Little parking was provided for people meet­ urbanistically because it wraps around the ing trains. The City had appointed a Subway Square instead of merely defining one side of Commission in 1918, and it proposed to elimi­ it. nate all surface streetcar lines in the area, thereby opening up the streets exclusively to Architects and engineers refine the plans automobile traffic. The plan was never The more the plan for a double-deck sta­ adopted, bu t, righ t from the beginning, plans tion was studied and its technical implications for the Union Station made provision to con­ understood, the less feasible it seemed." In nect the concourse area directly to a proposed 1920, for both technical and economic rea­ subway station which was to be located under sons, plans were adopted for a single-deck Public Square. station with tracks at elevation 52. This impor­ tant decision was to influence all others. The early scheme of August, 1918 called Itis in this period that the detailed needs for a double-deck station below street level for the station were finally determined and with a passenger concourse located in be­ recommendations made. These were based tween. 32 The waiting room was to be a huge on the original requirements for the station on rectangular room, 100 by 275 feet, a rectangu­ the Mall, compared to those of Grand Central lar room with a skylighted and coffered barrel Station in New York City, as modified by vaulted ceiling carried on gigantic Corinthian H. D. Jouett, Terminal Engineer for Grand columns." From the waiting room, another Central Station at the time. During this forma­ ramp would lead down to the passenger con­ tive period, W. E. Pease was Chief Engineer of course level, from which the visitor would the Cleveland Union Terminals Company. walk down stairways to the interurban tracks Jouett officially began to oversee the Terminal and up stairways to the steam tracks. This so­ project on 1 January, 1922. 35 He made detailed lution left something to be desired. critical comments on a series of proposed The waiting room and passenger con­ plans developed by the architects, especially course could also be approached through with regard to how the various functions shop-lined passageways from the corners of should relate to each other, to the spaces West 3rd and Superior, as well as from the needed for them, and to the working condi­ Square and Ontario and Prospect Avenues. tions within each space. In other words, he There was no direct access from the central worked out the architectural program. Prospect Avenue entrance to the passenger By the end of 1920 a general plan and concourse. The railroads were critical of this conception based on programmatic needs for blatant attempt to increase traffic flow past the the station had been developed. ]6 Now came shops, thus benefitting the supergrade the job of the Railroad Committee: to refine (above-ground) development, to the incon­ and implement this plan. In June, 1922 it sug­ venience of the travelling public. gested a new track plan calling for 12 station CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 51

tracks with growth to 24. This decision called In May, 1924 it was decided - "for ob­ for the rearrangement of certain proposed vious reasons" - not to fight the City in the streets - the streets in the terminal complex courts against the requested price, almost were carried on bridges so the trains and sta­ $900,000 higher than the estimated value, for tion could be subgrade - and the purchase of the Police and Fire Department facilities to be an additional lSD-foot frontage along lower demolished to make way for the Terminal . Superior Avenue. Van Sweringen summa­ Negotiations were carried out by O .P. Van rized the land question and the political situa­ Sweringen himself. They knew whom not to tion as to the required street changes: "addi­ offend, especially since the heigh tening of the tionalfrontage on Superior. .. estimated cost tower had already been decided but had yet to of $2,533,500 ... . 80 feet depth will remain ... be announced. The Terminals Company as salvage . . . Suitable development of this overpaid for other properties, too. For exam­ ... [should] realize substantially the cost of ple, as L.c. James, General Land and Tax all the property involved." On the street Agent for the New York Central, reported to changes in the area he wrote, demonstrating the Railroad Committee: "It seems inconceiv­ his usual political craftiness, "It is not improb­ able that the foreign-speaking people reSiding able that the city will approve . .. but the re­ in the vicinity of the west approach pay the quest should not be made ... until construc­ rentals prevalent in this territory or purchase tion work has progressed to a point where the homes at the current market prices recorded public are thoroughly convinced of the work in this district, but investigation indicates that going ahead and at a time when the complete their first consideration is to obtain a home exhibit of accurate plans can be submitted to near their local parochial school and church in them without revealing information that does the vicinity where their fellow countrymen not now want to be discussed. "37 Besides in­ live. The wretched hovels . . . are not worth creasing track capacity, the advantage of this ... the capitalized rent value of many of these extension to the railroads was longer plat­ buildings." In dealing with land and lease fo rms and easier curves for the tracks. Van holders who the Terminal Company believed Sweringen hoped to enlarge the commercial demanded excessive prices, even after inde­ district, perhaps with a theater or other inten­ pendent appraisal, for their property, they sive development. He put pressure on the would normally go to court. There were over Railroad Committee to agree to this extension one hundred such cases. O.P. VanSweringen by saying that the Building Company had op­ determined part of the strategy the Company tions on some of the needed property that was to follow at the appropriation proceed­ were shortly to expire. Thus, the cost could be ings: have as few lawyers present as possible, considerably higher in the future. Ultimately, as a mob of lawyers would " only result in put­ the Railroad Committee agreed. ting in the minds of the jurors that we have money to burn." By December, 1923 the Railroad Com­ mittee reached decisions to govern the archi­ A monumental secret tects and engineers in preparing new plans, It was probably some time in 1923 that which were approved on 15 January, 1924 . Van Sweringen, perhaps prompted by his ar­ These specifications included the width of the chitectsand a market study, decided to build a ticket lobby (93 feet), the type and location of monumental 52-story tower on Public Square. ticket counter, 38 the location of the cab stand, But with characteristic acumen he kept the station master's office, barber shop, etc. The plan to himself until a propitious time. On 11 guiding principle behind these new arrange­ November, 1924, W.E. Pease and H.D. Jouett ments was nicely to balance the respective im­ in an address to The Cleveland Engineering portance of the facilities considering both SOCiety suggested publicly that Cleveland service and revenue. By the end of January, could expect "a towering structure." 39 No de­ 1924 twenty different schemes, prepared by tails were given. Just two weeks before this the architects, had already been considered. address, the building code had been amended In April, 1924, because of the death of archi­ to permit the design of the new Ohio Bell Tele­ tect Pierce Anderson, C.F. Kruse was as­ phone Company building. The code, as signed to represent the architects on the var­ amended, permitted buildings of almost un­ ious design subcommittees. limited height, and incorporated the latest 52 WALTER C. LEEDY

principle of skyscraper design, the set-back: ready moved East of East Ninth Street. With the mass of a building is progressively set back the new Union Trust Building at East Ninth as it rises, to permit air and light to enter the and Euclid Avenue, decentralization was pro­ street level, thus avoiding "the Wall Street ef­ gressing so rapidly as to threaten the eco­ fect." The approval of this new code meant nomic viability of the Terminal's supergrade that the Van Sweringens did not have another developments. There was even an active battle to fight. And what a battle it would have "West of East Ninth Street Merchants' Associ­ been! Critics of the Terminal project had long ation," whose objective was to increase devel­ contended that the station was just an excuse opment and improve the area. The Van for a large commercial development intended Sweringens encouraged and financially sup­ for private gain, and that "history would ported this association. show that the City had been screwed. "'"Good The increase in amount of office space in timing was a major factor in the success of the the tower itself was projected to take care of project. Cleveland's increased needs for two years. Announcement of the new plans for the The entire tract, if built up, was expected to 52-story tower did not come until 14 February, fulfill the City's increasing need for office 1925. The next day The Plain Dealer records space for ten years. The decision to heighten that according to Van Sweringen it was de­ the tower was based, therefore, on an eco­ signed to be the landmark of Cleveland like nomic survey. It made good business sense. the Woolworth Building in New York City. Van Sweringen's comparison to the The aesthetics of the Terminal Tower Woolworth Building gives us insight into his The decision to make the tower 52 sto­ intentions. Designed by Cass Gilbert and built ries high had important visual consequences in 1911-13, the Woolworth overlooks New as well. It would no longer just accent the en­ York's City Hall Park, just as the Terminal trance to the station. By its sheer height and Tower by its diagonal placement helps to link diagonal placement the tower would dramati­ and unite Public Square with the projected cally pierce the quadrilateral symmetry of the Mall, the seat of municipal power. But, more Square, and to the Square's heretofore chaotic important, because of its sheer height and its impact it would contribute a consistent order, isolation in the New York skyline, the a clear image on two sides which people could Woolworth Building became an object of recognize and remember. meditation, a cathedral of commerce. It cap­ Another important change was made tured everyone's imagination. John Marin from the design of 1918: the tower was set painted a famous watercolor of it in 1913. And back. The entrance, newly conceived as a por­ in 1925 John Dos Passos, in his novel Manhat­ tico, now jutted forward, and had an identity tan Tran sfer, described it as "glistening shaft" of its own. This visual separation not only ex­ which "pulled out like a telescope." presses a difference in function - entry A giant plaster model of the area north versus office space - but creates a totally dif­ of Prospect Avenue, costing $8000, was ferent visual relationship between tower and placed on exhibition to be "great assistance to entry. The entrance and the groundline no us in moulding public opinion in favor of the longer serve as a base for the tower, as they did Terminals Company. ".1 Photographs of the in the 1918 proposal, but the tower is now seen model were used to encourage the passage of as rising from behind the portico. The idea for the ordinance on the use of the southwest cor­ a great vestibule, clearly separated from the ner of Public Square for the entrance portico, connecting office building towering above, and were used later in obtaining approval of was first employed in Michigan Central Sta­ the City Planning Commission and the build­ tion, built in 1913 in Detroit. This advance in ing permit. functional expressionism was further devel­ The decision to heighten the tower was oped in Cleveland. Because the shape of the of enormous importance for the entire pro­ Terminal Tower is visually incomplete at this ject, for it markedly increased the amount of lower juncture, a suffiCiently strong tendency rental office space in the area. There is no towards visual completion is generated: the doubt that this decision was made to counter impression is created that the tower emerges the eastward commercial development along from a subterranean base. This composition Euclid Avenue. The retailing center had al- gives visual expression to the station below, CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 5:\

which was lacking in the 1918 proposal. This separation of portico and tower re­ sulted not only from visual considerations, but from a legal one as well. Since the site was Public Square, the City had no right to vacate the triangular piece of land in the southwest comer. This property was owned by the pub­ lic, as distinguished from the City, and conse­ quently the City only had the right to occupy it fora public use. Therefore, the tower had to be set back away from the Square. In order to permit construction of the portico, City Coun­ cil passed an ordinance which gave license to construct an ornamental arcaded passageway that would be open at all times for pedestrian travel." This ordinance also established the street grades for the corner. Notice how toda y ::: ',...,.. ; the grade declines toward the entrance from " . ' . both Ontario Street and Superior Avenue. This co ndition made possible the interior ramp slope of no more than 10 percent; other­ wise, because of the shallowness of the site, it would have had to be much steeper. Even at 10 percent, it is too steep to be comfo rtable.

Terminal Tower, architect's rendering, early 1925. Vistas of unimpaired vision create a cre­ Ornamental fig ures along portico were later scendo effect, and the long, narrow propor­ eliminated because of expense. CSU Archives. tions of the tower's mass play an important part in making the eye rise from ground level setting, as does the Erieview Tower, for exam­ to higher elevations. 4J This effect is reinforced ple, for it has a recognizable relationship to its as all the horizontal design elements are seen setting. By placing the tower diagonally, the firs t in their relation to the vertical order. The architect gave importance to the whole Square vertical stresses isolation, ambition, and com­ and underscored the diagonal correspon­ petition; the horizontal suggests interaction. dence between the Square and the Mall. It The mass of the tower contrasts with the mass greatly modified the structure of the entire of the wings, as the viewer's gaze moves back Square by creating an eccentric focus. and forth between them. Looking at the total The original drawings for the portico composi tion is a dynamic experience. Since the called for sculptured figures to be placed interspaces between Higbee's, the tower, and above each column. "This idea was earlier em­ the hotel are nonexistent, these units coalesce ployed for the Union Station in Washington, into one. They do not display mutual repul­ D.C., built in the 1903-1907 period; and it sion as the Old Stone Church does to its neigh­ therefore was part of the railway station archi­ boring buildings. Each needs the other for re­ tectural vocabulary. The Washington station ciprocal completion. was designed by D.H. Burnham and Com­ The tower provides an anchor to the ob­ pany, the predecessor firm of Graham, An­ server's glance, a relief from the excessive hor­ derson, Probst, and White. izontality of Public Square. It creates spatial The top of the tower calls on already coordinates - a framework for determining tried and traditional forms of architecture too. distances and orientation. Clad in masonry, it The upper portion was probably patterned on has no reflecting glass walls which can create the Municipal Building in New York City, surrealistic images. Its form is not ambiguous; which in turn was modelled on an ancient Ro­ it sends out a firm and clear message of pride man type - the sepulchral monument. Like and aspiration. its Municipal prototype, it was to be crowned The tower does not look forlorn in its with a female allegorical figure, representing 54 WALTER C. LEEDY

Left: Proposed plan at sta­ tion level, 1921. One in a series of proposals based on a main, single ramp which led down to station area. CSU Archives. Below: Double ramp pla n of entrance portico at street level, as actually built, 1930. Comparison with the earlier plan (left) shows shift in visual emphasis from station to office tower. Drawing repro­ duced from Ra ilway Age.

