Donald S. Yarab

Julius Feiss & Ednawood

Few physical remains of the Gilded Age mansions that once defined the Edgewater neighborhood remain. However, for the observant, there are remains to be seen and which, when researched, reveal a story. On the northern side of Lake Avenue, between West 104th and 110th Streets, may be found the remains of a stone entrance way standing silent sentinel to what was once known as Ednawood, the mansion and estate of Julius Feiss (1848-1931).

Feiss was a partner in The Joseph & Feiss Company, an organizing member of the Cleveland Parks Commission, and, at his death, president of the Cleveland Federation of Jewish Charities. Ednawood’s original address was 10520 Lake Avenue, and extended from Lake Avenue to the shores of Lake Erie. The address was later changed to 10530 Edgewater Drive.

Ednawood once was erroneously associated with the Underground Railroad because it had a tunnel connecting the basement of the home to the shores of Lake Erie. Mazie Adams, in an article entitled, “Lakewood in the Civil War: More Underground Railroad Tunnels in Lakewood?”explains the error thusly: “[S]ome of this confusion stems from the work of Wilbur Weibert, noted 1890s historian of the underground railroad in Ohio, [who] suggested that Lakewood was part of a route for the underground railroad. Unfortunately, it appears he based his theory partially on the existence of a tunnel emptying into Lake Erie just east of Lakewood.

Interestingly, this tunnel was also featured in a Plain Dealer article, dated February 12, 1950, and focused on Dr. Siebert’s work on the underground railroad in Ohio. Included in the article was an image of a ‘slave-escape tunnel, somewhere in Cleveland…photo from Dr. Siebert’s collection, but the exact location is not known.’ Sharp-eyed readers quickly inundated the paper with calls and letters correctly identifying the tunnel as belonging to ‘Ednawood.’

As Ednawood was built in 1895, it and its tunnel obviously post-dated the Underground Railroad. Ms. Adams continues the article to note that one of Julius Feiss’ sons described the tunnel as “leading from a basement recreation room with a big fireplace and small rooms where bathers could change before and after swims in the lake. The tunnel is said to have cost about $11,000 when built.” She notes that the Plain Dealer reported that the tunnel, “attracted dozens of boys who swam or rowed along this section, for many have written or phoned about the fun they used to have around it. But they couldn’t get beyond the great iron entrance door in the cliff.”

In fact, an entry from the June 16, 1899, About the Town column in the Plain Dealer, heralds the construction of the tunnel as part of the newly built Ednawood estate for Julius Feiss: “Mr. Julius Feiss, of Goldsmith, Joseph, Feiss & Co., has been connected with that firm for exactly thirty-five years, working his way up from the bottom of the ladder. While he is still very active in the business, he is a man of domestic tastes and his house, adjoining Senator Hanna’s on the lake shore, is a veritable model of comfort. Among the features of the place is a tunnel, cut out of the solid rock under the bak, leading from the house to a point close to the shore, where it ends in a spacious den, a smoking room some twenty feet in diameter, tiled in Dutch blue, and provided with all manner of appurtenances for the inner comfort. From this den it is but a step to the bath houses so that all the advantages of the location may be enjoyed with the least inconvenience” (p. 5).

Notice of Ednawood’s pending construction was published in The Inland Architect and News, Vol. XXI, No. 3, p. 42 (April 1893), which noted that that the architects Lehman and Schmitt were designing and constructing “a country residence for Julius Feiss on Lake Avenue; frame, 60 by 125 feet in size; cost $40,000; all modern improvements including steam heat and electricity. For same party a gardener’s cottage and stable, costing $5,500; both frame buildings, respectively 26 by 40 and 30 by 45 feet in size.”

