Three

ENTER THE VAN SWERINGEN BROTHERS

The Valley of God’s Pleasure proved difficult to sell as housing lots; however, O. P. and M. J. Van Sweringen sensed an opportunity in this land and created one of the premier suburbs in the nation. They also assembled a railroad empire and built the skyscraper that has become Cleveland’s most recognizable symbol, Terminal Tower.

The Van Sweringen brothers both quit school after the eighth grade but were not successful in their early ventures, including a bicycle shop, a butter and egg business, a stone company, and a storage operation. They had loftier dreams as indicated by their decision to change the family name from Sweringen to its aristocratic Dutch original, Van Sweringen.

Their fortunes changed when the brothers sold several lots for the syndicate that owned the old Shaker property east of Cleveland. They arranged loans to purchase the remaining land and went to work creating Shaker Heights as an exclusive community. The Van Sweringens envisioned a garden city of substantial homes that offered services demanded by prosperous residents and a school system of the highest standards.

But a problem existed: there was not convenient transportation between Shaker Heights and downtown Cleveland, so they planned a rapid transit line that would deliver commuters directly into the city. The projected route took them over tracks owned by the Nickel Plate Railroad, and in negotiations to secure permission to cross them, they unexpectedly received an offer to purchase the entire railroad. The Nickel Plate became the foundation of a railroad empire that eventually stretched across the country.

The Van Sweringen brothers were unlikely tycoons. They were intensely private men who avoided publicity, dressed conservatively in shades of gray, and were described as soft-spoken, courteous, and tactful. Neither married, they took no part in Cleveland’s social life, and they were rarely seen in public. The only private vice pinned on either was O. P.’s fondness for sleep. They were also inseparable, even sharing a bedroom in their 54-room mansion.

Yet they changed Cleveland. One hundred years after they began buying property, Van Sweringen creations continue to define life in the city.

M. J. VAN SWERINGEN. The brothers started with nothing and did whatever they could to earn money, such as newspaper routes and a succession of clerical jobs. An early effort to sell property on Cleveland’s west side went bad, and they defaulted on their loan. For several years following, they did business under their sister’s name while rebuilding their credit. (CSU.)

THE BROTHERS IN CLEVELAND. They were more successful selling properties from the old Shaker territory on Cleveland’s east side. The Van Sweringens assembled a syndicate that in 1906 purchased the remaining land. They financed this transaction with loans secured by the promise of future payment but very little of their own money. They would employ this financing method throughout their careers. (CSU.)

CLEVELAND FACTORIES. Cleveland roared into the 20th century as the center of the nation’s oil refining and steel industries. The population quadrupled from 1870 to 1900 and by 1910 had doubled again. This dramatic growth brought wealth to some, but the industries created a cloud of pollution that hung over the city. Social unrest also threatened as immigrants poured in to seek work. (SHS.)

EUCLID AVENUE, CLEVELAND. Fresh in the memory of Cleveland’s prosperous citizens was the fate of mansions that had lined Euclid Avenue. The area had been nicknamed “Millionaire’s Row” because of the wealth of those who lived there. Unchecked growth brought in commercial establishments, and soon Euclid was not such a good address anymore. Wealthy residents would be receptive to an exclusive community that would last. (CSU.)

LIVING BETTER IN SHAKER VILLAGE. Not only was there a market for the community the Van Sweringens had in mind, there was also a substantial plot of undeveloped land: the old Shaker settlement and other farmland surrounding it. Furthermore, this land was well located in the “heights” above Cleveland. Here was an opportunity to build a city from scratch. (SHS.)

SHAKER INSIGNIA. The Shaker history of this land offered a marketing opportunity. Peace and serenity, fresh air, and clean water had been part of life at North Union—so too in Shaker Heights. The Shakers had sought to build the kingdom of heaven on earth. Shaker Heights would also be a kind of utopia, a community set apart from the ordinary world. (SHS.)

HOME FROM BROCHURE. Unlike the Shakers, though, modesty in housing or living circumstances was not part of the program. The target audience for the initial Shaker Heights offerings was made up of those who had done well in their professional lives and were ready to reap the benefits. The homes were substantial. (SHPL.)

