Nomination for Gordon Square Building

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

NPS Form 10-900 Substantive Review OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior National Park Seryice received MAR 2 | 1985 city, town - vicinity of State Ohio - county - unoccupied - agriculture X building(s) X private X commercial Structure - work in progress . yes: restricted street & number 6516 Detroit Avenue street & number has this property been determined eligible? yes X no _ local depository for survey records 2. Location 1976 both 6. Representation in Existing Surveys 039 museum government Category code entertainment date transportation industrial Ownership educational Status Accessible religious object site district 3. Classification other: park public historic 1.

Name private residence scientific National Register of Historic Places being considered Cleveland Public Acquisition title Ohio Historic Inventory Inventory-Nomination Form Ohio Historical Society Present Use Gordon Square Building 4. Owner of Property See instructions in How to Complete National Register Forms 5. Location of Legal Description Type all entries-complete applicable sections 1219 Ontario For NPS use only Gordon Square, Ltd. in process Ohio military X no Cuyahoga (3-82) federal X state - excellent .deteriorated _unaltered X altered .moved Detroit Shoreway neighborhood (known historically as Gordon Square) wide, form the building's principal facades.

terminate at a narrow, beveled stone entablature; this, in turn, is Inside, a single-story corridor, or arcade, flanked by shops runs the at the southwest corner (formerly a billiard hall, now a practice room the northwest corner of the basement are boiler, engine, and meter rooms. 7. Description and walls. Condition date ruins (originally a dance hall, later a roller rink, and now vacant). ceiling ornamented with rosettes and cornices with egg-and-dart moldings. meat and produce market at the west end of the arcade, approximately lintels.

by a stringcourse of brick standing on end, which also forms the windows' The ranks of windows are divided by plain stone pilasters that The walls and ceilings houses retail stores and a movie theatre at ground level.A former buiiding's central entrance on Detroit and by entrances on West 65th and stores fronting on Detroit Avenue and a front entrance to five stores Pilasters divide each storefront, and above each is a bas-relief medallion carried out on the principal facades and in the West 67th Street elevation 2.5 miles west of Public Square.It is a large three-story and basement Check one which contains a loading dock, and the rear of the building are unadorned.

X original site for area musicians),the other on the north side of the building In the basement another, smaller arcade of shops now vacant) is 266 feet long, the east elevation 134 feet,the west elevation 224 feet, Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance

Description of the property

The Gordon Square Building islocated in the center of Cleveland's Avenue,17 bays the east elevation on West 65th Street,9 bays X fair 80 by 150 feet in size, is now vacant. The movie theatre, which has unexposed good This treatment is The building currently The south elevation measures located directly below that at ground level. here are unembellished. building of steel frame construction. The arcade features a paneled West 67th streets. vegetables on one side and flowers on the other. lobbies and a manager's office, and features ornate plaster ceilings The building's walls are of red brick laid in common bond.The double- The basement also contains two large rooms, one The arcade furnishes an interior entrance to the 14 inside on the north side of the building. topped by a brick frieze and plain stone parapet. OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp.

10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior Page 1 replaced, although the original transoms remain at the two side entrances.

(3-82) The Gordon Square Building is the principal commercial building in the Inventory-Nomination Form received National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation sheet Inside, the building remains substantially intact.On the first floor, date entered the third-story windows was rebuilt with new brick laid in stretcher major east-west thoroughfares and is surrounded by other commercial storefronts have all been remodeled, and the storefront transoms have of parapet with cast stone ornament that had graced the three principal twice been covered over, most recently in 1982,in an attempt to with classical figures in relief, were covered with draperies and Art The Gordon Square Building has been altered over the years.The where a modest restoration effort is under way.

its storefront, so that it no longer architecturally relates to the bank at the corner of Detroit Avenue and West 67th Street remodeled rest of the building. corners of the building and had carried the name "Gordon Square Arcade" The original doors to the building have all been removed and north side of the arcade was removed ca.196o to allow tenants access NPS Form 10-900-a side of the building, which suffered the worst damage, the wall above decorated sometime during the 1930s; the walls, which are ornamented In 1978a large section of parapet on the West 65th Street elevation lounge area has been remodeled. the current owner has put on a new roof and repaired and painted the Avenue are streets of late 19th and early 2oth century wood frame houses For NPs use only In 1965 the collapsed, and the remainder of it was removed. Crenellated sections The bond. Deco-style wooden moldings.