The Cleveland Landmark Commission records the following information about Lehman and Schmitt in its architect database:

Lehman and Schmitt were in business from 1885 to 1935. Both Israel Lehman and Theodore Schmitt had worked in the office of George H. Smith. The firm did a substantial amount of work for local government. They designed the Cuyahoga County Courthouse, and courthouses in Lexington, Kentucky; Peru, Indiana; and Franklin and Towanda, Pennsylvania. They also designed the Central Police Station on Champlain Street; an 1894 addition to the second Cuyahoga County Courthouse; the Central Armory for the Ohio National Guard; the National Guard Armory in Geneva; the Erie County Children’s Home in Sandusky; and the Lorain County Children’s Home. The firm also designed several significant synagogues, including the Anshe Chesed Synagogue built in 1886 on Scovill Avenue, Temple Tifereth Israel at Central and East 55th Street, built in 1894, and the later Anshe Chesed Synagogue at 8302 Euclid Avenue, built in 1912. The name of Lehman and Schmitt was retained after Israel e death din 1914. The firm’s offices moved to the Electric Building in 1914. Buildings designed by the firm after 1914 included the Cook (now the Prospect Park) Building, the Pierce Arrow Dealership, and the Bing Building. The early history of the firm shows that they designed numerous residences. Frederick Baird worked as a draftsman and designer with the firm for several years. See http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/arch/archDetail.php?afil=&archID=160&pageNum_rsArchitects=1&totalRows_rsArchitects=335&sk=fName&sd=ASC

The Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that construction was underway on Ednawood in 1895, but was not yet completed, in its article, Lake Avenue Residences, published May 10, 1895.

U.S. Census records reveal that the massive house with its intriguing tunnel was home to Julius, his wife Carrie (nee Dryfoos), and their children Paul, Henry Otto, Richard, Jessy, George, and Edna, his niece Emma Seligmann, as well as three servants, Catherine Lazzro, Emma Boyer, and Johanna Miller, in 1900. It was apparently named after Julius’ daughter Edna, who was born in 1886.

Julius Feiss himself was born in Mussbach, Bavaria and emigrated to the United States in 1866. His story, like that of several other residents already profiled, is an immigrant’s rags to riches story. An October 1920 article in the American Magazine by Frank Copley relates Feiss’ Horatio Alger story:

When Julius Feiss came to this country as a boy, his assets were just about limited to his character, which included a full capacity for hard, grinding toil. If he had a decided bent for mechanics, this at the beginning was more of a liability than an asset. As Richard Feiss puts it, “Father began life starving to death as an inventor.” To save himself from literally starving, Julius Feiss went to work in the clothing shop of the firm that was destined to bear his name. This was in 1866. The twelve-hour day was then the standard, but Feiss, as the newest arrival, was required to devote practically the whole twenty four hours to the firm’s service. He had to clean up the shop after the regular day’s work, sleep there in a packing box among the rats, and be ready to open the door for the other employees at six-thirty in the morning. After four years, through sheer force of character, he rose to be a member of the firm. The business prospered.

A few words about “the business” are in order as the company had an impact and longevity that are worthy of especial appreciation. The Joseph & Feiss Company was founded in 1841 as the Koch, Kauffman & Loeb general store in Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1845, proprietors Kaufman Koch and Samuel Loeb relocated to Cleveland where they opened a store at 82 Superior Street, specializing in tailored men’s clothing and piece goods to local tailors. The company changed hands as it grew larger: Koch & Levi in 1853, Koch, Levi & Mayer in 1855, Koch, Mayer & Goldsmith in 1867, Koch, Goldsmith & Company in 1871 and Goldsmith, Joseph, Feiss & Company in 1892. Moritz Joseph and Julius Feiss both joined the clothing company in the 1870s. When Jacob Goldsmith retired in 1907, the firm adopted the name The Joseph & Feiss Company.

In Jim Debelko’s article, “The Joseph and Feiss Company: A Pioneer in Progressive Capitalism,” we learn what an extraordinary company it was. He reports the following: “Prior to 1909, the company was a typical garment manufacturer of that era, paying its employees as little as possible and working them for as many hours as hard it reasonably could. But in that year, Richard Feiss became factory manager. While living in Boston from 1897-1904 and obtaining his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University, Feiss had become a disciple of Frederick Taylor, the well-known industrial efficiency engineer of the late nineteenth century. When Feiss returned to Cleveland, he set out to manage the company’s work force in a manner that would maximize productivity but at the same time create a humane work environment that would keep workers healthy and happy.