SOUTH PARK BOULEVARD HOMES. Also unlike the North Union colony, Shaker Heights was designed to be permanent. It was not going to close; it was not going to change. Housing contracts featured 99-year deed restrictions setting standards for how the property was to be used. To underscore the theme of permanence, the architecture of these homes was steadfastly conservative: solid, heavy, built to last, and in styles of the previous century. (SHPL.)

ORIS PAXTON VAN SWERINGEN. O. P. Van Sweringen was shy, serious, and physically slow, yet he had a brilliant mind. He could put seemingly random information into coherent patterns and find solutions to problems that stumped everyone else. He was also a visionary whose ambitions were propelled by an unfailing optimism. He was aggressive in business but reserved personally and tried to deflect attention away from himself. (SHS.)

MANTIS JAMES VAN SWERINGEN. M. J. Van Sweringen was more personable than his older brother, who could seem remote, but he did not possess a comparable intellect. He was better with details and kept O. P. on schedule when he became lost in his work. He played the role of facilitator between his brother and their associates. Both brothers were described as “soft-spoken, self-effacing men, minus conceits of any kind.” (SHS.)

CLEVELAND STREETCARS. Transportation between downtown Cleveland and Shaker Heights was key to the success of the suburb the Van Sweringens were building. Cleveland had a well-developed system of streetcars connecting to most points in the city. However, since they shared the road with other vehicles and stopped frequently, progress could be slow. (CSU.)

ADVERTISEMENT SHOWING TRANSPORTATION ROUTES. The Van Sweringens needed an efficient method of commuting to persuade buyers to move into what was then considered a rural area. As a first step, they convinced management of a streetcar line to extend its routes, but the journey took too long. For true “rapid” transit, they needed a train between downtown Cleveland and Shaker Heights running on its own tracks. (SHS.)

LAYING TRACKS. The Van Sweringen brothers located a route and began buying property in anticipation of laying tracks. However, their chosen rapid transit route passed over a right-of-way owned by the Nickel Plate Railroad, then controlled by the New York Central Railroad. Rapid transit trains to Shaker Heights could not cross that property without permission from the New York Central. This photograph shows the tracks along Shaker Boulevard in 1914. (SHS.)

SHAKER RAPID UNDER CONSTRUCTION. The Van Sweringens met with the New York Central president, who advanced a surprising proposal. Instead of permission to cross Nickel Plate tracks, he offered the whole railroad. The New York Central was under pressure to divest itself of that line, and the Van Sweringens would be friendly competitors. They agreed to buy the Nickel Plate Railroad with loans and—as always—very little of their own money. (SHS.)

SHAKER RAPID AT COVENTRY STATION. Construction of the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit proceeded with full service commencing in 1920. Now Shaker Heights residents could make the trip downtown in an unprecedented 21 minutes. The major stations—Coventry and Lynnfield—offered services to riders including a coffee shop, newsstand, drugstore, and soda fountain. (SHPL.)

SHAKER RAPID AT LYNNFIELD STATION. The tracks were built in advance of construction in an area so that transportation would be available when housing reached it. The Lynnfield station was originally the end of what would become the Blue Line. In this photograph from the 1920s, the station stands alone on a landscape without the buildings that later surrounded it. (SHPL.)

SHAKER BOULEVARD UNDER CONSTRUCTION. As work on the rapid transit line continued, streets for Shaker Heights were also laid out. Plans created by the F. A. Pease Engineering Company called for major new roads to parallel the tracks: Shaker Boulevard and Moreland Boulevard (now Van Aken Boulevard). Side streets were also planned in relationship to the transit system. They converged at regular intervals along the two major roads. This design minimized the number of rapid transit stations needed and therefore the number of stops the trains needed to make along their routes. Excavation for Shaker Boulevard is seen here. (SHS.)

EAST ON SHAKER BOULEVARD. The street plan for Shaker Heights kept existing roads, such as Kinsman (Chagrin Boulevard), South Woodland, and Lee Roads, in place. Other roads were constructed on land that had been mostly wilderness. This view is of initial grading for Shaker Boulevard looking east from about where Fontenay Road is today. This location is just north of the old East Family buildings of the North Union Shakers. (SHS.)