, / /

PUBL I C R..[

an abstract concept such as transportation, commerce, justice, or the city. There is no abrupt change between tower and sky as in some modern flat-topped buildings. The ele­ vator ascends only to the 42nd floor; the 43rd floor contains the elevator machine room, the 45th holds the house water tank. The archi­ ?t~~~U=~CJ~~i¥~~ tects considered the 48th to 52nd floors as un­ rentable. Clearly, the top was planned to give { satisfaction to the eye and to elevate the spirit. The decision to build a tall tower had important consequences for the design of the office space on the west side. Also, the two station below. It will be recalled that at the ramps permitted a center entrance on Pros­ beginning of 1924, plans were approved by pect at elevation 100 with direct passageway the Railroad Committee for a single ramp for shops to the elevator lobby. The only dis­ from entrance to ticket lobby. In early March advantage the new scheme. had for the rail­ of 1924, because of the decision to increase the roads was that the length of the ticket office height of the tower, the architects made stu­ was reduced, eliminating the possibility of fu­ dies showing two ramps to the ticket lobby ture expansion. Jouett wrote to the architects: with the Tower Building elevators located be­ "I think it would be desirable to carry your tween them, conceptually much as they were studies somewhat further so we may be as­ eventually built. This new arrangement for sured that we are obtaining everything we the elevators offered more rentable area per want and need from a Railroad standpoint floor in the tower and, because of their central and be in a position to so advise the Railroad location, increased the depth of the Committee. .. I recall that your structural CLEVELAND'S TERMlNAL TOWER 55

Looking west from Hotel Cleveland, August, 1926. The future site of part of the station after clearing but before excavation. Note streetca r slit in middle of Superior Avenue, leading to a lower level of the Detroit­ Superior Bridge. CSU Archives. man had some trouble in working out proper given their marching orders: develop a two­ wind bracing. .. I think therefore that this ramp plan. The Railroad Committee became question should be gone into carefully by your aware of the change of plans on 19 May, 1924. structural men and such sections of the tower Single- and double-ramp schemes were dis­ be made as are necessary for this study. ""One cussed. Ensuing discussion brought out sug­ of the architects replied: "I am sure we know gestions for improving the double ramp ar­ exactly what your problem is, and will try to rangement, and the architects made some present it exactly as you would like to have it hurried sketches. On 3 June, 1924, after con­ done."" sideration of at least nine different schemes On 14 March, Van Sweringen wrote di­ for the entrance area, a double ramp scheme rectly to Graham, the architect: "I personally was approved including the curving of the Like the two ramp plan best . . . I have been lower portions of the ramps, and the construc­ wondering however, whether you couldn't tion of the north end of the ticket lobby on an improve it by having along side the grand arc, plus other details. More revisions of the staircase going up to elevation 100, stairs on ticket lobby la yout were made in July, after either side going down to the concourse level objections from the New York Central Rail­ and make of these a grand staircase coming up road. Needless to say, the Railroads were in­ from that level. Had you tried doing this? In terested in how much more this double ramp many cases when people are in a hurry they scheme would cost. The architects originally would prefer to take the stairs and if this could projected an additional cost of$5,000, but the be done it would seem to me it would be worth change actually cost about $72,000.48 The considering. " 47 While this last idea was never decision-making process was complex. Ideas seriously considered, the architects were for changes and improvements originated at 56 WALTER C. LEEDY

Future site of Higbee's Department Store, October, 1926, after partial excavation and construction of retain­ ing walls along Ontario Street. Excavated material was hauled by train and truck to the west side and to the lakefront, where it was used as fill. CSU Archives.

all administrative levels. A careful balancing station below. The foundations and substruc­ of power existed between the Railroad Com­ ture had to be designed so that the office build­ mittee and all the other interests. Everybody ings would not be subjected to excessive and had to look out for his own interests. annoying vibration, especially from traffic on Because of the height of the tower, it the supergrade streets. In addition, the de­ was thought best to take the foundations sign of the supergrade streets, which were to down to bedrock. Deeper than the Tribune have streetcars, constituted a complex engi­ Tower in Chicago and taller buildings in De­ neering problem: they had to be designed to troit and New York, sixteen caissons go down carry a heavy moving load. Jouett knew these approximately 200 feet each. They were com­ problems were critical from his experience at pleted by 31 July 1926. The foundations for the Grand Central Station in New Yark; his exper­ other structures are not as deep, going down tise was of immense importance for the suc­ only 100 feet. For the foundations to be prop­ cess of the project. erly designed, the height had to be deter­ In May, 1925 a new track layout was ap­ mined for the supergrade buildings between proved, reSCinding the eight-track plan of Prospect and Huron from Superior to On­ July, 1923. This decision meant a whole series tario. Studies were made for ten-, twelve-, of earlier decisions on other matters had to be and sixteen-story office buildings. Sixteen­ reconsidered. Supergrade building heights story buildings were decided upon as the and street layout had to be restudied. Further­ most economical height, with columns sepa­ more, the proposed function of the buildings rated by 20 feet 8 inches, center to center. Bear based on Cleveland's commercial needs had in mind that this spacing decision was deter­ to be determined: office space, loft space, or mined by the track and platform layout of the shops and offices. This planning, rethinking, CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER S7

changing, and studying the implications of all the new decisions was a continual process. In 1927 it was decided to provide stair­ ways between the Prospect Avenue entrance and the ticket lobby in the concourse, even though this would result in loss of shop space and decrease traffic passing the shops in the other passages. The Railroad Committee had its way. In this instance, the Van Sweringens did not get what they wanted. Important changes in high- level mana­ gerial positions were to take place . In 1927, George McGwinn, vice-president and build­ ing manager of the Union Trust Company, was made vice-president of the Cleveland Union Terminals Company. More important, Charles L. Bradley was made president of the Company, replacing O.P. Van Sweringen, who may have had difficulty supervising the building while running his railroad empire. Bradley, age 42, son of M.A. Bradley, vessel owner and realty magnate, was ideally suited for the job. He had experience with the con­ struction of the Union Trust Building. Also, Above: Stones for the portico on Public Sq uare ca me pre-cut from the quarry and had only to be he was reputedly one of the Cleveland capital­ assembled. ist group associated with all the Van Swerin­ Below: The sides of Public Square converging on gen transportation enterprises since their in­ the portico had to be graded downward towards ception. In 1930 he was paid $200,000 for a job the entrance. Note how much of the site had to be well done." excavated. CSU Archives. 58 WALTER C. LEEDY

In 1928 the layout of many parts of the station was again changed. Even the toilets were restudied! City Building Commissioner William Guion issued the building permit in June, 1928. The Tower building was being completed before the end of 1928 and was al­ ready more than 60 percent occupied, whereas the station construction was just be­ ginning. The railroad executives felt that the Van Sweringens had upstaged the railroads by completing construction so early, and they made their feelings known. The planning of the station, having gone on for about ten years, was still not finished, and it neverreally was. In 1929 a proposal by the Van Sweringens to make a circle of Public Square

I I I • I was disclosed at a meeting of the City Plan­ ·• I' ••• ning Commission. 50 The plan showed how a : ••••• ~ circular movement of traffic and the rounding .....• II' ••• ·.... off of the comers would relieve congestion. · .;••• II Others, more dramatically, suggested the · .,. ~ ,. . whole of the Square be paved over, and in • .,.. II • · ".,. .. 1930, George D. Breck of the Early Settlers As­ · ~~.~~ sociation suggested that the Soldiers' and • ,." ,II' • ,. Sailors' Monument be removed to Erie Street Cemetery. 51 Public Square must look modern and up to date. Several people suggested that the name of the Square be changed to Termi­ nal Square or something of that sort. "Public Square" sounded provincial - "like small­ town stuff. "52

Above: On August 18, 1927, a flag flies atop the completed steel skeletal frame to celebrate the steelworkers' achievement. Right: Interior view of portico, under construction in January, 1928. It was imperative to finish this en­ trance so the tower could be opened to tenants. CSU Archives. CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 59

When the terminal was formally dedi­ tation center- something of the atmosphere cated in 1930, few people would have pre­ one still experiences in a large international dicted that the need for the station would be so airport. Esther Hayhurst, a retired teacher, re­ shortlived. It was already clear, however, that calls riding the New York Central into Cleve­ the interurban part of it would never be devel­ land with her mother from Greenwich, Ohio, oped. The interurbans were going out of busi­ in the early 1930's, for a day's shopping: "Ev­ ness; the automobile was triumphant. The de­ erything was sparkling clean - not a speck of cision to heighten the tower no doubt saved grime . . . There were rows of fancy shops the Terminal complex. and marvelous eating places. Groups of peo­ One of the Van Sweringens' foremost ple would be strolling about or standing and objectives in the tower project was to create a talking. There was a feeling of bustle and ex­ high-rent district for their own profit. But they citement." created more than a "Cathedral of Business": For architectural critics, however, the they created a visual symbol for the City of Terminal complex lacked that triumphant Cleveland - a landmark with a sense of iden­ sense of the new. Its forms, bounded by histori­ tity answering to Cleveland's psychological cal precedent, lacked that crisp, sleek, hard­ needs and a square with an entirely new phy­ edged, cool and anonymous style which was siognomy and character. They succeeded eventually to become the predOminant corpo­ where Mayor Johnson had failed, for that had rate style of the 1950's. On the contrary, the been his ultimate objective for the develop­ architectural style of the Terminal complex is a ment of the Mall. style of ease. It is physically and emotionally The tower and spacious terminal facil­ comfortable. In fact , the style is subordinated ities did create a modem focus for Cleveland's to the overall composition. No doubt the Van pride; it was like a city within a city, an elegant Sweringens' taste for the traditional and the shopping mall in the heart of down town, accepted played an important role in shaping with the additional excitement of a transpor- Terminal Tower and Public Square.

NOTES

I wish to thank Mr. Richard Green, past president of Tower City Properties for permission to explore the archival material at Tower City and to Ms. Blanche Young, librarian, and Mr. Peter Daniloff, archivist, who sorted and organized over 10,000 architectural drawings there. I would Like to express special gratitude to Mr. Gerald Adams for sharing his knowledge about railroads with me, and who, in the fall of 1982, donated to the Library of Cleveland State University an extensive archival collection containing material relating to the Cleveland and Youngstown Railroad Company, the Terminals Company, and the Cleveland Union Termi­ nals Company. I am also beholden to Mr. William J. Becker, University Archivist, for numerous acts of coop­ eration.

Archival material located at Tower City is prefaced TC and material at Cleveland State University is prefaced CSU. Photographs on pp. 19-22 of the Terminal Tower under construction are by R.E. Hawkins, Lakewood. This article is a preliminary study.

'For a general history of railroad station design, see Carroll L. Meeks, The Railroad Station, an Architec­ tural History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956) .

'An interesting booklet on this topic is Max E. Wilcox and Clayton Hallmark, Cleveland Southwestern and Columbus Trolley (Shelby, Ohio: Hallmarks Books, 1981).

3For a more detailed discussion of these buildings, see Eric Johannesen, Cleveland Architecture 1876- 1976 (Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1979).

'The discussion in this paragraph is indebted to William J. Gleason, History of the Cuyahoga County Sol­ diers' and Sailors' Monument (Cleveland: The Monument Commissioners, 1894). 60 WALTER C. LEEDY

'Samuel P. Orth, A History of Clevelami, Ohio, 2 vols. (Chicago-Cleveland: S.J. Clarke, 1910), I, 764. For the general discussion of Public Square, I am indebted to Orth.

'For more on the following discussion, see Thomas S. Hines, Burnham of Chicago, Architect and Planner (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 158-173.

?from "Regulating City Building," The Survey, 18 November, 1911 , pp. 12-14, quoted in Gwendolyn Wright, Moralism and the Model House (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 263 . For the definitive book on Jensen, see Leonard K. Eaton, LAndscape Artist In America, the Life and Work of Jens Jensen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964).

"City of Cleveland Ordinance No. 37901-A; C.H. Cramer, Newton D. Baker (Cleveland and New York: World, 1961), pp. 53-54.

'A series of drawings for the proposed station, done 1915-1 7 by Graham, Burnham and Co. and their successor firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White, are at TC and CSU .

IO For the following discussion I am indebted to Ian S. Haberman, The Va n Sweringens of Cleveland , the Biography of an Empire (Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1979), and Mark S. Foster, From Street­ car to Superhighway: American City Planners and Urban Transportation 1900-1940 (Philadelphia: Temple Univer­ sity Press, 1981).

liTe, file IT 67-K.

" Plain Dealer, 9 February, 1926, and 5 May 1928.

I3 Plain Dealer, 9 February, 1926.

I'The idea for such a facility may have come from Jay Latimer, a local real estate man, around 1912. Later in the 1920's, the Cleveland Union Terminals Company purchased land from Latimer and he served as one of their land agents (Te, file IT 105).