Feiss, with the assistance of Progressive era reformer Mary Barnett Gilson whom Feiss made head of the company’s employment and services department, redesigned the chairs employees sat on and the tables they worked upon to reduce injury and fatigue; provided employees with well-lit and well-ventilated work areas; sponsored employee dances, picnics, choral societies, clubs, orchestras, and athletic programs; provided medical and counseling services; established employee savings programs; awarded promotions based on performance; and increased wages. In addition, in 1917, Feiss introduced the five-day work week for employees at the company’s plant, several years before Henry Ford, often cited as the first industrial employer in the United States to do so.

“Perhaps it was progressive policies like the above that kept Joseph & Feiss a non-union shop in the decades of the 1910s and 1920s–a time when garment manufacturers in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere were fast becoming union shops. It wasn’t until 1934, during the Great Depression and almost a decade after Richard Feiss was forced out of the company in 1925 by his father and older brother, that the American Clothing Workers of America, finally won the right to bargain for and represent the garment workers of Joseph & Feiss.

In 1989, Joseph & Feiss was acquired by Hugo Boss AG, a West German clothing firm, for $150 million and was made a division of its subsidiary, International Fashions Apparel Corporation. Men’s Warehouse acquired the Joseph & Feiss trademark in December 1996.

So, when you spy the remnants of Ednawood when you walk along Lake Avenue, you should reflect on its stories: the rags to riches story of an immigrant, the myth of an Underground Railroad station, the powerhouse clothing manufacturer that lasted nearly 150 years, and the progressive and scientific methods that manufacturer introduced to industry before they were commonplace.

Herman N. Matzen’s Edgewater Connection

One of the well-known gems of the neighborhood is the Richard Wagner statue located in Edgewater Park. It was commissioned in 1911 by the Goethe-Schiller Society, which selected the accomplished sculptor Herman N. Matzen to create the monument.

Mr. Matzen was born in Denmark on July 15, 1861. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin before permanently immigrating to the United States where, in 1884, he married Emma Hale.

In 1885, he began teaching design and sculpture at the Cleveland School of Art. After his wife Emma died, he married Blanche Dissette in 1908. He was a teacher at the Cleveland School of Art and head of the Department of Sculpture for decades, retiring in 1926. His students included such prominent figures as Max Kalish, Frank Wilcox, and Norman Bel Geddes. He died on April 22, 1938, and was buried in Lakeview Cemetery. The Edgewater community is fortunate to have one of his works in our midst.

Donald Rosenberg, writing for The Plain Dealer on August 19, 2012, in an article entitled, “Wagner statue in Edgewater Park Shows Cleveland’s devotion to titanic German composer,” described the statue as depicting the composer standing in long coat and beret, his left hand holding gloves and a document, which could be a score or one of his polemical writings.

In the article, Rosenberg shared that “[a]mong the prominent figures who have visited the statue is Siegfried Wagner, the composer’s son, who was in town with his wife, Winifred, in February 1924 to conduct a touring orchestra in a program titled ‘Music of Three Generations.’ Siegfried made the short pilgrimage to Edgewater Park, traipsing through snow to stand in front of his father’s monument and have his photo taken.”

Aside from the Wagner monument, some of the best known of Mr. Matzen’s works are the statue of Mayor Tom Johnson in Public Square (1916), the Thomas White memorial, the Moses and Pope Gregory IX statues on the exterior of the Cuyahoga County Courthouse, the Cain and Abel statues on the Painesville County Courthouse, and the Haserot memorial in Lake View Cemetery.

