Tag: Charles Frederick Schweinfurth

L.C. Hanna: Professional Baseball Player, Industrial Magnate, and Gatling Gun Battery Captain

Leonard Colton Hanna was a summer resident of the Edgewater neighborhood from 1890 until shortly before he sold the property in 1911.

We mentioned him briefly in discussing his more famous brother, Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna, and Senator Hanna’s Glenmere estate, in several previously published Beacon articles. In this brief article, we will give L.C. Hanna and his estate, Urncliff, their due.

L.C. Hanna was born in New Lisbon, Ohio on November 30, 1850, the son of Dr. Leonard Hanna (1806-1862) and Samantha Maria (nee Converse) Hanna (1813-1897). His siblings included Helen G. Hubbell (1836-1891); Marcus A. Hanna (1837-1904); Howard M. Hanna (1840-1921); Salome M. Chapin (1844-1907); Seville S. Morse (1846-1927); and Lilian C. Baldwin (1852-1948). The family moved to Cleveland in 1851.

Once in Cleveland, L.C. Hanna attended the public schools. His family then sent him to Doctor Holbrook’s Military School, a military academy and boarding school for boys located in the town of Ossining, New York. He reportedly attended Doctor Holbrook’s Military School until June 1867.

When he returned to Cleveland, he was briefly associated with Hanna, Doherty & Company, a firm established by his brother, Marcus A. Hanna, for the purpose of refining petroleum. His brother Howard later purchased Marcus’ interest in the firm.

In 1869, L.C. Hanna became associated with Cleveland’s first professional baseball team, the Forest City Club, as its second baseman. The team included pros who were paid, such as Arthur Allison, outfielder and first baseman, Albert G. “Uncle Al” Pratt, pitcher, and James L. “Deacon” White, each of whom remained with the team until its demise in 1872, and amateurs such as L.C. Hanna, who remained “pure” and refused payment. On June 2, 1869, the Forest City Club played, and lost, 25-6, the first pro baseball game in Cleveland against the professional Cincinnati Red Stockings. The game was played in front of 2,000 spectators at Case Commons at Putnam Ave. (E. 38th St.) between Scovill Avenue and Central Avenue. On March 17, 1871, the Forest City Club became a charter member of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players.

By 1871, L.C. Hanna left behind his baseball career and sailed on the steamer Northern Light for one season. In January 1872, he left for St. Paul, Minnesota, where he resided until November 1874. In 1874 he returned to Cleveland to begin his lengthy career with the firm of M. A. Hanna & Company, which at the time was one of the largest and most important firms in the country handling coal, coke, iron ore and pig iron. M. A. Hanna survived into the modern era, merging in 2000 with The Geon Company, to become The PolyOne Corporation, a company whose 2016 revenues exceeded $3.3 billion dollars. L.C. Hanna was also affiliated with the Superior Savings & Trust Company, the Guardian Savings & Trust Company and the Union National Bank of Cleveland. His memberships included the Tavern Club, the Union Club, the Roadside Club, the Country Club of Cleveland, and the Chagrin Valley Hunt Club at Gates Mill, Ohio.

L.C. Hanna also “commanded” the Cleveland Gatling Gun Battery as “captain” from 1892-1893. This para-military organization was formed in June 1878 by reactionary Clevelanders concerned about “the maintenance of law and order” after the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which was discussed in a Beacon article that sketched the life of Edgewater resident Daniel W. Caldwell, who was President of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company and who obtained the title “General” from the governor of Ohio during the “Great Railroad Strike.”

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History states the following regarding the Cleveland Gatling Gun Battery:

“Using contributions, the committee purchased 2 Gatling guns and then issued a call for volunteers. At a meeting in the mayor’s office, the Cleveland Gatling Gun Battery was established with 25 charter members, including Major Wilbur F. Goodspeed, elected captain; 1st Sgt. Thomas Goodwillie; 2d Sgt. Leonard C. Hanna (captain, 1882-93); 3d Sgt. John R. Ranney; and Quartermaster J. Ford Evans. On 6 Mar. 1880 the Ohio legislature enacted a bill authorizing Cleveland citizens to establish a Gatling gun battery, placed it under control of the mayor in emergencies, and made it subject to the regulations governing Ohio National Guard units. The unit was incorporated on 17 May 1880. An armory was constructed at E. Prospect and Sibley (3433 Carnegie). In 1885 the battery had 2 guns, 80 sabers, and 1 revolver. It billed the city $242 for the services of its members on guard during the iron workers’ strike at Newburgh, 8-13 and 17-21 July 1885. The majority of the unit’s activities were social events; its annual target practice, for example, included dances and was held at such resorts as St. Clair Springs, MI, and Chautauqua Lake, NY.”