I'When the Va n Sweringens began to acquire property for the terminus, they fo und that one small but strategically loca ted parcel was owned by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Such a sale had to be approved by the Land Department of the B & 0 , located in Baltimore. The brothers thought it worth their while to seek this approval in person. The land agent for the railroad, one McCubben, saw no objection to the sale unless the property served as a means of connection for the proposed terminal, of which he had only sketchy knowl­ edge but which he knew was being developed on the high ground above their land. McCubben asked the brothers to present their plans to F.L. Stuart, Chief Engineer, who suggested the advisability of including some of the steam railroads in the terminal, specifically the B & 0 , the Erie, and the Wheeling and Lake Erie, among others. Thus the idea for a joint electric and steam facility was due to Stuart's suggestion, made in 1917. Although there had been earlier mentions of such a facility at this site, nothing had come of them. Now, however, serious engineering studies would follow. (TC, files CT and 67-K.)

I'CSU, Terminal Archives.

l'Neither the idea of two track levels nor air rights development was original: it had already been tried in New York's Grand Central Station.

18For this discussion see Te, file CT 67-K. The facts given here come from a statement by O.P. Van Sweringen prepared for the Interstate Commerce Commission; file CT 37, C-2; file CT 67-J, typescript of a talk given by Mr. Boyd at Hotel Cleveland on 16 September, 1921.

I'CSU, Minutes of the Railroad Committee, 8 October, 1923.

2OCSU, File CT 9-G-1.

"They followed a system of compiling data for the design of passenger stations that had been used by Grand Central in New York and the Union Station in Cincinnati. This and subsequent engineering reports are atCSU. CLEVELAND'S TERMINAL TOWER 61

22'fc' file Cf-44 .

"The legislation of the City of Cleveland in connection with the construction of the Union Passenger Tenninal of the Cleveland Union Terminals Company comprises 74 ordinances passed fro m 1919 to 1930. The initial ordinance is No. 47814.

2·CSU, file Cf 9-G-1.

25They held to the double-deck scheme suggested in their August report and suggested a mail-express layout, south of Orange Avenue, in the vicinity of East 14th Street. But, as it was proposed to develop the area over the passenger tracks for mercantile purposes, they indicated that this was not feasible without electrific­ lion of the steam railroads. At this lime, the railroads were still not committed to the whole project.

26The project also had to seek Federal approval. In a personal letter of 28 February, 1919, to O .P. Van Sweringen, Smith, of the U.S.R.A., requested a summary of all the salient features of the project which would be of "assistance to me in presenting the project to the Director General as well as to the corporations, in case of necessity ... " Since the idea was Smith's, he was clearly a supporter of the project, but he was also an old business partner of O.P. Van Sweringen. Some years before, the latter had formed the Glenville Sy ndi­ cate to acquire the necessary land and right of way for New York Central's high-level freight yard, which the two had planned together. One may wonder to what degree this project was mutually benefi cial. (CSU, file Cf9-G-l and "Brief before Hon. J.M. Killitts, Arbitrator, Cleveland and Youngstown Rail road, complainant, vs. New York Central Railroad, defendant. ")

21CSU, file Cf9-G-l. Copies of letters to the City Council of Cleveland (29 November, 1919) and to the Mayor of Cleveland (1 December, 1919), from J.J. Turner, Vice-President, The Pennsylvania Railroad Com­ pa ny.

28For a discussion of this point, see Haberman, pp. 41ff.

29Contracts for all these agreements are at CSU.

JO Minutes of the Railroad Committee, 3 November, 1922, and subsequent meetings. The Railroad Committee approved the proposal, but there was a public outcry against it followed by a lawsuit against the County.

3'CSU, file Cf 75-0.

32Ihe lower deck, reserved for electric rapid transit and interurban service, was to be 38 feet above river level; the upper deck, for steam, 74 feet above. The elevation of Public Square is approximately 83 feet above the river. The plan, therefore, implied a station below grade. Access to the station from Public Square would be through upper or lower lobbies. The lower lobby could be approached directly from the corner of Superior and Ontario Streets via a ramp placed diagonally across the southwest quadrant of the Square. Once inside, the passenger would proceed via an arcade connecting this lower lobby to the main waiting room. The upper lobby was right at street level, which was to be ramped up to this entrance. Inside, grand staircases led down to the waiting room.

33A similar design was later used for the banking halls of the Union Trust Building - now Union Com­ merce - by the same architectural firm . The waiting room, however, would impart a totally different spatial feeling. Since the main entry to it was on the short axis, the passenger's field of vision upon entering could not include the side, that is, the narrow walls of the space. The location of these walls and therefore the design of the space, could only become understandable as the traveller moved through it. The space would unfold as he walked into it, thus providing an element of surprise. By contrast, in the Union Trust Building, the main entrance is on the long axis; therefore the visitor is immediately aware of one of the main spaces, because his fie ld of vision would include the side, that is, the long walls. (The same architects employed a waiting room of similar conception in the Union Station they designed for Chicago in 1916.)

34 If, for example, the lower deck was at elevation 38 or 36, a great deal of excavation would be neces­ sary . If, however, the lower deck rested at elevation 52, the upper deck could be at 72, with the concourse above both at elevation 92 . Either of these solutions had one great disadvantage: the situation of the ap­ proaches. The tracks would have had to start separating on the east at near Broadway and on the west near 62 WALTER C. LEEDY

the river crossing. Also, if the concourse were at elevation 92, it would be above Public Square rather than below, a clear disadvantage to the air rights developers. Futhermore, since the Pennsylvania Railroad had withdrawn, space for only ten tracks for steam operation needed to be provided initially.

3SBy accepting the job, Jouett more than doubled his salary (to $1000 per month). Born in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1878, he started working for New York Central in 1900, as rodman and soon as inspector, in Utica, New York, at $60 per month. By 1909 he was a design engineer at $200 per month and was made Terminal Engineer for Grand Central in 1917. While here he lived on Drexmore Road in Shaker Heights. Part of his responsibility was the important task of coordinating the work between the Van Sweringens, the Rail­ road Committee and its subcommittees, and the architects. Being a New York Central man, he was also on hand to safeguard the interests of the railroads. (Te, construction file, PB-lOl.)

36According to this plan, entry off the Square could be gained through either upper or lower lobbies. If one entered through the upper lobby, he would proceed down a central ramp surrounded by a monumental open colonnade right on the main axis of the station to the ticket lobby below. He would not have had the time or inclination to enjoy the architecture because the incline of the ramp was fairly steep (10 percent), which was necessitated by the limited depth of the site. He would then have arrived in the ticket lobby. An infQrma­ tion booth was considerately placed on axis, right in front of him. After purchasing the ticket, our visitor would proceed directly ahead to the stearn concourse, to find the stairway down to his train. Alternatively, he could go down exterior ramps- can you imagine how icy these could be in winter time? - to the lower lobby and then ahead to the ticket lobby. On either side of the ticket lobby were located the east and west interurban concourses. Off the upper lobby were the elevators to the supergrade buildings and two-story arcaded pas­ sages of shops and offices, which led to subsidiary lobbies off Prospect Avenue, and Superior and West 3rd Street. The public areas were well ordered and almost axial in their layout.

37CSU, Minutes of the Railroad Committee, 14 June, 1922.

"The ticket counter was to be "set back five or six feet west of the face of the columns to give greater effective width to the ticket lobby" - and to create spaces for individual lines of patrons at each selling place. The main entrance ramp was to have a grade of 10 percent. But in order to achieve this, the floor had to be pitched nine inches across the 28-foot wide entrance lobby and adjustments made in the cross passages in the immediate vicinity of the foot of the ramp.

'"The Plain Dealer, 12 November, 1924.

"'Te, File CT 9-G-I0-A. "Notes on a Conference with Peter Witt, 15 August, 1918. "

'1 Letter from Jouett to the Railroad Committee, 3 February, 1925.

"City of Cleveland Ordinance No. 66292-A .

" For an introduction to the power of the visual effects of architecture, see Rudolf Arnheim, The Dy­ namics of Architectural Form (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977).

"These drawings are at Te.

"Te, file R-l-a.

'''Ibid. 47Ibid.

"Te, file E-9 and Memorandum of 10 April, 1931 to W.S. Hayden from H.D. Jouett. The railroads said the Van Sweringens were taking advantage of them.

"TC, Minutes of the Board of Directors, 25 July 1927; CSU, Report to the Internal Revenue Service for 1930.

SOThe Plain Dealer, 19 June, 1929. 51The Plain Dealer, 27 February, 1930.

52The Plain Dealer, 28 December, 1927. 63

Mary-Peale Schofield Meade and Hamilton's Livable Cleveland Houses

"Traditional" style houses designed between 1910 and 1920 in Cleveland's eastern suburbs are masterpieces of taste and comfort.

In 1900 American a nd Engli sh houses mestic design.' The public refu ed to b old were consid ered internationally as the best on the early modern house. Architectural designed. The German publisher Ernst Was­ writers who have tried to explain this failure muth, later to be famous for the first publica­ have given insufficient weight to the quality tion (in 1911) of the early work of Frank Llovd of the competition. Wright, published a series of studies of Eng­ Today, architects are searching for new lish houses by Herman Muthesius in 1902, sources of ins piration. The " modern move­ 1904 and 1905 and a book on American ment" is seen as a "style" rather than a moral houses in 1910 by F. Reid VogeL ' When C.H. crusade - a style, moreover, that has passed Edgell wrote his The Alllericall Architectllre of it s prime. In 1977 that arne Museum of Mod­ To-day in 1928,' the "modern" house was still ern Art that had introduced The illterna tiollal the house based on tradition. The work of the slyle in 1931 now mounted an exhibition of Prairie School" was " modernist" and "inter­ The Architec tllre of ti, e Ecole des Beallx-Arts. that esting" but not central. Then in 1931 came the French school of eclectic classical architecture famous exhibit of the work of modern a rchi­ that had been a na thema to the m oderns. tects abroad at the Museum of Modern Art in Though the roots of the "traditional house" New York, and the ca talogue by H enry­ are different from the classical roots of the Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, later Beaux-Arts, the architects were trained in published as a book, Th e illtenlatiollal Style. ' schools that taught according to Beaux-Arts That began a new Battle of Styles, in which methods. At the time these houses were the "moderns" won on all sides, except in do- built, monumental architecture and even

Mary-Peale Schofield was bOnl ill Upper MOlltclair , New Jersey, alld at- tel/ded Miltoll AcadelllY, s'llith College, alld Colulllbia Ulliz le rsity , where she receiued all M .A. ill History . She stlldied actillg at ti,e oralllatic Workshop of the New scilOol for Social Research ill New York alld the Royal Acadellly of oralllatic Art ill LOlldoll , alld has worked ill Sllllllller alld will tel' stock ill a 1I11111ber of locatiolls. WI,ell she callie to Clez 1e lalld ill 1960 , she becallle fascillated with the filiI' architectllre ill th e city alld its ;;lIbllrbs, and was active ill the Cleveland Restoratioll Society alld the local chapter of the Society of Architectural Historian s, sen1illg as presidellt of the latter in 1977. 51,1' assisted ill th e resea rell du rillg the early years of the Cle('elalld Landl/'larks COllllllissioll alld was a lIIell1ber of the Clevelalld Heigllts Lalldlllarks COllllllissioll frolll 1974 to 1979. Her article on the CleZielalld Arcade appeared ill 1966 in the Journal of the SOCie ty of Ar­ chitectural Historians and has bee/1 republished several tillles sin ce, ill mriolls fon ll s. 1/11976 her book Landmark Architecture of Cleveland appeared. She has conducted tours of Cleveland for th e Society of Architec­ tllral Historialls, the Natiollal Trust, and the Westem Reserve Architec- tural Historians, and has given many lectures on Cleveland architecture. Her files on Clevelalld architecture, wh ich are particularly rich in material 011 Sllburban houses, are on lIIicrofilm at the Western Reserve Historical Society. She now lives in Ames, Iowa. (Photo: Kathleen saccopo ulas)