U.S. Senator M.A. Hanna: Part I

“Senator Hanna bought part of Twin Elms and made it famous. The McKinley election was planned in the famous summer house which finally fell over into the lake. Leonard C. Hanna built next door and we all became intimate friends.” – Jacob Bishop Perkins

In the late nineteenth century, Jacob Bishop Perkins (1854-1936) owned most of the land that is now the Edgewater Neighborhood and Edgewater Park. His holdings in Edgewater were known prosaically as Perkins’ Farm even though farming was never undertaken on the land. More poetically, his estate in Edgewater was known as Twin Elms. However, this article is not about Mr. Perkins or Twin Elms, rather, it is about the most famous resident of Edgewater, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, and his then equally famous estate, Glenmere.

Marcus Alonzo Hanna (1837-1904) was an extraordinary man who features prominently in Cleveland, Ohio, and American history. His careers were multiple, and his successes far outshone his failures. He was an industrialist, owner of the Westside Railway and its successors, publisher of the Cleveland Herald, Republican Party eminence, President William McKinley’s campaign manager, and twice elected U.S. Senator. He even, for a time, owned and operated the Euclid Avenue Opera House. His legacy was broad as he had a major role in the economic prosperity of Cleveland as a businessman, the election of President McKinley as a “political boss,” and the building of the Panama Canal as a senator.

Mr. Hanna was born on September 24, 1837, in Lisbon, Ohio. He moved to Cleveland in 1852, where he attended high school with John D. Rockefeller. On September 27, 1864, he married Charlotte Augusta Rhodes, in spite of the spirited disapproval of her father, prominent west side community leader, Democrat, and businessman Daniel Rhodes.

Originally, the couple resided with Mr. Rhodes in his Franklin Boulevard mansion, later moving to a small home on Prospect Street. After a series of unfortunate business setbacks left Mr. Hanna financially exhausted, he and his wife returned to Mr. Rhodes’ Franklin mansion and Mr. Hanna was brought into Mr. Rhodes’ business as a principal. Once Mr. Hanna became a principal in Mr. Rhodes’ company, he and the company prospered.

Jacob Bishop Perkins sold Mark and Charlotte Hanna a portion of Twin Elms on which they built a residence in 1889. They called their estate “Glenmere.” It is at Glenmere that they raised their daughter Ruth Hanna, who married Joseph Medill McCormick, owner of the Chicago Tribune and later a U.S. Senator. After Senator McCormick’s death, Ruth went on to marry U.S. Representative Albert Gallatin Sims. But Ruth Hanna, not one to merely be associated with politicians, was an able politician in her own right, having served as a U.S. Representative in Congress and being the first woman to be the nominee of the Republic Party for a U.S. Senate seat.

The Glenmere Estate

Charles Frederick Schweinfurth was the leading residential architect in Cleveland during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, responsible for more homes on Cleveland Millionaire Row on Euclid Avenue than any other architect. Naturally,

Mark Hanna engaged Mr. Schweinfurth to design and build Glenmere when he came to the Edgewater neighborhood at the invitation of Mr. Perkins.

In The Life and Works of Charles Frederick Schweinfurth – Cleveland Architect, R.A. Perry records the following about Glenmere:

“The most original “Shingle Style” residences of Schweinfurth’s early period were two summer homes designed for United States Senator Marcus A. Hanna and his brother Leonard. Both of the Hanna houses were completed in or around 1889 and were located … near the shores of Lake Erie. The Hanna designs reflected a horizontal emphasis which was new in Schweinfurth’s work, and both designs had two facades.”

“Glenmere,” the summer residence of Marcus A. Hanna, was probably the earlier of the two designs and was the more elaborate. On the south façade of “Glenmere” was a projecting carriage porch below an enlarged version of the “Shingle Style” Siamese gable, but decorated with contrasting stripes in imitation of English half-timber construction. The hexagonal cupola which had been used earlier on the Dellenbaugh and Nye designs also could be seen on the roof at “Glenmere.” At the south west end of the façade was a double tower motif which penetrated a boldly projecting gable in an unusually dramatic manner. It has not been possible to locate any prototypes for that feature which was apparently original.