improve the building's appearance with uniform signage. buildings varying in age and condition. The original light Gordon Square Building One of the stores on the for special events and has fallen into a state of disrepair, although North and south of Detroit The theatre is now used only occasionally Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.It is located on one of Cleveland's above the central entrance were removed at this time.On the east some of the storefronts have been enclosed. to the building from the parking lot at the rear. Areas of Significance-Check and justify below .art - politics/government other (specify) Statement of

Statement of significance

(in one paragraph) Company, a syndicate of local businessmen, most of whom worked and resided and is an impertant later aspect of Cleveland's arcade history. part owner of the building and a catalyst for neighborhood preservation 32 of Brooklyn Township--in 1865. 1500-1599 1800-1899 1400-1499 commerce 1600-1699 1700-1799 communications invention education archeology-historic Period History transportation engineering theater industry literature humanitarian science music social/ prehistoric law sculpture 8. Significance and redevelopment. including West Clinton and Franklin avenues on both sides of Gordon. military building located at the commercial center of Cleveland's historic Gordon Specific dates 1920-1921 Prack & Prack Associates of Pittsburgh and built by the Gordon Square Cleveland's West Side.

-conservation The Gordon Square Building,built in 1920-1921,is an unusual multipurpose of the William J.Gordon Estate, embraced an area south of Detroit Avenue, Wagon Company on Lorain Avenue, vice president; John A.Hadden, an X_architecture _economics Criteria A and C _agriculture X1900- -- archeology-prehistoric -philosophy Builtwith 145,000 square feet of space, it was designed to accommodate a movie theatre, billiard hall, offices, and a hotel. movie theatre, offices, apartments, and a residence hotel. According to the 1921 Cleveland City Directory, the Gordon Square The name "Gordon" comes from the original name of West 65th Street, which was known.as Gordon Avenue until 1906.

Builder/Architect Prack & Prack Associates the Gordon Square Building (now commonly known as the Gordon Arcade) fulfills many of its original purposes, today housing retail_shops, a religion exploration/settlement The building still It also serves landscape architecture was a syndicate of Cleveland businessmen whose officers included Fred William Gordon, a prominent businessman after whom Cleveland's Gordon Henry G. Schaefer, vice president and manager of The Gustav Schaefer With its red brick walls and cast stone trim, -communityplanning The Gordon Avenue Allotment, on the city's West Side. dedicated to public use in 1894at the request of the executors and trustees Cleveland City Directories, 1920-1951. Cleveland Plain Dealer, 17 April 1921.

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

Geographical Data UT M References - state 11. Form Prepared By September 24, 1984 street & number 2940 Somerton Road telephone 216/321-3940 - Cleveland Heights according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Servicp. code county Easting Northing date Zone local title Attest: national State Historic Preservation Officer signature Verbal boundary description and justification The nominated property consists of the lot identified by Cuyahoga County The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: ment Organization Quadrangle name List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification name/title Carol Poh Miller, Historic Preservation Consultant 9.

Major Bibliographical References city or town organization Detroit Shoreway Community Develop- date Chief of Registration Acreage of nominated property 1 As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966(Public Law 89- Keeper of the National Register 665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated Ohio For NPS use only U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1983 0 - 419-311 255 feet long on the north, 224.45 feet deep on the west, and 134 teet Cleveland South under contract with Raymond L. Pianka, Executive Director, I hereby certify that this property is included in the National Register NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp.

10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio of Detroit Avenue between West 65th and West 67th streets from the Ford had owned the property for four years but the task, reaching roof, sidewalks, floors and stalls. room on the Detroit avenue-w. 65th street corner. rooms. Inventory-Nomination Form Page (3-82) National Register of Historic Places received date entered a successor firm, was founded) includes Westinghouse Electric Corporation hallway extending the entire length of the building. The Gordon Square Building was designed by the Pittsburgh architectural Ford Motor Company.

so finished that when washed a three-inch hose performs The firm specialized in industrial buildings, and an undated list of clients compiled prior to 1936 (when Prack & Cerasini Architects, Inc., On the northeast corner is a 1,4o0-seat motion picture On the northwest corner is a modern sanitary market, The first floor contains stores on the W.65 street and and on June building construction was largest of its kind on the West Side: For NPS use only In 1921, the firm's four partners of Cleveland, B. F. Goodrich Company of Akron, and American Radiator Prack & Prack's work in theatre, which has been leased to the Allen interests of occupied by stores.