L.C. Hanna was married twice. He married his first wife, Fannie Wilson Mann (1852-1885) in Buffalo, New York. He married his second wife, Coralie Walker (1852-1936) on October 17, 1888, in Richmond, Kentucky.

He had three children: Jean Claire Hanna (1880-1930), Fanny Hanna Moore (1884-1980) and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. (1889-1957). He died on March 23, 1919, and is buried in Lake View Cemetery.

L.C. Hanna’s Edgewater estate was named Urncliff, Erncliff, or Erncliffe (depending on the written source) and was located on the northside of Lake Avenue at roughly West 104th Street. The home and barn located on the estate were designed by the famed architect Charles Frederick Schweinfurth. It is likely that L.C. Hanna commissioned Schweinfurth to build his summer residence and barn in the Edgewater neighborhood shortly after his brother Marcus did and that residence and barn were complete by 1890.

In The Life and Work of Charles Frederick Schweinfurth, Cleveland Architect, (1967), author R.A. Perry stated the following regarding the Urncliff residence of L.C. Hanna:

“The residence built for Captain Leonard C. Hanna was contemporary with “Glenmere.” The L.C. Hanna design was a simpler conception than the adjacent “Glenmere.” The carriage porch of the long, low design was a wider and simplified version of the one at “Glenmere.” The lake or north façade of the L.C. Hanna residence displayed a dramatic chimney-gable interpenetration on the northeast corner of the house. Pseudo-buttresses constructed of brick with limestone ashlar trim were located on the east side of a wide brick chimney which pierced a boldly projecting gabled area which cantilevered into space. The cantilevered effect and the piling up of buttresses which sloped offsets at the base of the chimney in the L.C. Hanna design represented the most striking of all Schweinfurth’s gabled interpenetrations and appears to have been an original feature of that design.”

The interior of the L.C. Hanna residence was also simpler than that of “Glenmere” as is revealed in a comparison of the reception halls in the two residences. The L.C. Hanna barn which faced the north façade closely related to the main dwelling in the exterior sheathing and in its bold geometric arrangements. Schweinfurth’s skillful massing of bold, unadorned projecting surfaces created a feeling of movement and an interesting play of light and shade in the low, sprawling design. The L.C. Hanna house and barn were a handsome compliment to each other, and the two houses were remarkable examples of Schweinfurth’s most original productions in the “Shingle Style.” [pp. 100-101]

We are fortunate that several striking pictures of the residence and barn survive to illustrate Schweinfurth’s mastery of the Shingle Style.

The Cleveland Blue Book 1891 indicates that Mr. and Mrs. L.C. Hanna considered “Erncliff” their summer residence, while their permanent residence was at 736 Prospect. The Cleveland Blue Book 1900 again indicated that “Erncliffe” was their summer residence while changing their permanent residence to 667 Euclid Avenue. In The Cleveland Blue Book 1904, Mr. and Mrs. L.C. Hanna only list 737 Euclid as their residence and no longer list Urncliff as a summer residence.

Sadly, like Senator Hanna’s Glenmere residence, the Urncliff residence was also demolished shortly after the turn of the 20th century.

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.

C.F. SCHWEINFURTH: BRIDGE 54

In previous articles published in The Beacon, we learned that famed architect Charles Frederick Schweinfurth (1856-1919) was responsible for the Edgewater mansions that graced the Glenmere and Urnwood estates of Senator Marcus Hanna and Mr. Leonard Hanna, respectively. We also learned that both of those magnificent residences were demolished early in the twentieth century to make way for the development of the Edgewater neighborhood we know today. What we did not learn in those articles, though, was that Mr. Schweinfurth still maintains a subtle but significant presence in the greater Edgewater neighborhood — a masonry presence that you have undoubtedly passed by innumerable times without any awareness of its origins or significance. The masonry presence of which I write is Bridge 54, the impressive stone railroad bridge that crosses over West Boulevard between Baltic Avenue and Detroit Avenue.

Bridge 54 was built in 1897 by the Mt. Vernon Bridge Works, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

It was built for the Lake Shore and Southern Michigan Rail Road which, as you may recall, was discussed in the article about the railroad company’s president, Daniel W. Caldwell.

In 1897, Mr. Caldwell was president of the railroad and lived in his Shoreland estate mansion on Lake Avenue. As such, the connections of that masonry bridge to the Greater Edgewater neighborhood are greater than its mere proximity to the neighborhood. It also has connections through Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Schweinfurth.