Public Auditorum
Cleveland’s City Center for Industry, Community and Music
by
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0n January 17, 1899, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce was presented with resolution by Professor Charles F. Olney to create a committee of citizens to work with the county and city to determine if new public buildings should be built and were. Thus, began a long tumultuous journey creating the “group plan” in the city of Cleveland. At that January meeting three plans were adopted. The first was a plan to invite various building commissions to meet with chamber members to discuss the idea of a group plan. The goal was to create a consensus among the three commissions. The second plan called for a mass meeting of citizens interested in the group plan. Presentations were given aimed at bringing the new public buildings life. The third plan would be a series of lectures with illustrations of public buildings in other cities. The city of Cleveland considered itself one of the premier cities in the country. The industrial might of the area was well established. Oil, iron ore, and manufacturing were preeminent drivers of the local economy. Financially the area had one of highest concentrations of wealth in the country. Euclid Avenue was dubbed the most beautiful avenue in the world by none other than Mark Twain. Cleveland’s urban competition were the coastal cities of New York, Philadelphia, Boston and in the Midwest, Chicago, and Detroit. At the end of the nineteenth century Cleveland was the “sixth” city, meaning it was the sixth largest city in the country. Community leaders felt that new buildings to be built for public purposes should reflect that status. Shortly after the Chamber of Commerce resolution, the Architects’ Club met to discuss a series of sketches setting out a joint arrangement of public buildings. Invited to the meeting were representatives from the city hall commission, courthouse commission, library board, school board and close to one hundred citizen representatives. The unanimous sentiment was that Cleveland had an unprecedented opportunity to create public buildings arranged to provide convenience and architectural harmony. The group plan idea was compared to the public buildings in Vienna at the Ring Strasse. In a prophetic statement, Mr. Ambrose Swasey, co-founder of Warner & Swasey, a Cleveland manufacturing company, and resident of Euclid Avenue, stated that “it may take us five, ten or twenty years to accomplish. But it is worth the time and effort.” Charles F. Olney was a transplant to Cleveland. He was born in Covington, Connecticut in 1830 and moved to New York. He married a woman he knew back in Connecticut and who was the widow of a Clevelander, Thomas Lamson. It was this second marriage, after his first wife died, that brought him to Ohio. Professor Olney traveled through much of the world, loved art and collected an extensive art collection displayed at the Olney Gallery on Jennings Avenue. He felt that the art collection was his greatest accomplishment. He was generous with his time and money. He supported many charities and sought to improve his adopted city in many ways. He was the originator of the group plan and an untiring supporter of the plan. The Plain Dealer in 1903 stated that “Clevelanders may assign much of the credit to him for the group of public buildings which will sooner or later be erected.” While on the board for the public library he was the first official to propose that new civic buildings be clustered together and have a similar look architecturally. Charles Olney reported that 400,000 citizens unanimously supported building “monumental edifices, giv(ing) us a court of honor.” This court of honor would be of the highest architectural standards. He listed the buildings to be included in the plan as a city hall, a county courthouse, a library, a headquarters for the school district, music hall, museum, and public art gallery. A train depot which would give every visitor coming to Cleveland a sense of the power and beauty of the area placed overlooking the Lake Erie and the entire court of honor should also be a part of the plan. The plan was ambitious and would truly set Cleveland apart from all other cities. The size and ambition were both visionary and problematic with competing political, financial and property rights issues confounding the building process for twenty plus years. Eventually the plan led to the building of Cleveland’s Public Hall and Music Hall and opened the door for one of Cleveland’s most well-known mayors to be elected. In 1900 Mayor John H. Farley, serving his second time around as mayor, vetoed a measure presented by city council to participate in the group plan. Farley was at the end of his second stint as mayor and may not have considered another term, but the veto closed the door on his mayoral career; enter Tom L. Johnson.
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About the Book
Every city needs a place like Public Auditorium. A place where business expositions can be held and a place where music and community conversation can take place. In Cleveland, Public Auditorium is just that type of place. The building is part of the group plan. This plan was conceived as the heart of a growing and important city in America. The group plan would centralize Cleveland’s most important political, justice, and community spaces around a park like mall in the middle of the city. Included in these buildings would be city hall, the county courthouse, the public school’s administration building, the county administration building, the federal courthouse, the public library, and a public hall. It did not come about easily nor all at once. An idea for a public hall was brought forward in 1899 but did not get completed until 1922. Along the way there were starts and stops. Along the way it took several enlightened and influential city leaders who would move the project ever closer to completion. There was a war and hesitancy on the part of the public and other city leaders worried about costs and risk. It represents an example of seeking perfection over utility that almost scuttled the project. However, once completed the plan and Public Hall proved to be a true center of the city as it grew and as it declined.
About the Author
Michael R Routa is a retired special education teacher, school administrator and adjunct university professor working for the Elyria City Schools and Ashland University. He grew up in the Cleveland area, graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Cleveland State University and a Doctorate from Bowling Green State University. He wrote a previous book on A History of Cleveland’s Playhouse Square published in 2021. He is married to his wife Caryl for 42 years.