The lake façade of “Glenmere” reflected a different character from the entrance façade. The main features of the lake or north façade were a wide porch supported on Tuscan columns, a second story loggia, and a number of gables, circular towers, and clustered chimneys which projected from the steep pitched roof.

“Glenmere” was the scene of many splendid parties and other social events in Cleveland, and its owner was an important figure in American history. The plan for “Glenmere” included a spacious entrance hall with a baluster screen pierced by an oval opening located in front of the staircase.

The dining room contained an elaborate mantel with a veined marble fireplace and the dining room included a classical-inspired mantle finished in white and gold which links Schweinfurth with the Colonial Revival style.

The interior decorations at “Glenmere” were the most elaborate since the Everett mansion of 1883. The Marcus Hanna residence was Schweinfurth’s largest “Shingle Style “design. The decidedly horizontal emphasis of the design and the use of decorative half-timber framing were the closest Schweinfurth ever came to the design of a Shavian manor house.

Sadly, Glenmere was demolished in the early 20th century. Fortunately, Glenmere was sufficiently famous that pictures of it appeared on contemporary postcards and it was featured in heavily photographed publications, including Inland Architect and News Record.

In the next article, we will talk about the campaign which won William McKinley the presidency of the United States, which was planned and largely executed at Glenmere, and Ruth Hanna’s “Wedding of the Century,” which was hosted at the Glenmere Estate and brought, among others, President Theodore Roosevelt to the Edgewater neighborhood on a sunny June day in 1903.

U.S. Senator M.A. Hanna: Part II

Previously, when discussing Edgewater’s most famous resident, U.S. Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna (1837-1904), I briefly noted that the Senator was, among other things, a Republican Party eminence and President William McKinley’s campaign manager. These abbreviated characterizations do not adequately capture the extraordinary role he played in both shaping modern American political campaigns and the critical role he played in securing William McKinley the presidency, which roles he played, in large part, from his Lake Avenue estate, Glenmere, during the summers and from his rented home in Thomasville, Georgia, during the winters.

Hanna’s first foray into national Republican politics occurred in 1880, when he created a businessman’s club that successfully raised money to cover Ohioan James A. Garfield’s personal expenses during the presidential campaign of 1880. In the next two presidential elections, Hanna actively supported Ohio Senator John Sherman’s attempts to win the Republican Party presidential nomination.

Finally, by 1896, Hanna retired from his business interests to dedicate himself to the election of Ohio Governor William McKinley to the presidency. Hanna’s affection and support for McKinley was reportedly related to Hanna’s admiration for McKinley’s integrity, loyalty, and scruples although McKinley’s opponents, including the newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, fostered a narrative in which Hanna supported McKinley because McKinley was Hanna’s pliable puppet.

Hearst’s editorials often related a true story that hoped to firmly fix the narrative that Hanna had untoward influence over McKinley. The story ran thusly: “During the Panic of 1893, McKinley was presented with a bill for $100,000 to cover bad loans he had co-signed for a friend in Youngstown. Lacking anything near that kind of cash, McKinley planned to resign as governor and return to his law practice to pay the debt. When he informed Hanna, the Clevelander would have none of it. He quickly assembled a group of wealthy friends who retired the notes. McKinley and his wife put property in a trust to repay their benefactors, but no claims were ever filed.”

The image of Hanna as financier and McKinley as beholden beneficiary was driven home by in the Hearst newspapers by political cartoonist Homer Davenport, who depicted Hanna as “Dollar Mark,” a bloated character dressed in a suit covered with dollar signs. McKinley was usually drawn as a smaller child accompanying Dollar Mark. The attacks accusing McKinley of being a puppet of Hanna did not prevent McKinley from winning the White House in 1896.

Hanna, as noted earlier, often directed McKinley’s campaign from his “lake house” on Lake Avenue, a campaign which some have labeled the first modern American presidential campaign. Joseph Frolik, in writing about Hanna’s impact on American presidential campaigns, summarized the campaign thusly:

“Hanna worked his campaign magic without the aid of computers or the Internet or broadcast media, of course. Yet many of the practices that still define campaigning in the age of social media and micro-targeting were introduced or refined by Hanna during his political tour de force: the 1896 campaign to put William McKinley, his friend and fellow Ohioan, in the White House.”