Architectural photographs by Mary-Peale Schofield 64 MEADE AND HAM ILTON'S LIVABLE HOUSES

skyscrapers were Beaux-A rts class ical. So work or in general reports on architecture in along with the returning appreciation of the the Middle West. Beaux-Arts architecture, the time is now ripe Frank Meade was born in Norwalk , for an objective assessment of the early O hi o in 1867. He was the son of William Gale twentieth-century house, its aestheti c quali­ Meade, builder of orwalk's finest Greek Re­ ties and its means of sati sfying the social and vival houses. On graduati on from the Case cultural desires of its time. School of Appli ed Science at Cleveland in In 1906 Herbert Croly, socia ll y sensitive 1885, Meade went on to study architecture at editor of the Architectllral Record, chose the MIT, from which he graduated in 1888. He Middle Western suburban house as the best worked briefly wi th a Boston firm , in Cleve­ example of contemporary work: land under Charles Schweinfurth, and in They are built by the owner from designs prepared Chicago with Jenney, Mundie and Jensen by the best architects in the vicinity and represent during the building of the Columbian Exposi­ the tastes and the standa rd s of the prosperous tion. In 1893 he returned to Cleveland with American business man. Such a man wants a com­ Alfred Hoyt Granger (MIT and a graduate of fortable house, the looks of which are subordina­ the Ecole des Beaux-Arts) to form a partner­ ted to convenience, but which nevertheless is sup­ posed to ha ve some aesth etic merit; and this ship which built some of the first houses in comfortable atmosphere is largelv derived from the the new "Euclid Heights" development (the modest and unambitious sca le of the whole per­ first part of Cleveland Heights). When formance. In the big house of the East comfort and Granger returned to Chicago in 1896, Meade propriety are sacrificed to the "stunning" effect. In the better Western home . .. the intention of the worked with Abram Garfield, fresh out of owner is to build a dwelling in w hi ch he a nd his MIT, until Garfield formed his own firm in family sha ll be both in the picture and thoroughly 1905. For six yea rs Meade worked alone, and at home. ' then in 1911 he formed a partnership with Ja­ Cleveland is the perfect city to illustrate mes M. Hamilton, w ho had been a draftsman Croly's observations. A Middle Western city in the Meade and Garfield fi rm . James Hamil­ of Yankee origin, it was subject to influences ton was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1877. from both the Eastern seaboard and Chicago. He studied architecture at MIT (1901) and In the fi rst decades of the twentieth century, traveled ex tensively in Europe before coming Cleveland was coming to cultural maturity to Cleveland sometime before 1905. Between and expressing it in a burst of architectural 1911 and 1927 Meade and Hamilton were the acti vi ty. ' At the same time the ci ty was leading domestic architects in the Cleveland spreading into new suburban developments, area. In 1927 they suffered severe financial the most famous of which was Shaker reverses over the building of the Cleveland Heights. Club, from whi ch they never fully recovered, These acti vities attracted to Cleveland a though nominally they continued until Ham­ large number of highl y talented young archi­ ilton's death in 1941. Meade died in 1947. - tects, of which a majority came from schools Meade a nd Hamilton were indeed deri v! ng their methods and discipline from Croly's "best architects in the vicinity," and a the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Pre­ study of their work can illustrate what was eminent among these in the domestic fie ld typical of the best of the Traditional House was the firm of Frank Meade a nd James Ham­ for Modern Living. ilton. During the ascendancy of the firm The decade 1900-1910 was an experi­ (1911-1927) they built over 800 houses and six mental one. It is here we find attempts at country clubs between Buffalo and Dayton. "modern" austerity, the last remnants of the Photographs of their work appeared w ith Arts and Crafts Movement," touches of Art great frequency in the leading national archi­ Nouveau" and a few sports like Swiss Cha­ tectural journals, either in reports on their le ts. But the main development was from

GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURAL TERMS (Terms marked " in text.) Prai~ie School: the early work of Frank Lloyd Wright, some of his associates in the office of LoUIS SullIvan,. and his students at Oak Park. The houses are characterized by an emphasis on honzontal lInes, low-pitched, widely overhanging roofs, and strips of windows. MARY·PEALE SCHOFIELD 65

the ch unky house, gable end to the street, isfaction of a carefully composed facade with­ tall, rather rigid and formal, to the lower­ out totally abandoning the picturesque or the roofed, country-style suburban house with Romantic ideals of designing from the inside its long dimension ostensibly, if not in fact , out, and the delight in textures and mate­ parallel to the street. rials. Architects on both sides of the Atl antic The Cashman house (Fig. 1), built in restudied traditional building styles, sensi­ Shaker Heights in 1913, is representative of tized themselves and their clients to the aes­ this fine balance between the formal and the thetic qualities of the traditional handling of informal. The main body of the house is one various materials - stone, English brick­ large horizontal mass parallel to the street, work, natural wood, and small panes of softened at the ends by octagonal s hapes, window-glass - and subdued the ex trava­ and weighted down by the successive slopes gant ex uberance of picturesque composition of the roofs of these octagons, by the end under one low enveloping roof, with the porch, and by the perspective glimpse of the avowed aim of developing a house for mod­ receding wing. The gravity of the composi­ ern living rooted in past traditions' Though tion is counteracted, and at the same time the styles of these houses derive from various firm ly tied to the ground, by the strong verti­ traditions - Colonial, Georgian, Dutch Co­ ca ls of the two-story gabled bays, which nev­ lonial, English cottage or manor house - the ertheless are kept within the silhouette. Only basic proportions of roof to wall and the cha r­ the tall chimneys, in the center and at the side acteristic groupings and spacings of open­ of each bay, are allowed to ri se above the all­ ings are so similar that a neighborhood of encompassing roof. The whole composition these homes fo rms an integrated streetscape. focuses its strictest discipline on the center of The Meade and Hamilton house of the the facade; the two bays, paired w indows, second decade of the twentieth century will the pair of finely laid brick arches of the en­ illustrate what this development achieved in trance and hall window, and the use of deco­ a greater forma lity of plan and stricter sym­ rative elements of the "style," give an ele­ metry of facade than the Romantic extrava­ gance that li ghtens the all-over massiveness. gances of their High Victorian predecessors, The ends are more freel y balanced, and the while developing the more spacious infor­ wing, rounding on the octagon of the break­ mality in style of livi ng that had started in the fast room and going off at an obtuse angle country "cottages" of the 1880's. They found from the facade, is all owed to be rambling their aesthetic preferences most sympathetic and picturesque. to the Tudor-J acobean tradition. Using the The strict interrelation between plan , fu ll range from thatched farmhouse to stone mass, and decora ti ve elements is allowed to or brick manor house, they could provide the relax at the back of the house (Fig. 2) . Any dif­ client with as much simplicity or grandeur as ficulties encountered in designing for inte­ he wanted, and combine without solecism rior convenience and function become mani­ the homey qualities of the Medieval craft tra­ fest here. One cannot ca ll it a garden facade. dition with the elegance of Renaissance ele­ Clearly here is more an attempt to give deco­ ments. They could achieve the elegance and rative significance to an already established repose of a formal plan and the aesthetic sat- plan than to reconcile plan 0 and elevation. 0

Arts and Crafts Movement: started by William Morris as a reaction to the excessive machine-carved decoration on the furniture at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. He and his followers stressed simple handcrafted furniture a nd hand crafts in dyeing, weaving, bookmaking, and fabric design. By 1900 the movement was widespread in England and America. Craftsmen and -women exhibited with architects and artists. The period 1900 to 1910 seems to have been a time of austerity. In houses it is seen in plain walls, painted white or tan or covered in grass cloth or burlap, plain skimpy curtains in rough materials and artistic touches of hand crafts; stained glass, pottery, stencils, etc. Art Nouveau: originating primarily in France and Belgium, this was a decorative style stressing natural forms of a sinuously curvilinear character. The major American artist in this style was Louis Tiffany. 66 MEADE AND HAMILTON'S LIVABLE HOUSES

Fig. 1: Cashman House, Shake r Heights. The composition focuses its strictest discipline on the center of the facade; the ends are more freely balanced .

Fig. 2: Cashman House rear elevation . The strict inte rrelation between plan, mass, and decorative elements is allowed to relax at the back of the house.

Plan: a diagram showing the horizontal layout of walls, doors, windows etc. in a building as viewed from above. Elevation: the design of the exterior walls of a building. MARY-PEALE SCHOFI ELD 67

Fig. 3: Cashman House living hall looking toward the li ving room . Among the fin est qualities o f these ho uses is the nice appreciation of the relation of sty le and decor to the size a nd style-o f-livin g of the house.

It is in the interiors that the finest quali­ qualities of the rooms' function. ti es of these houses find expression. Here is En tering the Cashman house, one the repose of a plan that is nei the r over­ passes through a small vestibule into a large forma li zed, nor so open as to lose the func­ oak-paneled main hall (Fig. 3) forming an L tional differentiation of the rooms: spacious with the stair hall and porte-cochereo en­ rooms filled with li ght, never too large for trance directly in front. This is still a "li ving private li ving, the beautiful use of wood in hall " with the staircase separated from the the hands of professional craftsmen, and a main hall by a doorway framed with crudely nice appreciation of the relation of style and shaped brackets and a long inglenookoto the decor to the size and style-of-li vi ng of the left, formed by the projection of the vestibule house. The "styles" are here, to be sure: Re­ into the hall , and set off by a heavy beam on naissance motifs, lin en-fold " paneling, brackets in the timber and plaster ceiling. The leaded lights,o but used most sparingly and paneling is a square Tudor pattern with si m­ very consciously to add deli ght to the archi­ ple moldings. This type of hall, so central to tectural effect of the plan or to the subjecti ve the Shingle Style" house, was going ou t. The

Linen-fold: a carved surface design in wood or stone resembling folded cloth. Lights: the panes of glass in a window. Porte-cochere: literally, "the door for the carriage. " Now a covered entrance fo r arrival by car. Inglenook: originally a recessed fireplace flanked by settles, developing during this period into a variety of recesses with fireplace, symbolic of hearth and home. Shingle Style: defined by Vincent J. Scully, Jr. in his book The Shingle Style (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1955), these houses were characterized by a very 'open, free-flowing, sometimes idiosyncratic plan which expressed itself on the outside in bays, angles, wings, gables and towers, all covered in dark weathered-wood shingles. 68 MEADE AND HAMILTON'S LIVABLE HOUSES

Fig. 4: Cashman House first floor plan. The main a the long enfilade of rooms parallel to the tre t.

hall was finding a new rela ti onship with the The din ing room on the right is less bril­ rest of the house, still a central feature, often liantly lit, having only the front bay window. a source of delight, but now part of a suite of The tone of the wood and the bay window re­ rooms w hose entire style and taste were inte­ late it to the other rooms, but it has a more grated. formal character. The marble chimneypiece The mai n ax is of the house is the long wi th its pilasters· and seroUs supporting succession of rooms parall el to the street (Fig. shields is subordinated to the central focus of 4) . To right and left, folding glazed double the room which is accented by the low doors open up the vista toward ever more groined va ult· of the cei ling, making a setting li ght. Like the contemporary Wright houses, for the chandelier. the traditional houses also spread from cen­ Beyond is the sunny octagon of the tral shelter to open sunny ends. The li ving brea kfast room, sited east and so uth to catch room on the left is flooded with li ght from a the morning sun, and decorated in light deep bay window at the front and a tall four­ wood and plaster. The main aesthetic princi­ light window at the rear. The architects had ple in the design of breakfast rooms seems to turned against the blank large plate glass of have been light. The decorative elements be­ the Victorians but opened up their interiors come confused. The overmantel and china to the outside with great Elizabethan bays closet have tight floral baskets and bows in a fill ed with small er panes of glass - often bad imitation of the late eighteenth century, leaded. The focal point of the room is the Ja­ but among the handsome tan matte til es sur­ cobean mantel rising to the ceiling opposite rounding the chimney there is one picturing the door from the hall. The window mold­ a sailboat in blue on tan, an odd piece of ings echo the style with a center fold from the whimsy. The breakfast room and the billiard linen-fold motif; the rest of the woodwork is room seem to have been the last outposts of confined to the cornice, flooring, and door the Arts and Crafts Movement. frames. A glazed double door to the right of The library functions as a secondary re­ the mantel provides a glimpse of the even ception room, so it is openly connected with lighter glassed-in porch. both the stair hall and li ving room. As an eve-

Pilaster: a pier, or flat-faced column of shallow depth attached to the wall. Groined vault: the salient angle made by the intersection of va ults or arches is the groin. In the Cashman house, ellipsoidal vaults starting at the four walls meet in a groin at the center where the chandelier hangs. MARY-PEALE SCHOFIELD 69

Fig. 5: Cashman House second floor plan. Typical of these houses is the master suite, and at the other end there is another groupmg of large bedroom with private bath and sleeping porch.

ning room it is given the northern exposure. end of the facade, is another grouping that It is slightly more formal than most, with a consists of large bedroom with fireplace, a low tunnel-vaultedo ceiling and no fireplace, private bath, and a sleeping porch. an attribute considered "cosy" by Meade.' The sleeping porch is one of the surest More often the ·library is secluded. Some­ ways of identifyin g the houses of this era , times it is a family room and sometimes an of­ whether "traditional" or "modern." It was fice or retrea t. considered far healthier to sleep in the open As in most houses, the second floor of air - summer and winter - though in Cleve­ the Cashman house (Fig. 5) does not have the land's climate the porches were glassed in. aesthetic qualities which are concentrated on This is an amusing reversal of the medieval the public rooms. Privacy being the essential fear of night miasmas which resulted in clos­ quality of bedrooms, upper halls often be­ ing all sleeping rooms tight. A physician tells come mere corridors. Here only the upper me that the sleeping porch, like the hospital stair hall has an open quality given it by the balcony, is related to the then current ideas window of the landing, a tall window of about the preventi on and cure of tubercu­ three lights, each with a slight Tudor arch, a losis. strong muntin° pattern and lightly leaded Architectural values simil ar to those ob­ glass. As in most of these houses the stair served in the Cashman house may also be function is shown on the exterior by the ris­ seen in the Hayes house, built in 1916 in ing pattern of the windows. However the Cleveland Heights (Fig. 6), though here the rooms themselves are large enough to be smaller site permits onl y the central hall more tha n sleeping rooms, simply deco­ fl anked by li ving room and dining room (Fig. rated, airy and light. Most of them face the 7) . The stairs are very much the main feature front, planned for the view of the park oppo­ of this house, all other decorative work being site and a southwestern exposure. The two subordinated to the m. They have a fine largest share the large bays of the dining wrought iron railing on bronze bases, with a room and living room. Typical of these highly polished wood handrail. The stairs houses is the master suite; here, at the other have polished wood treads and white

Tunnel-vault: in this case the ceiling curves in an ellipse from one side wall to the opposite wall. Muntin: a member separating panes of glass in a window. 70 MEADE AND HAMILTON'S LIVABLE HOUSES

Fig. 6: Hayes House, Cleveland Heights. The thatched-cottage effect of the exterior gives no hint of the so­ phisticated simplicity of the interior.