HIGH SCHOOL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Shaker Heights was not just to be a housing development, it was a total planned community. The Van Sweringens set aside land for parks, churches, country clubs, and both public and private schools. Here the original Shaker Heights High School (now Woodbury Elementary School) nears completion. (SHS.)

SHAKER HEIGHTS VILLAGE HALL. This structure was located on the northeast corner of Lee Road and Shaker Boulevard and served as real estate offices for the Van Sweringen Company. The company made space available in this building for Shaker Village offices and for classes of the new Shaker Village schools. The old Shaker meetinghouse had been located near this site. (SHPL.)

COMMUNITY CHURCH. The Van Sweringens reserved plots for use by churches. The first, identified in a sales brochure as the Community Church, was established in 1916 when the Plymouth Society moved from Cleveland to Shaker Heights. This building was designed in the style of a New England church and first used in 1923. Today it is Plymouth United Church of Christ. (SHS.)

VAN SWERINGEN SHAKER HEIGHTS HOUSE. The brothers built themselves a mansion in Shaker Heights on what was then a large tract of wooded land. This photograph shows the house in its original form before remodeling added Tudor features to the exterior. O. P. and M. J. lived here together with their two unmarried sisters. Their older brother, Herbert, lived on Sedgewick Road with his family. (SHS.)

DAISY HILL. The brothers later purchased an old farm in Hunting Valley and converted its primary buildings into a 54-room mansion they called Daisy Hill. After the stresses of a day, they would be driven home from their downtown offices to relax at their country estate—but always after visiting their sisters, who now had the Shaker Heights mansion to themselves. (CSU.)

UNION TERMINAL AND TERMINAL TOWER. Cleveland’s need for a modern railroad terminal created another possibility for the Van Sweringens. They planned a massive union station to be shared by several railroads and the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit with the tower becoming a new focus for downtown Cleveland. This illustration depicts the Union Terminal Tower with Shaker Heights homes hovering in the cloudlike hills above the busy, noisy city. (SHS.)

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS ON UNION TERMINAL. When the brothers purchased the Nickel Plate Railroad, they did not stop at one railroad. They bought more—including the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Erie, the Lackawanna, the Lehigh Valley, and the Missouri Pacific—until they owned or controlled 29,431 miles of track: the nation’s largest railway system under single control. This photograph records the start of construction for Union Terminal in 1923. (SHS.)

CONSTRUCTION SITE, UNION TERMINAL. Cleveland’s city plan called for a railroad terminal to be built near the Lake Erie shore where most railroad tracks were already located. The Van Sweringens convinced city officials and voters to accept an alternate site on Public Square, then a dilapidated section of the city. To build the terminal, 35 acres of land were cleared, 2,200 buildings demolished, and 15,000 people relocated. (CSU.)

LAYING THE FOUNDATION. Plans for Union Terminal called for a “city within a city” that included offices, a hotel, and a department store. When the Van Sweringens could not convince a flagship store to occupy the facilities, they bought one: Higbee’s. The brothers’ unique genius was in finding ways to finance their massive purchases and projects. They created over 250 interlocking holding companies for this purpose. (CSU.)

THE TOWER NEARING COMPLETION. Terminal Tower was the second-tallest building in the world when it opened in 1930. The Van Sweringens used the same conservative style of building that characterized Shaker Heights. It was solid and massive with little in the way of modern touches. This was a building for the ages, and Clevelanders felt a rush of uncharacteristic community pride at the sight of their new landmark. (SHS.)

NICKEL PLATE TRACKS ENTERING TERMINAL. Union Terminal provided a station for the railroads, a destination for the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit, and a skyscraper for Cleveland as well as a massive concentration of new office and retail space. The center of retail and commercial activity in Cleveland, which had begun to drift east, was now firmly reestablished downtown. (SHS.)

UNION TERMINAL OPENING. A crowd of 2,500 celebrated the opening on June 28, 1930, but the Van Sweringens, uncomfortable with public acclaim, did not attend—they listened on the radio from home. It was a grand day, but as service commenced from Union Terminal, the peak of American railroading had already passed. In 1922, a total of 94 trains left Cleveland daily. By 1932, that number dropped to 78 daily departures. (SHS.)