He used polling techniques, albeit primitive ones, to monitor the pulse of the campaign, especially in states he thought could swing either way. He ordered the production of 200 million pamphlets, newspaper inserts and other pieces of literature – at a time when there were barely 14 million voters in the United States. Much of it was issue-oriented and targeted particular market segments such as German-Americans or “colored” voters. He dispatched 1,400 surrogate speakers to spread a unified GOP message, some of them toting newfangled devices to enthrall audiences with grainy moving pictures of McKinley. And, as Frolik further observed:

All of this innovation required boatloads of cash, and Hanna excelled at raising it. Before 1896, most presidential campaigns were run through the political parties and relied on tithes from patronage workers. Hanna had broken into politics in Cleveland by raising cash from his fellow businessmen to help elect President James Garfield in 1880, and 16 years later, he took the art of the ask national. He tapped not just the railroaders, but tycoons of every stripe, by stoking their fears of financial catastrophe if Bryan and his “free silver” platform prevailed. The result was a war chest that has been estimated at between $3.5 million and $10 million, in an era when newspapers sold for a penny. One of Hanna’s Cleveland Central High School classmates — a rather successful oilman named John D. Rockefeller – reportedly kicked in $250,000.

It was Hanna’s ability at raising, and agility at spending, campaign funds, in ways not heretofore seen, that caused Theodore Roosevelt to exclaim, in both astonishment and condemnation: “He has advertised McKinley as if he were a patent medicine!” Thomas Beer, in his analysis of the offense that Hanna had given to Roosevelt and many others, said the following: “He had made a President, and he had done it visibly. It is hard to forgive such realism.”

After McKinley was elected president, Hanna declined to seek a position in the President’s cabinet. Instead, consistent with Hanna’s wishes, the President appointed Senator John Sherman of Ohio as Secretary of State, which allowed Ohio’s governor to

appoint Hanna as U.S. Senator for the remainder of Sherman’s Senate term. Hanna subsequently secured his election to a full-term in the U.S. Senate by the Ohio legislature in 1898. Hanna was re-elected to another term (1905-1911) in January 1904 by a legislative vote of 115–25. Unfortunately, Senator Hanna died on February 15, 1904 before that term commenced.

McKinley often visited Hanna in Cleveland and Cleveland has been characterized by some as the secondary center of McKinley’s presidency.

Those who want to know more about Hanna’s outsized impact on American political history can profitably consult any of a number of readily available sources. For instance, Joe Frolik, The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s former chief editorial writer, prepared a masterful account of the outsized role of Marcus Alonzo Hanna in both Republican party politics and the election campaigns of President William McKinley in his article, How Ohio made a president: Mark Hanna of Cleveland created modern politics in 1896 (October 16,2012). This article is online at http://www.cleveland.com/obituaries/index.ssf/2011/10/george_e_condon_chronicled_cle.html

Books which discuss Senator Hanna and his legacy, which are readily available and commended to your attention, include West of the Cuyahoga and Cleveland: the best kept secret. These works were written by George E. Condon (1916-2011), a reporter and columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for over 40 years. Mr. Condon’s authorial style is highly engaging, reflecting both the depth of his knowledge of Cleveland’s history and his passion for that history. Another recommended work, perhaps less readily available, is Hanna, which was written by Thomas Beer (1889-1940), a highly reputed biographer, novelist, essayist, satirist, and author of short fiction.

A Brief History and Description of the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist

On November 11, 2013, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that a “key gateway site at Cleveland’s western edge could be redeveloped with a grocery store and other retailers, but that new investment requires the demolition of a long-vacant church that has eluded the wrecking ball since the early 1990s.” Of course, the referenced long-vacant church is the Edgewater community’s architecturally distinctive, historically landmarked Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, which was constructed in 1926.