Fig. 7: Hayes House plan . Though the facade gives the impression of presenting the long dimension to the street, the plan actually is an L. Reprinted with the permi ssion of the Architectural Record , from the April 11 , 1923 issue of The American Architect, The Architectural Review, copyright 1923 McGraw Hill, Inc. , with all rights reserved .

o , .. ,AIJ, "' " t

HOUSE O F LOUIS H. HAYES. ESQ .. CLEVELAND. OHIO

MEADE & IIAMIL TON, ARCHITECTS MARY-PEA LE SCHOFIELD 71

dow seats, the geometric leading of the dou­ ble doors to the living room and dining room, the warm glossy tile of the vestibule, and the wrought iron grille before the front door. The simplicity of this house is extremely sophisti­ cated. And this creates the only jarring note, for the exterior is very much in a thatched­ cottage style, and one expects the interior to have a more Arts-and-Crafts atmosphere. There is a similar though lesser dishar­ mony in the Dan Hanna house of 1919 (Fig 9), w here an English woodcarver was em­ ployed for two years on the interior. IO There is a self-conscious crudeness of execution in the carving, the display of handcraftedness in the machine age, that is out of harmony with the skill and mastery of architectural values of the house itself (plan, Fig. 10). From the deeply sheltered stone porch, one enters the central octagon of the hall, a jewel-box of a room, richly carved in rectangular Tudor panels graduated from top to bottom, each wall separated from the next by a long nar­ Fig. 8: Hayes House. The terrace garden is over­ row linen-fold with floral motif at the top. At­ looked by the large windows of the library, the stair tention fans out along the interior quadrant landing windows and the loggia to the garage. from the dining room on the right, the door to the terrace between, and the long vista to painted risers creating a contrast that is car­ the li ving room before you. ried out in the construction of the landing, The dining room is more formal and forming an elegant pattern. Though the fa­ eighteenth-century than most, with classical cade gives the impression of presenting the moldings and overman tel, a black-and-white long dimension, the plan actually is an L with marble fireplace and decorative plaster ceil­ the service wing and garage running directly ing of central medallion and corner motifs. back from the dining room. The necessary The long vista is through a small stair hall in­ long corridor to the garage was designed as a terposed between the entrance hall and the glazed arcade overlooking a formal terrace living room, down two steps into the living garden formed by the angle of the house (Fig. room (Fig. 11) and down its thirty-twa-foot 8). The library overlooks the terrace through length to the Jacobean mantelpiece flanked a large window taking up almost the entire by windows that take up the entire end wall. wall. The decoration of the interior is con­ Abundant light is softened by reflecting off fined to door and window frames, the living dark wood. Rectangular panels of American room mantel, which is a strong but serene walnut rise eight feet to an intricate plaster composition of classical elements, and the frieze in low relief. This frieze is interrupted decorative plaster of the dining room ceiling, by the depressed arch, with carved a simple frame with floral motifs in low relief. spandrels,o of the great bay window over­ The quiet and restful elegance shows the pe­ looking the ravine and opposite by geometric riod's appreciation of the qualities of mate­ panels over the French doors giving onto the rials, the gleam of the polished wood win- terrace. Window and doors are framed with

Spandrel: the roughly triangular area outside the upper portion of an arch, between the arch and the rectangular area framing it. Corbel: a bracket form usually produced by extending courses of masonry or wood beyond the wall surface. 72 MEADE AND HAMILTON'S LIVABLE HOUSES

Fig. 9: Dan Hanna House, Cleveland Heights. The entrance facade is scaled to the proportions of the smaller houses on the side street.

Fig. 10: Dan Hanna House plan. Attention fans out along the interior quadrant from the dining room on the right, the door to the terrace between, and the long vista to the li ving room. LIYING ROOM

Ta""ACtL MARY-PEALE SCHOFIELD 73

Fig. 11: Dan Hanna House li vi ng room. The "styles" are used very consciously to add delight to the architec­ tural effect and to tlie subjecti ve qualities of room function. pil asters s urmo unted by lon g Jacobean corner lot on a hillside. Along the south fa­ corbels.° The ceiling is plaster w ith a large cade (F ig. 12) is a parkwayo ru nning beside a central motif of Jacobean strapworko and cor­ deep wooded ravine . The east facade is on a ner rondelso with fl oral motifs. sid e street p rimarily built up in small lots. There is no libra ry, but below the li vi ng The entrance to the house, with the garage, is room is a room typical of these h ou ses on this side street, placed well up toward the (though not appearing in either the Cashman sidewalk and scaled to the proportions of its or Hayes house) - the billia rd room . Billiard neighbors, showing the era's sensiti vity to its rooms were typica ll y much simpler a nd more environment of existing houses. The size of rugged . He re the fire place is of ra ndom the house is ca mouflaged by the breaking up as hlaro in gray and pink stone with a heavy of the masses, the not-q uite-central gable, plain mantel shelf in wood . The fl at arch of the projecting porch roof, the recession of the the fireplace is of Roman til es set in a zig-zag ga rage. Interest is concentra ted toward the pattern, and the space from arch to mantel is intersecti on of the streets, the perspecti ve fill ed w ith the same tiles laid horizontall y. fro m w hich the house is most often seen. Yet The framing of the low bay window has cor­ the detailing of each feature is kept broad bels of ca rved humorous fi gures. enough to be in scale with the much broader The house represents conside rabl e ad­ treatment of the park facade . Here the size of justme nt of the cha racteri sti c Meade a nd the house proclaims itself in the mounting Ha milton plan to suit an unusual site. It is a weight of masonry down the incline of the

Strapwork: a form of ornamentati on employing interlaced raised bands. Rondel: a small circle. Random ashlar: masonry of square or rectangular-face stones with neither vertical nor hor­ izontal joints continuous. Parkway: in the older sense, a landscaped thoroughfare from w hich commercial traffic is often excluded . 74 MEADE AND HAMILTON'S LiVABLE HOUSES

-. J , hillside. The half-timber house seems almost /- ! . to be perched upon a cliff of stone, strongly ../ buttressed by the vertical rise of the stone up the stairwell , and the magnificent ch im ney at the end of the house. The chi ef decorative in­ terest of this facade is the stonework: the fine depressed arches of the windows which are echoed in the stone arched entrance under the porch on the street front, and the beauti­ ful precision of the angle buttresses, split by the angles of the house. As their careers progressed, Mead e and Ha milton concentra ted more and more on the development of English cottage forms, Fig. 12: Dan Hanna House parkway facade. The leaving behind the larger Jacobean types, ex­ stonework is the chief decorative inte rest of this fa­ ce pt in the few instances where the cli en t's cade, the fine depressed arches of the windows, the magnificent chimney a t the end of the house taste ran toward the manorial. The Kraus and the beautifully precise angle buttresses, split house of 1914 (Fig. 13) inverts the transitiona l by the angles of the house. style of the seventeenth century. It has Re­ naissance symmetry with Tudor details, rem­ iniscent in its massing of Sir Edwin Lutyens'

'~> .. >- , , I , '-'. ,,' ;- . ,; I

Fig. 13: Kraus House, Cleveland Heights, inverts the transitional style of the seventeenth century with Re­ naissance symmetry and Tudor details. MARY-PEALE SCHOFIELD 75

"Middlefield" in Great Shelford, England. obtuse-angle plan on a curved corner. The The John Gill house of 1915 (F ig. 14) is closer length is relieved but not contradicted by the to the Tudor tradition but very much slIi vertical group in the center of the main fa­ generis. cade; the two-story bay, chimney and pro­ Two stone houses show w hich way the jected entrance. The window and entrance trend might have gone in the simplification bay are not only kept well below the roofline and modernization of co ttage types. In the but strongly related to the eaves, the blind Stockwell house of 1917 (F ig. 15), the archi­ gable of the window bay minimizing its tects concentrate on the beauty of the sto ne­ height. Four massive chimneys pin the hOll se work. Decoration has been reduced to the ba­ to the ground, their own projection above the sic architectural elements - window design, roof having a longer horizontal than vertical chimney massing, and the strong depressed dimension. The rece ion of the porch, the arch of the doorway. Though Meade still call s projection of the center grouping, and the ob­ it the English cottage type, to us it is highly tuse angle of the servants' wing give the reminiscent of the Pennsylvania farmhouse. house the appearance of a long slow curve The Eaton house, also of 1917 (Fig. 16) is similar to that of the road. Bui lt well lip to­ more sophisticated and is the chef d 'oeuvre ward the road, this house is planned to face of the developmental side of their work. Here toward the rear and has a true garden facade is the long horizontality preferred by the pe­ (F ig. 17). Between the projection of the side riod, the height o f the walls being coun­ porch and the breakfast room runs a long teracted by the long gradual slope of the roof stone-paved porch, overlooked by the inevi­ and the heavy sheltering overhang of the table bay windows of the dining room and eaves. Like the Cashman house, this is an li ving room . With the addition of the porch

Fig. 14 (right): John Gill House, Cleveland Heights, is somewhat Tudor but very much slIi gelleris.

Fig. 15 (be/ow): Stockwell House, Shaker Heights. The decoration has been reduced to the basic archi­ tectural elements. 76 MEADE AND HAM ILTON'S LI VABLE HOUSES

Fig. 16: Eaton House, Cleveland Heights, street facade. This is the chef d'oeuvre of the developmental side of Meade and Hamilton's work.

Fig. 17: Eaton House, garden facade. The horizontals on this side of the house are even more pronounced, achieving that long, low, comfortable look prized by the period.

" .. ' . ,

~/ ,,-~-. t\ IAln -1'1-,\1.1" ~CII()I ' III Il 77 roof, the horizontals on this side of the house tl'nn' lin ,1\'Il', nllr" IIll'rl' .lIl1' ,1ll'l'f'Ii\",' 1l'1l"Wlll~ III .111\' l.lll·,1 Illlldl' But ,<'n,<' .lIhl '<'Il'lbllltl' In .If ­ are even more pronounced, achievin~ that chiil'cturl', dl'(llr.ltlllll .md I.IIllh,·.lf'" ~.lfdl ' lllll~ I' long, low comfortable look prized bv the pe­ rl,tJulrl'd .lnd (klil'l'rl'd IIll'rl'" Ih l lhlll~ Ill'fllll riod. Ample, solid, comfortable, handsome db"ut Ihl' , ,1I',lr III thl' b".lutllu l. th" t",It', bUI but not pretentious, traditional but nut ecll'c­ thl' rl' I' nllthin~ Ill'rllil Jbuut (llUllln' huu,<', :\l'\'­ tic, this house represents the best aims of the l'rllll'iL''', .111 ""~lI1dl\ ' l' pl'rn'pllull III till' l",.HIII' Jnd litnl''' III .llllh.!t ~lll" With 11ll' bulllhll~ III 11ll' pre-World War I generation. huu,,' i, Ihl' bri~hll"1 lI11wl'r , till' ,wl'l'll"t Inllt. ", These Meade and Ha milton ho u ses illu s­ lar, III Edl'dlCi'lll. trate the achievements of the American do­ CumplL,teness, cO lwenience, ,lnd com­ mestic architects of the second decade of the fort Me the aims of the ~uburb"n hOll~l' , clS twentieth century. Conscious o f the ir vastly summed up b\' Ml' adl' him"elf in hi~ COlllllnl improved training, they bro ught new ha r­ Clilil ,\!t'i(" articles. "Taste" a nd " rl'iinell1l'nt" mony to plan and design . Reacting again st a re also wurds frequenth- used b\' him in the ungainly exuberance of the Hi g h Victo­ these articles. If the s tru g~1l' for the rl'co~ni­ rian, which they blamed on too much origi­ tion of "modern" \'alm's in house design h,ld nality, they consciously went to schoo l to not been so bitter, it wuuld long ago ha\'l' past styles to learn taste. And learn it thev been recogni Led tha t the American ho use of did_ Thomas Tallmadge, reviewing "Country th e firs t third of th e tw e nti e th (('ntur\' House Architecture in the Middle West" in reached a 1l'\'l'l of quality, design s kill , and the Architectural Record in 1922, pa us ing a mo­ suitabilitv tll the cli en t' s needs that compclres ment to mourn the failure of the Chicago favorably with the achi el'E' ments of the eig ht­ School to create an Ame rican s tvle, sings a eenth century_ And like the Georgia n house, paean of praise to this new achieve ment: the ea rlv twentieth-centurv house has re- - - Taste, the sense of absolute pitch in a rchitecture, mained in favor to the present dav. The large the flower on the topmost bough of the tree of number of such fine houses to be found in knowledge, is the leitmotif of country house archi­ Cleveland and its suburbs, still mainta ined in tecture today. Twenty yea rs ago it was correctness of style, ten yea rs ago fashion, but today (I am excell e nt shape, is one of the attractive fea ­ speaking only of the best work) there is no insis- tures of this metropolitan area.