In 1920 the Gordon Square Company purchased property on the north side the city's Division of Buildings on May 11, 1920 (for the foundation), The Gordon Square Building came on the heels of a small construction then noted that, "In the outlying sections, while the changes have not been so pronounced, ..-they have not been standing still. A the Cleveland Plain Dealer (April 17,1921) announced the building's avenue. The entrance on W. 65th street leads into a wide The third floor is occupied by a bachelor hotel containing seventy completion and noted that the three-story fireproof building was the The Marshall Drug Co. occupies a large The second floor is divided into offices. completed the fo1lowing spring ata cost of $1,184,433.26. NPS Form10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp.

10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio Square Company's mortgage on the last day of 1926 and seven months later room for the lot, which was to be located at the rear of the building, the market and the billiard hall now housed a fabricator of aluminum Page (3-82) National Register of Historic Places received date entered siding, windows, and doors and a photo processing company. brass foundry.4 Inventory-Nomination Form boasted a drugstore, menswear shop, jeweler, grocer, beauty salon, and 1922 city directory. According to the city directory of 1927,the Gordon Square Arcade then in the immediate neighborhood. basement shortly after the building opened; it first appears in the until 1974, when Harvey Oppmann and M.S.Ross purchased the building.

the City purchased and demolished nine private homes and an abandoned March 1,1964,shows three stores vacant on the ground level and all For NPS use only Cleveland's Midland Bank foreclosed the Gordon one year later to the Greenhut Imperial Company. were two dentists, a doctor, a dressmaking school, and other businesses. mass neighborhood. " Rosenthal complained that, because of the lack Continuation sheet Gordon Square Building Item number 8 Property tax records and city directories help construct the building's Mayor Anthony J. Celebrezze to request that the City construct off-street subsequent history.

or transient trade."The 1921 Cleveland City Directory contains an S.Rosenthal, president of Gordon Arcade, Inc., wrote to Cleveland But the building's vacancy problem persisted.A list of tenants dated The Gordon Square Billiard Company opened a billiard hall in the The following year, To make the finest buildings on the West Side, situated in a thickly populated, parking for the building. show that the theatre, at least, was patronized largely by residents Greenhut Imperial, goods, and there was also a restaurant. of parking, several stores in the building had been vacant for over keepers sold meat, fish, dairy products, groceries,_fruits, and baked On May 15,1921,the Gordon Square Company advertised in the Plain a 1oo-car parking lot was approved by the Board of Revision. Whiff of Old Lake Erie," it reads, OMB No.1024-0018 Exp.

10-31-84 Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio Gordon Square, Itd., hopes to renovate the upper two stories to Pp. 903, 943-44. With Charles K. Arter, he founded the firm of Arter 6516 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. demolished. Page (3-82) and attachments. received partners in the venture is the Detroit Shoreway Community Development date entered National Register of Historic Places Shoreway Community Development Organization, 242 The Gordon Arcade, Inventory-Nomination Form National Park Service Superior-Lakeview market is to be erected on a large site recently Public Library, Reference Department, Clipping Files. NPS Form 10-900-a United States Department of the Interior For Nps use only Item number 8 The building's current owner, Organization, founded in 1973 as a catalyst for the preservation and used occasionally to show foreign films.

first floor are rented, as are half of the second-floor offices, and Continuation sheet Gordon Square Building Today the basement is vacant except for the rock bands that practice redevelopment of the neighborhood and a tenant in the building. to get under way at Superior and E.12oth st.where the proposed Forest City Publishing Company, publisher of the Plain Dealer, and was appointed one of two trustees of the Erie Railroad when it went into Arthur E.Prack,Jr.to Carol Poh Miller,20 August 1984,letter City and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1950), NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio In the early 1920s, most people still did not drive to do their Cleveland and possibly in Ohio, might even be viewed as a prototype of 1890, when the Old Arcade opened, and 1921.

Page Significance--Commercial: Significance--Architectural: Inventory-Nomination Form received (3-82) architectural significance for which the building is being nominated. the post-War regional shopping center that would come to dominate The architectural significance of the Gordon Square Building lies not the commercial focal point of Cleveland's Gordon Square neighborhood. skylights while Gordon Square used artificial illumination in all but as was Gordon Square. National Register of Historic Places American commercial life decades later.

National Park Service date entered and demonstrates the evolution of these interior shopping malls between in Cleveland was designed to accommodate so great a variety of functions United States Department of the Interior to be built in Cleveland until the resurgence of the modern atrium, First, Gordon Square's predecessors, including both the Euclid (1892) In spite of the unfortunate removal of the decorative elements on the When the Gordon Square Building was completed in 1921,it became For Nps use only they found not only retail shopping, but marketing, entertainment, and and Colonial (1898) arcades, all employed the natural illumination of Finally, although the Colonial Arcade contains both offices and a hotel, no other arcade the market house. Second, Gordon Square achieved its two retail professional services.