UNION TERMINAL. The Union Terminal complex was the last great achievement of the Van Sweringens. Even as it neared completion, the Van Sweringens’ empire was falling apart. Their projects were financed on borrowed money with payment dependent on income generated by the acquisitions. When the American economy faltered in the 1930s, stock values plummeted, and income from Van Sweringen properties was no longer sufficient to cover the payments. (SHS.)

THE BROTHERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C. As the American banking and railroad systems verged on collapse, Van Sweringen companies struggled to remain solvent. The brothers traveled to Washington, D.C., to testify before the Senate Banking Committee for its investigation of banking and holding company practices. Regulations that tightened financing procedures resulted, but O. P. and M. J. returned home with the more immediate challenge of saving their businesses. (CSU.)

O. P. VAN SWERINGEN AT SENATE HEARINGS. In September 1935, Van Sweringen holdings valued at almost $50 million were put up for sale by creditors. In a final remarkable feat, the brothers—with the help of backers—bought back their businesses for a fraction of what they owed. Afterward, a pale O. P. Van Sweringen said, “I’m sorry it had to be done this way. I’d rather have paid the bills.” (CSU.)

AN EXHAUSTED M. J. VAN SWERINGEN. The brothers had positioned themselves for a comeback, but exhausted by the long struggle, M. J. fell ill and died of heart failure on December 12, 1935, with O. P. at his bedside. He was 54 years old. At his death, M. J.’s personal estate was valued at $3,067, which he left to his brother. (CSU.)

O. P. VAN SWERINGEN CONTINUES ALOME. O. P. was bereft at his brother’s death. Each morning he turned on the light on M. J.’s desk; each evening he turned it off. Many believe O. P. would have been successful in rebuilding the businesses, but he died at age 57 on a train in New Jersey just 11 months after M. J. had died. (CSU.)

AUCTION AT DAISY HILL. The Ship Room was the largest at the Van Sweringens’ Daisy Hill mansion, remodeled from a barn hayloft and measuring 40 feet by 80 feet. After the Van Sweringens died, it hosted an auction of over 3,000 possessions to cover some of their debts. The wealthy and the curious thronged to the sale to catch their personal glimpses of the Van Sweringen story. (CSU.)

THE BROTHERS’ BEDROOM. The Daisy Hill mansion was set on 500 acres of rolling land, landscaped as a park and resembling an English feudal estate. Despite the lavishness of these surroundings, O. P. and M. J. continued to share a simple bedroom, as they had since childhood. They had started together with nothing, built an empire valued at over $3 billion, and then—still together—saw it collapse. (CSU.)

VAN SWERINGEN GRAVESTONE. O. P. and M. J. Van Sweringen share a plot in Cleveland’s Lake View cemetery. It is an environment of impressive monuments, including the tomb of assassinated U.S. president James A. Garfield and a tall obelisk marking the final resting place of John D. Rockefeller. By contrast, the marker at the Van Sweringen grave is modest: a stone at ground level that reads “Brothers.”

UNBUILT MEMORIAL. Two boys carrying newspapers climb a hill in a design created by sculptor Frank L. Kirouch in 1956. It reads, “They climbed the heights.” The memorial was not built. Today there are no memorials and little official recognition of the Van Sweringens in Shaker Heights or throughout Greater Cleveland. (CSU.)

AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW. Unlike most towns and cities that grow gradually in response to the needs and demands of residents, Shaker Heights was planned from the beginning as a complete entity: homes, parks, schools, churches, country clubs, municipal government, shopping. The Van Sweringen Company claimed that this was the largest residential development under single control in the world. Here was a vast experiment in creating the ideal environment for human well-being, a modern utopia. This illustration, taken from a sales brochure, shows travelers returning from the darkness below, up into the light and warmth of their homes. What was the reward at the end of the rainbow? Not a pot of gold but “contentment, peacefulness, the beauty of nature and of wise planning, forever assured by protective restrictions.” (SHS.)