NOTES

'Edgar Kaufmann, Jr .'s introduction to the reissue of the Wasmuth edition of Wright, Fral/k Lluyd Wright , The Early Work ( ew York: Bramhall House, 1968). See also Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Jr. , Architectllre Nil/e­ teenth and Twentieth Cel/tllries (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 2nd ed . 1963), pp. 281-2.

'G. H. Edgell , Th e Alllericall Architectllre of To-Day (New York, London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1928).

'He nry-Russell Hitchcock, Jr. and Philip Johnson , The lll tcrllatiolial Style: Architectllre Sil/ce 1922 ( ew York: W.W. orton, 1932).

' Battles of Styles As the Gothic reviva li sts had battled the classicists in the nineteenth century, not only on aesthetic but on moral grounds, so the "modernists" battled the "eclectics" in the twentieth ce ntury. It was conside red not just bad taste but somehow morally wrong to use decoration on a building, to develop from past tradition, or to cover up the expression of the function of the structural members of a building. The result was cubes of white concrete, long strips of unframed windows, and later whole buildings of glass w ith the metal construction expressed on the outside. These ideas took over urban and commercial architecture, but never made much headway wi th the majority of private householders.

' Herbert Croly (pseud. William Herbert), Houses fo r TOWli al1d COlll1try (New York: Duffield, 1907), p. 105.

6EricJohannesen, Clevelal1d Architecture 1876-1976 (Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1979). 78 MEADE AND H AMILTON'S LI VA BL E HOUSES

'H .F. and E.R. Withey, Biographical Dlctlollary of Alllerican Architects (deceased) (Los Angeles: Henness\' & Ingalls, fa csimile ed. 1970); M.l.T. Regis ter of For lll er Stlldents (Cambridge: 1925), LX , 2; Charl es C. Colman, article in the Cleveland Press on Meade's eightieth birthday, June 14, 1946; interview w ith Mr. Colman in Cleveland Heights, 1967; obituary of James Hamilton, Cleveland Plalll Dealer, Jan. 13 , 1941; inten'iew wit h Mrs. Meade, Cleveland Heights, 1967.

' For exa mple see Aymar Embury 111 , "Current Tendencies in Country House Design in the East, " in Ar­ chitectural Record , 52 (1922) , 289 .

' From 1925 to 1929, Meade wrote more or less regularly on architecture and decoration for the Cle\'eland social magazine, variously titled, COlllltry CllIb News , TowlI alld COlllitry CllIb News , and The Bystallder I\ leade's attitudes when quoted are taken from these articles.

lO Reported by the present owners.

li T. Tallmadge, Archltectllral Reco rd, 52 (1922), 293.

"Houses are built to live in and not to look on; therefore let use be pre­ ferred before uniformity, except where both may be had." - Francis Bacon, Essays (1625)

"The House shows the owner." - George Herbert, Jacula Prudentium (1651)

"A comfortable house is agreat source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience." - Sydney Smith, Letter to Lord Murray, Sept. 29, 1843 79

Sara Ruth Watson and John R. Wolfs MOVABLE BRIDGES OVER THE CUYAHOGA RIVER Cleveland now has a greater variety of these beautiful and practical structures than any place on earth; but in 1837 "Two bridges or none!" was the battle cry of the famous Bridge War with Ohio City.

A great movable bridge, with its mathe­ gust of delayed motori sts). The boats' signal matical lines and huge poised weight, in­ for opening the spans over the main river is spires the same kind of admiration as a one long whistle and two short ones; for Gothic cathedral. Yet it is as practical as the opening the two bridges over the old river­ ugliest assembly line. If you love movable bed one long, one short, one long, one sh ort. bridges, there is one city for you: nowhere Then the operator on the movable bridges, else in the world can you find a greater vari­ which are equipped with a whistle synchro­ ety of them than along the two-and-a-half­ nized with a white light, will answer with a mile navigation channel of the Cuyahoga long a nd short whistle, plus the light signal. River in the heart of Cleveland. If a bridge cannot be opened immediately, At one time seven different railroad lines three blasts of the whistle and the li ght will be entered Cleveland; all of them needed given as a check signal. During certain rush bridges to take them across the valley and the hours, the bridge operator has to be alert; River into the terminals, and each structure while the current in the river is running, he had to be designed to fit its particular loca­ knows a vessel ca nnot stop when undenvay. tion. Since they were constructed at different Of course every ca ptain knows not only the times over the greater part of a century, the exact location of each bridge and the depth of twenty-two bridges across the navigable part the water under it ; he also knows the type of of the River at present graphically portray the bridge, the vertical clearance and the clear development of movable bridges in the width of the open span. So he can judge his United States. One can see viaducts, stone distances and timing precisely. masonry arches, concrete arches, cantilever Most of the bridges are manned twenty­ spans and girder spans; but it is the movable four hours a day, the year round . For vehicu­ bridges, with their s hifting of immense lar bridges, a bridge operator, stationed in weights, that catch one's fancy: the swing the house at the center of the bridge above bridges, vertical lift bridges, bascule bridges, the roadway, actuall y runs the mechanism. jack-knife bridges and Scherzer Rolling Lift An "end man" is stationed at the end with bridges. the most traffic to act as eyes for the operator, Since river vessels always have the right­ to fl ag down the speeding m otorist, and to of-way, each bridge must be opened upon make sure that no pedestrian gets a free ride, signal from the water (sometimes to the dis- accidental or intentional. Today only the

Sara Ruth Watson, writer, teacher, and lecturer, is the daughter of the well-knowlI architectural engineer Wilbllr ]. Watsoll. She received a Ph . D. ill Ellglish from Western Re­ serve Uni versity and for thirty years was a lIlember of the faculty at Felln College and Cleveland State Ullivers ity , where she taugllt not only Ellglish, but also all LlnuSlwl cou rse ill th e History of Civil Ellgineering. She is now Pro­ fessor emeri ta. She is author of a number of articles on engi­ neering history and co-author of three books. For her many contributions to engineerillg history the American Society of Civil Engineers has given her its History and Heritage Award. 80 MOVABLE BRIDGES OVER THE CUYAHOGA RIVER

Center Street and Willow Street bridges uti­ ment. For long spans the vertical lifts are the lize end men. most efficient. When a bridge opens, the traffic lights This first bridge, Penn-Central Bridge turn red, the alarm bell clangs, and the gates No.1 over the Cuyahoga, was designed by are lowered. The barrier cable is lowered to Howard, Needles, Tammen and Bergendoff stop cars from plunging into the river, and and was part of a $13,236,000 program the bridge lock is drawn to allow the bridge to started in 1946 by the Corps of Engineers to move. A switch can now be energized that replace six bridges. This fine specimen of a will raise the bridge. Interlocks prevent pre­ vertical lift is a double-track railway bridge, mature movements. As the bridge rises, the originally serving the main line of the New operator gets a ride. And when the span York Central and the ore traffic to the Penn­ reaches full height, a guide tells the operator sylvania docks. Its center span is 265 feet , the height of the opening (generally ninety­ and it has a lift of 98 feet. It replaced an old eight feet), although there are, in some cases, swing bridge that had a center pier which emergency extensions of height, and auto­ permitted the use of only half the channel for matic stops prevent over-ride. When naviga­ navigation purposes. tion lights turn from red to green, the ship Before we advance farther up the River, may pass. let us glance to our right at the old riverbed, If we cruise up the Cuyahoga River from for over it are two interesting bridges. The the channel entrance at Lake Erie, the first first one was built in 1907 by the Baltimore bridge as we enter the harbor is a modern and Ohio Railroad. This structure was de­ vertical lift bridge. This type is the most pop­ signed by the Scherzer Rolling Lift Com­ ular today because it is fast and easy to oper­ pany, and the steel work was fabricated by ate and because it does not obstruct the chan­ the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, one nel. It is also aesthetically pleasing. A vertical of the oldest, and in its day one of the most lift bridge operates in much the same fashion prestigious, of such firms . This bridge intro­ as an ordinary window sash, which moves duces us to another type of movable bridge, up and down in vertical guides and is hung the Scherzer Rolling Lift. Designed by Wil­ from sash-cords that go over a pulley at the liam Scherzer of Chicago, it was a popular top, with a counter-weight at the other end. type around 1900. Steel trusses or girders A vertical lift span is easily recognized by the across the navigable channel are supported high skeleton towers, one at each end of the by, and rigidly connected at their ends to , span. The cables that carry the counter­ large steel rollers or rockers that have a weights pass over giant pulley wheels, called weight at the rear end to counterbalance the "sheaves," at each end of the lift span. These front end. The rollers are cast in the form of a weights equal that of the lift span, and the segment of a circle, because the entire move­ height of the towers is determined by the ment of the structure describes an arc of less height to which the span has to be raised to than ninety degrees, to achieve full clearance provide the necessary clearance over the wa­ of the channel opening. At one time there terway. The towers are tied at the top with a were nine of these Scherzer Rolling Lift truss that keeps the towers in perfect align- bridges in Cleveland. The type is no longer

John R. Wolfs, a graduate of both Case Institute and Western Reserve University, was formerly City Ellgineer and Chief Civil Engineer for the City of Cleveland alld Chief Engineer of the Cleveland Port Authority. At present he is Supervising Engineer for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in Buffalo. He has long been interested in engilleerillg his­ tory, and has been a member of the History and Heritage Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is a past president of the Cleveland Society of Professional En­ gineers and of both the Cleveland Chapter and the Ohio Council of the American Society of Civil Engineers. SARA RUTH WATSON AND JOHN R. WOLFS 1

Scherzer Rolling Lift bridge over the Cuyahoga River, built for the 6&0 Railroad. being built because the rolling action of the tance of about 231 feet. It carries a single rail­ span, as it moves back onto the rollers, road track on the 22-foot width of the trusses. causes the piers to shift position. This partic­ There is a vertical clearance of about 23 feet ular bridge has a 230-foot span, which made from the top of the track to the bottom of the it, when it was built, the longest single-leaf counterweight when in the lowered position. Scherzer Rolling Lift ever erected - and it The substructure consists of two concrete stiU holds the record. piers with 30-inch steel caissons and lO-inch The second bridge over the old riverbed pipe piles. This bridge is an outstanding ex­ is the present Willow Avenue Bridge, which ample of a single-leaf, jack-knife bascule provides vehicular access to Whiskey Island. bridge. The word bascule simply means a kind The bridge it replaced, built in 1898, was a of see-saw; when one end is lowered, the swing bridge with a span of 170 feet. The other is raised. And the trunnion is a type of present Willow Avenue Bridge is a 310-foot­ pin forming an axis upon which the span long vertical lift, designed and erected in pivots. In this peculiar type each rail is sup­ 1964 by Trygve Hoff and Associates - a ported directly upon the lower chord of the handsome structure that certainly proves a truss. When the bridge is opened, the span movable bridge need not be ugly. The auto­ pivots around one end where the trunnion or matic electric skew control and four motors at pin forms the axis. The weight of the bridge is the top of the tower give exceptional, and balanced by a weighted lever arm supported fast, lifting power. The skew control equal­ by the tower located at the fixed end of the izes both ends of the bridge for a uniform lift bridge. When in open position, the lever arm of its 750-ton span. It can be raised to its full folds against the upright truss - hence the height of 98 feet in one and one-half minutes. name jack-knife. This particular bridge is re­ The counterweight cables provide the means garded as the ultimate example of this type of of movement. structure. Back on the main river, the next movable The Center Street Bridge, the only swing bridge is known as Bridge No. 3. Built in 1956 bridge in the area, lies at approximately the for the B. and O. Railroad to replace a Scher­ spot where Moses Cleaveland landed in zer Rolling Lift Structure, it is a record­ 1796. It is also the site of the first bridge over making modern jack-knife bridge located just the River, and it became involved in the noto­ north of the DetrOit-Superior Viaduct. (Its rious "Bridge War," described below in con­ picture appears on the cover of the first issue nection with the Columbus Road Bridge. of The Gamut .) It has a main trunnion bascule The first Center Street Bridge was a raft span 255 feet long, and a clear channel dis- made of "white-wood logs," secured by 82 MOVABLE BRlDGES OVER THE CUYAHOGA RlVER