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History records that General Erastus N. Bates began organizing the Christian Scientists in Cleveland. The Longyear Museum website, at https://www.longyear.org/exhibits-archives-media/historic-articles/the-front-rank/general-erastus-newton-bate s , records that General Bates “was introduced to it in 1886 when he attended a lecture by Hannah Larminie of Chicago. Bates began taking on healing cases that year, and in December he wrote his son:

“I am very busy now days and expect to open an office in the city soon. My success in all cases acute, or chronic, nervous or physical is remarkable so far. And I see no reason why it should not continue. When I say my success, I do not wish to imply that I am the healer, for I am only the instrument used by God in this work.”

General Bates began corresponding with Mrs. Eddy in 1887, took Primary class with her in 1888, then Normal class in 1889.

He was one of the few entrusted by Mrs. Eddy to teach at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and later he did much to establish the Cause in Kansas City and Cleveland. Looking back, he would with an overflowing heart tell the crowd at Pleasant View, “I owe all that I am and all that I have to Christian Science.” In praise of this steadfast soldier, Mrs. Eddy would later recall him with fondness as “one of God’s own noblemen.”

His efforts resulted in the founding of Cleveland’s First Church of Christ, Scientist, in 1891. Cleveland proved to be especially fertile ground for the message of the Christian Scientists as the “First Church” was quickly followed by the formation of congregations for the Second Church in 1901, the Third Church in 1903, the Fourth Church in 1914, and the Fifth Church in 1920.

The Fifth Church congregation held its first public services in a hall at West 65th and Detroit Avenue before moving into the Fifth Church building on Lake Avenue and West 117th Street in 1926. The Fifth Church congregation worshiped at the site until 1989. After the congregation moved, Rini-Rego Supermarkets acquired the property and, in turn, sold it to the City of Cleveland in 2002 for a token sum. The building has remained empty and unused since despite several development proposals over the years.

The building was designed by architect Frank W. Bail, who was born in Wellsville, Ohio in 1891. Mr. Bail received his Bachelor of Architecture from Columbia University in 1917. During World War I, he served as a lieutenant in the army. He was severely wounded during the war and spent two years in army hospitals. After the war, he came back to Cleveland where he was employed as assistant City architect. In 1922, he established the Frank W. Bail Company. He left Cleveland during the Great Depression, moving to Fort Myers, Florida. He died in April 1964.

Mr. Bail designed the distinctive structure in a neoclassical style with the primary mass of the building shaped as an octagon, topped with a large central dome and cupola. The building has a basement and main floor, both totaling 22,300 square feet with the central auditorium designed to seat 900 persons. The main entrance portico to the northwest served as the formal entrance lobby to the building. Low wings along the south and southwest sides of the building provided a secondary entrance and reading room space as well as access to the social hall in the basement. A mechanical room to the south east was demolished in approximately 1998.

The exterior walls are clad in sandstone with a small area of the one-story wing clad in brick. The sandstone was quarried in Birmingham, Erie County, Ohio. The stone on the drum beneath the dome was painted over with a yellowish coating in 1991. The dome is clad in Luduwici clay roof tiles. The lobby has walls and pillars faced with Saint Genevieve Golden Vein marble (limestone from the Grand Tower Formation), quarried in Missouri, and flooring of pink Tennessee marble (limestone from the Holston Formation), quarried in eastern Tennessee. Floor trim, bases of pillars, and balusters are a black limestone with white streaks (veins and stylolites), possibly from Europe. The front (west) hallway had wainscoting of Saint Genevieve Golden Vein, with a border of black limestone along its base. The Saint Genevieve marble in both the lobby and the front hallway contains large corals, including horn corals several centimeters in diameter and colonial forms that are composed of groups of many smaller cylindrical individuals.

Because the City of Cleveland designated the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist a landmark building in 1995, any demolition or development is subject to the approval of the Cleveland Landmarks Commission. In the meantime, it survives as the only remaining example of a classically domed structure on the west side of Cleveland.