The multipurpose building, which is unique in cornice, the present fabric fully conveys both the commercial and shopping; instead, they walked or took the streetcar.At Gordon Square, The building housed a two-level in its style or ornament, which are typical of buildings in Cleveland and hotel. of this period, but in its plan. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 Item Number 10 -- Continued Inventory-Nomination Form Attachments. received (3-82) erected it. date entered Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places National Park Service United States Department of the Interior For NPS use only Cleveland, Ohio. Interviews, 30 July and 19 September 1984. building and of the original parcel on which the Gordon Square Company Page6 Pianca, Raymond L.

Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, This boundary represents the dimensions of the Prack,Arthur E., Jr.,to Carol Poh Miller,20 August 1984.Letter and deep on the east. WASO Form - 177 ("R" June 1984) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE nomination by person or local government owner objection -appeal - NR decision Reviewer's comments: _substantive reasons discussed below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys 7. Description -J unaltered - original site _ moved yes excellent Ownership Accessible Condition completeness fair sample dates Category Status resubmission unexposed ruins alterations/integrity REJECT Cuyahoga County deteriorated clarity boundary selection request RETURN Action: Working No.

Gordon Square Building Federal Agency: summary paragraph EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Check one Substantive Review Present Use Public Acquisition Has this property been determined eligible? Describe the present and original (if known)physical appearance NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Date Due: UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Nistouan Fed. Reg. Date:2/45L Nomination returned for: - good ACCEPT -justification of exception - other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data 11. Form Prepared By State Historic Preservation Officer signature Date Builder/Architect context title completeness Signed state clarity UTM References national applicable criteria justification of areas checked 12.

State Historic Preservation Officer Certification Specific dates Photographs Verbal boundary description and justification relating significance to the resource relationship of integrity to significance Acreage of nominated property summary paragraph Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: Maps Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) local Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet Quadrangle name 8. Significance Areas of Significance-Check and justify below - Phone: _ Period Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio Photograph by George J. Becker, raphy, 6516 Detroit Ave."/ca. 1941?

Facade and east elevation, looking NW Shoreway Community Development "Commercial & Industrial Photog- Gordon Square Building Copy negative property of Detroit Note that the photographer's studio Organization, 242 Gordon Arcade, Cleveland Building. was located in the Gordon Square American National Bank Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio Facade, looking NE Community Development Organization, Gordon Square Building Carol Poh Miller photograph/July 1984 Neg. property of Detroit Shoreway 242 Gordon Arcade, Cleveland Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 242 Gordon Arcade, Cleveland West elevation, looking NE Community Development Organization, Gordon Square Building Carol Poh Miller photograph/July 1984 Neg.

property of Detroit Shoreway Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 242 Gordon Arcade, Cleveland North (rear) elevation, looking SE Community Development Organization, Carol Poh Miller photograph/July 1984 Neg. property of Detroit Shoreway Gordon Square Building XILIARY CAPITOL THEATRE JAUX POLICE Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 242 Gordon Arcade, Cleveland East elevation, looking SW Gordon Square Building Community Development Carol Poh Miller photograph/July 1984 Neg. property of Detroit Shoreway Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 242 Gordon Arcade, Cleveland 1984 Street Carol Poh Miller photograph/September Community Development Organization, Gordon Square Building Neg.

property of Detroit Shoreway CLEVELAND SOUTH QUADRANGLE Gordon Square Building, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR CLEVELAND SOUTH, OHIO Cleveland,Ohio OHIO-CUYAHOGA CO 1985 Velma Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43211 March 11, 1985 Ms. Carol Shull, Chief Washington, D.C. 20240 Building,_Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the New Indlanola Historic District, Columbus, Franklin County. New Submissions SNew Indianola Historic District N. Main-N. Detroit Historic District 614/466-1500 County Hardin Enclosures SOCIETY Cuyahoga HISTORICAL Miami OHIO Sincerely, SINCE 1885 Gordon Square Building Dear Carol: State Historic Preservation Officer Ohio Historic Preservation Office WRL:bp National Register of Historic Places Plainview Farm Department of the Interior National Park Service Please contact me If you have any questions.

Franklin 1100 L St., NW Enclosed are four new National Register nominations. All of the appropriate requesting substantive reviews for the nominations of the Gordon Square