Above: Swing bridge at Center Street opens for passengers of the excursion boat Goodtime II. Below: Eagle Ramp vertical lift bridge over the Cuyahoga River. SARA RUTH WATSON AND JOH N R. WOLFS 83

ropes, a portion of which was flo ated to one short route to Cleveland from the South and side to allow boats to pass. In 1863 a wooden West, practica ll y sidesteppin g Ohio C it y drawbridge was built. In 1871 it was replaced across the river nea rer Center Street. A de­ by an iron swing-bridge, a Post-patent, d Iag­ scription of the new bridge in the first city di­ onal truss. recto ry printed in 1837, reads as follows: The present struct ure is a steel Pratt The bridge was support ed bv a stone abutment truss, fabricated and erected in 1901 by the on eithe r sh ore a nd pi e rs of solid ma sonrv King Bridge Company. On June 1, 1897, the erected in the center of the river. Behveen the Cleveland City Council passed an ordinance piers, there is a draw sufficie nt to all ow a vessel "to provide for the reconstruction and re­ of fo rty- nine feet beam to pass through . The building of the bridge over the Cuya hoga length is two hundred feet, the breadth, includ­ River at Center Street," and directed that the ing the sidewalks, thirty- three feet , a nd the height of the piers, above the surface of the wa­ bridge be "reconstructed in accordance with ter, ma y be estimated at twenty-four fe et. The the plans to be filed in the office of the Chief whole which, with the exception of the draw, is City Engineer. " l The bridge was designed roofed and e nclosed, presents an imposi ng ap­ during 1898 and 1899 by James Ritchie, Chief pearance and reflects much credit on the archi­ Engineer fo r the City of Cleveland. Construc­ tect, Mr. Nathan Hunt.' tion began in 1900. The swing-span is 245 feet In 1835 the new Columbus Road Bridge long, and a girder span is 62 feet - overall was the most remarkable structure in Ohio; length then is 307 feet. Wh e n closed the visitors fr om all over the state came to view it structure acts as two separate truss spans; the and gasped at the work which had cost the pi vo t pier is on the north ba nk of the channeL enormous sum of $15,000 to build. When this type of bridge was first intro­ In 1836, fir st the City of Ohio and then duced, the pi vot pier was in the middle of the the Vi ll age of Cleveland were incorporated , channeL When open, the two arms act as and the rivalry between them grew tense. ca ntilevers supported by the truss tower di­ The merchants of Ohio City were e ntirely rectly over the pivot pier. A counter-weight willing to have the Columbus Street Bridge, in the shorter arm keeps the span in balance; but they also wanted one at Center Street, it consists of 112 YJ tons of scrap iron, tightly and so there arose the famous slogan " two packed in the floor. There is a total of fifteen bridges or n one. " What resulted was the truss panels. The ce ntral panel, over the Bridge War, celebrated in the annals of pivot pier, is rectangular, w ith a span of Cleveland. In 1837 the C eveland City Coun­ twenty feet. The pivot pier measures 13 feet cil directed the removal of its half of the old long, ten inches high, and has a diameter of fl oating bridge at Center Street. This was an thirty-six fe et. The bridge was completed in attempt by Cleveland to divert all through September of 1901. It has been pain ted and traffic to the Columbus Street Bridge, thereby repaired since then, but it is in good condi­ by-passing Ohio City. The mandate of the tion and, according to the City's Chief Civil council was carried out at night, and, when Engineer, John Bowersock, is economica l to the people of Ohio City realized what had operate. It is a popular tourist attraction and happened, they were enraged. At an indig­ an engineering landmark. nation meeting they declared the Columbus After passing unde r the Detroit­ Street Bridge a publiC nuisance. Superior and Union Terminal Bridges, we Their marshal gathered a posse of depu­ come to the Columbus Road Bridge, the ti es, who damaged the bridge by a charge of other bridge site in the " Bridge War," a bit of powder under the Ohio City end. Then the early history worth a digression . marshal w ith his deputies marched to the In 1835 two land developers, James S. Cleveland side of the bridge, dug a deep Clark and John W. Willey, who owned con­ trench at the approaches, and did likewise at siderable property along Columbus Street, as the Ohio City end, thus rendering the bridge it was then called, improved the roadway, useless. Ohio City held a council of war and graded it down to the river, and built an im­ staged an all-out attack upon the bridge. posing bridge at the ferry landing. This Nearly a thousand men, armed with clubs, bridge, the first important structure across rocks, and rifles marched to the bridge, ac­ the Cuyahoga, formed the final link in a companied by a chaplain and a lawyer.

IOrdinance No. 16000, Cleveland, Ohio, City Council Proceedings, April 19, 1897 to April 17, 1898, Vols. 30- 1, p. 80 For much of the information about this bridge I am indebted to Carol Poh Miller's "Center Street Bridge," His toric American Engineering Record. 'E. M. Avery, "Early Bridges of Cleveland," in Bridges of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County (Privately printed, Cleveland, Ohio, 1918), p. 24 . 84 MOVABLE BRIDGES OVER THE CUYAHOGA RIVER

A contemporary view, from Detroit Avenue, of the old Columbus Street Bridge, built in 1835, and focus of the "Bridge War" between the City of Cleveland and Ohio City.

But Cleveland had learned about the at­ Bridge," which was published in the Maga­ tack from scouts. The Ohio City posse found zine of Western History. Its model was Alexan­ itself confronted by a company of militia with der Pope's Rape of the Lock. There is space here muskets. Even an ancient cannon had been to quote but a few of the lines. rolled down to the river's edge. At this point On hills, like Rome, two cities might be seen, Willey, who was the first mayor of Cleve­ (Meand'ring Cuyahoga flowed between); land, stepped forward, but before he could utter more than a few words, he was greeted Whose riva l spires in rivalry arose, by a volley of rocks, and the fight started. The pride of friends, the envy of their foes. At either end of the bridge was an apron that could be raised or lowered, and the one Each rival ruler of each ri val town at the Ohio City side was let down to provide On his would smile, but on the other frown . a shelter for the anti-bridge forces. The men went at their destructive task, ripping up Each sought for greatness, in his rival's fall , planks and throwing them into the river. Regardless that the world was made for all. One Ohio City man named Deacon House Envy and hatred waxed to frenzied height! picked his way through the Cleveland lines Naught could appease but fierce and bloody and spiked the cannon with an old file. He fight. became quite the hero of the Battle of the Bridge. The culm ination came! A peanut stand Some men were injured but none killed . Erected by a "combination" band Finally the fray was stopped by the Cleve­ land marshal, who also was sheriff of the Of desperate men of capital, who swore county. He took possession of the bridge, ob­ No trade should be diverted from their shore. tained a court order against further interfer­ They claimed that Clark and Willey, reckless, ence, and posted guards at either end to sought maintain free movement of traffic. This Battle To build a bridge. The right of way was bought of the Bridge produced a poet-laureate in D.W. Cross, who wrote a mock-epic poem, Already! and they then designed to build in heroic couplets, entitled "The Battle of the Columbus Street and bridge! This rumor filled SARA RUT H WATSON A~D JOHN R WOL Fe, 8')

Their souls with madness. and thei r eyes wi th To meet the needs for greater width, greater tears! ri ve r clearance, a nd more height , the vertica l To think that peanut stand, the toil of yea rs li ft type is preferred At a point on Columbus Road , which Should for the want of patronage decay was to be the hub of " Cleveland Centre," a And trade and barter turn some othe r way. pi oneer real esta te promoti on for trade with They all agreed this could no t be a ll owed, an internati onal fl avor, we enco unter an ex­ And boisterous bellowing agitate the crowd '1 traordinary railroad brid ge bu ilt for the New York Central Rai lroad . This bridge serves the The result of the Bridge War was that the team tracks of the oldest railroads in Cleve­ Wes t Siders gained their point, a nd two land, dating fr om 185 1. Founded by Alfred bridges were provided . The Cen ter Street Ke ll ey, mayor, Canal Comm i ss i o ~ e r and Bridge was completed after much discu ssion promoter, it was originall y ca ll ed the Cle\'e­ and the Columbus Street Brid ge was land, Columbus, and Cin cinnati Railroad At eq uipped with a movable cente r span. a late r date, Indianapoli s was added, makin g The Columbus Street Bridge o f 1835 it the " Bi g Four. " Whe n exte nded to SI. marked the beginning of the first peri od of Loui s, the name beca me abbreviated to CCC bridge building over the Cuyahoga River - & St. L.R .R. bridges of wood w ith masonry pie rs, de­ The present bridge, erected in 1953, re­ signed for wagon traffic. As late as 1853 there pl aced a n older Scherze r Ro ll ing Lift Bridge. were still three of these: the Columbus Street The design of the present bridge was the Bridge, one at Seneca (West Third) Street, work o f Ho ward, Needles, Tamme n a nd and one at Division Street (Center Street). Be rgendoff, and the bridge received the There was agitation for a new one at Co­ Ame rica n Ins titute of Steel Con s tructi on lumbus Street, but because the two towns Award of Merit for the most beautiful bridge could not agree on a plan, the county re-built in it s class. It has a li ft span of 260 feet, with a the span. In 1854 Cleveland annexed Ohio clear chan!1 el of 200 fee t. The two 135 HP mo­ City. And immediately after a nnexation, tors are located at the top of the two girders, Cleveland built the Mai n Street Bridge, re­ and a drive shaft ac ti vates the counterweight built the Center S treet Bridge, and con­ sheaves. Massive balance chains adjust the structed the Seneca Street Bridge. changing load. Normal li ft is about 90 fe et. In 1870 an iron bridge was built, but this, The electri ca l contractors were Dingle-Clark, too, soon had to be replaced. In 1895 a new and McDowell-Wellma n e rected the steel bridge, designed by city engineer Walter P. work. Rice, was built. It was an extraordinary struc­ ture - a double swing bridge. Each leaf was The middle and lower West Third Street mounted upon a separate pier and turntable. Bridges were replaced as part of the Terminal The clear opening between fenders was 115 Tower complex and the Colli sion Bend Cut feet. Each river arm was 65 fe et; the short SA Project. The present Carter Road Bridge, spans over the piers 15 feet . The combined which replaced the Lower West Third struc­ length of the two leaves was 279 feet. In 1940 ture, is a verti ca l lift, designed in 1940 by the present Columbus Road Bridge was de­ Wllbur Watson and Associates. Carter Road signed by Wilbur Watson and Associates. Its (a ppropriately named after Lorenzo Carter, vertical lift span provides a 220-foot clear­ the first permanent settler) has long been the ·ance. site of an important vehicular crossing. There The series of Columbus Street Bridges was a bridge in this general locati on as ea rl y exemplifies the history of the low-level, mov­ as 1853. The first bridge collapsed in 1857 able bridge over navigable waters. First came when "overloaded with cattle." This was fol­ the crude and narrow structure, with a center lowed by another wooden structure. The span to open the channel to river traffic. By Seneca Street span which replaced it was a the middle of the nineteenth century, the draw-bridge operated by hand. This was su­ timber bridge was replaced by a light iron perseded by an iron swing bridge about 1873. bridge with a wider roadway; it generally The present structure formed part of the was a swing bridge. Near the end of the cen­ Cleveland Public Works Administration's 5.5 tury, came a still heavier structure, usually of mill~on dollar program for the widening and steel, to carry increased loads. Finally, an en­ straightenIng of the Cuyahoga River. The lift tirely different type emerged, designed to ac­ span is 220 feet long; the clear channel open­ commodate modern transportation needs. ing between fenders is 216 feet. Total length

JGeorge E. Condon, Cleveland: The Best Kept Secret (Doubleday and Co., Garden City, New York, 1967), pp.46-54. 86 MOVABLE BRIDGES OVER THE CUYAHOGA RIVER

Jack-knife bridge allows freighter to pass up the Cuya hoga River (Bridge No. 19, Erie Ra ilroad).

of the bridge is 284 feet. Two concrete piers land, having been built in 1931. The span is support the superstructure. And each pier 225 feet, with a clear channel opening of 187 foundation is comprised of six 30-inch steel feet, and is 52 feet wide. Designing engineer cylinders about 140 feet in length, supple­ was F. L. Gorman, and the engineer in charge mented by steel batter piles and a steel sheet­ of construction was A.H . Suloff. The bridge pile enclosure. The normal lift of the Bridge is was recently remodeled with new electrical about 75 feet, with a clearance of a little over controls, but the original 100 HP motors were 97 feet for lake freighters. The emergency lift retained in service. This bridge has free­ provides for an extra 5Y< feet. Overall width of standing towers (without a connecting truss) the Bridge is 58 feet, 6 inches. The roadway - a design no longer used because the align­ has four vehicular lanes and is 46 feet, 6 ment shifts and then the bridge binds. inches wide, with two 5-foot sidewalks. The Under the Lorain-Carnegie High Level superstructure was fabricated by the Mt. Bridge there is another type of movable Vernon Bridge Company and erected by the bridge - a trunnion bascule with a single Bass Construction Company. The contractor leaf. Built in 1920 for the CCC and St. L.R.R. , cantilevered the center span out from each it has a clear channel length of 140 feet and 0 tower at.a nearly full-raised position, in order opens to a full angle of 82 • A single track runs not to impede river traffic during construc­ through a riveted truss span with a length of tion. 175 feet. In addition to the lift span, the The Eagle Avenue Viaduct replaced the bridge consists of a 45-foot tower span and a Middle West Third Street Bridge, which was 42-foot deck plate-girder approach. The three originally a Scherzer Rolling Lift. Jim's Steak piers are of concrete. House, now located at the site of the original The prototype of the bascule bridge is Seneca Street Bridge or Lower West Third the drawbridge across the moat of a medieval Street Bridge, features the original bridges on castle. The modern prototype is the Tower the place mats. The Viaduct has an overall Bridge over the Thames in London, built in length of about 2000 feet from Scranton Road 1894. The present-day trunnion bascule to Ontario Street. The ramp includes the ver­ bridge comes with one leaf or two. The leaf is tical lift span over the River, built on the same supported at the shore end on a trunnion or grade as the viaduct. This lift span has the shaft. In opening, the bridge pivots on this distinction of being the first one in Cleve- shaft and raises its leaves to a nearly vertical SARA RUTH WATSON AND JOHN R. WOLFS 7 position; in the open position the trunnion ball-socket device in the anchored pontoon, supports the entire dead weight of the struc­ and when swung open, there was a clear ture. The river arm is longer, of course, than channel of 80 feet. The present vertical lift has that part of the bridge extending to the rear of a span of 200 feet and is identical to the Co­ the trunnions. This makes necessary the use lumbus Road Bridge. of counterweights at the rear of the bridge. The river ca n boast of a set of twins: two This structure is worthy of more than a Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridges. One, the New­ casual glance, for the enunciation of an old burgh and South Shore Railroad Bridge, has concept in modem technological terms is in­ been retired from service but remains stand­ teresting. The bridge was designed by the ing in a n upright position . It had a glorious Strauss Bridge Company, using New York past: built in 1903 by H.L Schule r, it was, at City 1917 speCifications for steel bridges, and the time of erection, the longest bridge of its was built by the American Bridge Company. kind in the world. It is a double-track, single­ Joseph Strauss was the famous American en­ leaf span 160 feet long, with two 50-foot deck­ gineerwho designed the Golden Gate Bridge plate girder s pans o n two concrete abut­ and had numerous patents o n bascule ments. The ori ginal 50 HP General Electric bridges. He designed many of the lift bridges motors are still there. in Chicago, where one can see excellent ex­ The rail traffic is now being carried by its amples of both the single-leaf and double­ twin, a Baltimore and Ohio Bridge. It too is a leaf bascule. Strauss also designed the draw­ Scherzer Rolling Lift, built in 1906 to serve span of the Arlington Memo rial Bridge over the American Steel and Wire Company's cen­ the Potomac River in Washington. tral furnace via the West Third Street yards of Another railroad movable span is the the ra ilroad. It is a double-track railroad structure on the high level Norfolk and West­ structure with an overall length of 205 feet ern Viaduct at University Avenue. This struc­ and a lift span of 160 feet. It is supported on ture was built for the original Nickel Plate concrete piers with pile foundations. The Road and was designed by the Chief Engi­ main span is composed of triangular-shaped neer, E.E. Hart. A double-track viaduct, the trusses 29 '/, feet apart, with inclined top total length is 3010 feet. The height above the cho rds supported intermedially between the River is 70 feet. At one time it was the longest panel points. The trusses have a maximum viaduct in the United States. The river span at depth of 44 feet and are connected by top and present is a vertical lift, which was erected in lateral sway-bracing. All connections are riv­ 1960 to replace the Scherzer Rolling Lift. The eted. The bridge was fabricated at the Toledo first river span here was a swing bridge with plant of the American Bridge Company from a pier in the center of the channeL plans furnished by the Scherzer Rolling Lift The present West Third Street Bridge is a Bridge Company. At present the structure is vehicular crossing that has a long history in owned and maintained by the Chessie Sys­ the city of Cleveland. The present structure is tem. a vertical lift, built in 1940. Years ago this We are now at the turning basin, beyond street was known as Central Way, which was which the River is not navigable for the lake opened in 1872, under the tracks of the freighter. Although there are more movable Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad. It became bridges over the river, in a trip of only 2Yz the principal throughway for the heavy traf­ miles one can see all the principal types and fic to the first iron refineries in that area. A can witness their evolution. There is a speci­ wooden drawbridge was swept away by men of the old swing bridge; there are Scher­ flood in 1883. This was replaced by a pivot zer Rolling Lifts, jack-knifes, trunnion bas­ swing bridge 138 feet long, which stood until cules (both single and double leaf), and replaced by the present span. A unique con­ modern vertical lifts. In few creations of man struction technique was used when the are beauty of form and utility of function so present bridge was being built. A temporary imposingly embodied; and in no place on pontoon was fabricated of welded steel with earth can these monumental structures be so a roadway 20 feet wide and 123 feet long. extensively enjoyed as along one short Electric-driven winches pivoted the deck in a stretch of river in Cleveland, Ohio. 88 BACK MATTER

The Gamut laments the demise, last Febru­ ary, of the New Mayfield Repertory Cinema where, since 1975, film enthusiast Sheldon Wigod provided movie buffs of the Cleveland area with a steady diet of the best in cinematic art, from the classics of the past to the off-bea t of the present-often introduced by his own ebu llient remarks. To memorialize this pass­ ing, we present a fictional reminiscence by Michael Samerdyke, now a graduate student at Ohio State University, who says he spent many undergraduate evenings spellbound at the New Mayfield. His story evokes some of the fusty atmosphere fondly remembered by many of the theater's former patrons .

Michael Samerdyke Spellbound at the New Mayfield

As he waded into the familiar darkness to find an empty aisle seat, George marvell ed at the size of the audience. The New Mayfield Repertory Cinema hadn' t attracted such a crowd since Strangers on a Train , but then this too was a Hitchcock night: Spellbound and Rebecca . Hitchcock always pulled people in. He wondered if Sheldon would speak before the movie tonight. He hadn' t seen the eminence grise of the NMRC when he bought his ticket, so maybe there wouldn't be a talk. Too bad. George liked Sheldon's talks. They seemed to give the New Mayfield audience a sense of community. " I hope Sheldon doesn't talk tonight," a bored, middle-aged male voice declared behind him. "We came to see the movie, not him. " "I know," a bitter, middle-aged female voice agreed. " We know the movie is good. That's why we're here. He doesn't have to tell us the movie is good." George identified the voices. They only came to movies made between 1934 and 1950, and even then they never saw anything they really liked. The woman in particular hated Olivia deHaviiand, and George could never think of Captain Blood without remembering " Bitch, bitch, bitch" hissing from the darkness behind him . To take his mind off the voices, he observed the people entering the theater, trying to see anyone he knew. That rarely happened. Maybe three times a year he'd see someone, usually from John Carroll University. Tonight, after looking at two score heads, George decided it wasn't one of those times. At least the movies would be good. That was the main thing-the movies. He liked practically everything: Singing in the Rain , The Seven Samurai, Hitchcock, Fassbinder. Why not? At least things happened in movies. Things didn't happen in real life . In m ovies, boy met girl and they fell in love or tried to kill each other for the insurance. In real life, George asked girls out and they said they were busy or couldn't go out with boys who weren' t SPELLBOL '0 AT TIl[ '\1:\\ MAHI~LO 89

Ca th olic. In mo\·ie,. I11l'n were private eyes, gunfighters, or the Man Brother~ . In real lite, George went tll lohn l,lm"\. then after graduation got a Job as a word pnx-e'>sor operator Ma\'be it \\',bn't as bleak as that. he admitted . For a few month<; he dId have a girlfrie nd . (Cod. h\l\\ pathetic.) It fell apart because of her parent'>, who never told Brenda when he ca ll ed her and she wasn't there, or said she wa out when "he wa'> home. He was th e wrong relig illn and " weird" on top of that . As he th ought .lhlut that episode, George realized it proved hUll' m(l\'ie~ were supe­ ri or to life. Ii the ,tun of George and Brenda had been a movie, he would eIther a) go to her pan 'nh' house and kill them (Scorses ) b) save so mebod\", life, and since he was a hero her parents would approve of him (Capra) c) forget about Brl'nd.l and find somebody else (I luston).

But life \\,Nd a movie. and eorge had to wake up every morning and reali/e that Brend a W dS mdrril'd to a business major Chdnge thl' subject, George warned himself. He began to count the people si tt ing in th e darkness. gut up to seventy, and quit. It depressed him that he didn ' t "now any of th em. He ca me til th l' New Mayfield at least twice a month, and the on ly people he knew were the " \·lli cl'''' '' He decided not to look at the new crowd of people accli m a ting the m ­ seh'es to th e th e,llL'r. " It 's so doH" ," a man p rotested. " There dre some seats," a wom an suggested. Despite him,,'lt , George turned around and made o ut Brenda's face in the d a rk. S he held th e arm of a nondescript-lookin g man in a busi ness s uit, w ho kept turn in g hi s head to shower di sapproving loo" s aro und the theater. It d id n ' t match the mental p ic ture George had made of Brenda's h usband, b ut the s hort , energetic , curly- head ed \\'o m a n leading him to a seat \\'as certai nl y Bre nda. Sudde nh' color spl ashed across the screen a nd sound po ured over the theate r. George reluctantl y turned back to th e screen to see the traile r for Kill g of Hearts, a fi lm h e h ad no intention of seein g. Finall y, Spellbo l/ lld began, and he placed his im agina ti on in the h a nds of Alfred Hitchcock. He had seen Spellbo l/ ll d befo re, so the plot didn ' t requ ire a ll h is atte ntio n . His mind, an noyin gly, ke pt skipping back to Mod ern Drama, the class w he re he fir st became aware of Brenda. He remembered taki ng notes and sneaking gla nces at he r q uiet smile and blue eyes . Th en, one d ay before th e prof arri ved , some of the stud e nts were d iscussing Th e Icelllall CO lll eill. Gregory Peck was becom ing h yste ri cal at the sight of parall el lines. Ingrid Be rgm a n sat and li ste ned to a self-important h otel detecti ve . The a udie nce chuckled at the ma n 's wrong conclusions . George said that Hickey wasn ' t crazy but p retended to be to avoid reali zing that h e hated his w ife . He noti ced Bre nda looking at him a nd seri o u sly conside ring his words . He felt wonde rful. By now, G regory Peck a nd Ingrid Bergman h ad reach ed her me ntor's h o use. The w ise Central Euro pean gentleman was sure to solve the mystery of Peck's behavior, if Peck d idn' t kill him first. Over the next few years, George had dated Brenda a few times, but it w as largely worship fr om afar. Aft er graduation he heard that Brenda had married an acco unta nt. Mov­ ies were better than life . Peck now revealed his childhood trauma. The audience gasped in horror as a little boy hurled down towards the spikes of an iron fence . George suspected that if he turned aro und he would see Brenda gripping h er husband. He watched as Ingrid Bergman talked Leo G . Carroll out of killing her. 90 MICHAEL 5AMERDYKE

The film ended and the mass exodus to the restrooms and the refreshment stand began. George stood up to give his bottom a rest. Giving in to temptation, he turned around to see Brenda joining the crowd. Her husband remained seated. George, trying not to be too obvious, looked at him. The darkness prevented a first class look. Of his face, all George could see was that he wore glasses and had dark hair. He still had a look of disapproval on his face. The business suit told George that he made a good living. He looked as if he kept himself fit. George shifted his weight from one foot to the other and waited for Brenda to come back from the refreshment stand. Maybe she wouldn't recognize him. Maybe she would, and they'd talk a bit. He would like th at. Holding a soft drink and a cup of popcorn, Brenda started down the aisle. By now George was the only person standing in hi s part of the theater, so Brenda naturally looked at him. George smiled. "George," Brenda exclaimed. "Brenda," her husband snapped, angry that Brenda had walked past their row. Brenda smiled at George, then turned around and walked back to her husband. She sat next to him and gave him the pop and the popcorn. That was that. George turned around and sat. If this had been a Preston Sturges movie, he though t, Brenda would have dumped the pop over her husband's head and run away with George. If Scorsese were in control, George would go home, arm himself, and "rescue" Brenda. The Selznick sign fla shed on the screen. Manderly. Ma xim de Winter nearly stepped off a cliff. Rebecca. George smiled, watching the Hitchcock film while a Scorsese film that Scorsese would never make played in his mind. Mrs. Danvers seemed rather aloof. The black and white photography banished Scor­ sese from George's imagination and summoned the spirits of Notorioll s instead. Cary Grant, Bergman, and Claude Rains were ca ught in an obsessive triangle just as he, Brenda, and Whosis. George would go to their house and find Brenda on their bed. He would explain to her that her husband was poisoning her and carry her out of the house to safety. The costume ball at Manderly turned out to be a disaster. Joan Fontaine discovered that Rebecca was really an evil woman. (No surprise to George, who had seen the film three times.) Laurence Olivier cleared himself of the murder charge while Manderly, Mrs. Danvers, and the embroidered pillow went up in flames. George sat for several minutes as the audience left the theater, to give Brenda a chance to leave without him seeing her. He walked out into the cool summer air on May­ field Road and walked up the hill to the parking lot. The aroma from the doughnut shop came to him, and he instantly turned his head. In the brightly lit window of the store, Brenda and husband stood, deciding what they would buy. For an instant George felt as if he were watching a scene from Mal1hattal1. They were in a movie, and he, as usual, was watching. He turned away, and as he walked up the hill he comforted himself by remembering that next week the New Mayfield would show A Clockwork Oral1ge . He'd be back. R >glOnal but n lt pn. "in 0<11. The I11l11t - in it '\'l:nth y al'o

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