Empire Builders
eBook - ePub

Empire Builders

An Illustrated History of the Rise and Fall of Cleveland's Van Sweringen Brothers

  1. 286 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Empire Builders

An Illustrated History of the Rise and Fall of Cleveland's Van Sweringen Brothers

About this book

Empire Builders tells the story of Oris P. and Mantis J. Sweringen, two brothers from Wooster, Ohio, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Although they were born into abject poverty, Oris was an extraordinary visionary who, with the help of his devoted younger brother, amassed a vast fortune in real estate and railroad developments. Their major breakthrough came in 1913 with the establishment of Shaker Heights, an affluent garden suburb connected by a brand-new interurban railroad to the booming midwestern metropolis of Cleveland. The Van Sweringens' ascension after Shaker Heights was meteoric, and it culminated with the construction of the 52-story Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland in 1927. However, the country's economy came crashing down after the 1929 stock market collapse, and their empire crumbled around them.

Empire Builders is the first new biography of the Van Sweringen brothers in more than twenty years. In it, architectural photographer and local history author Lauren R. Pacini tells the remarkable story of the Van Sweringen brothers through words and images. This richly illustrated volume features more than 150 new photographs of the still-fabulous historic homes the brothers built throughout greater Cleveland.

The foreword is written by John J. Grabowski.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
No, books cannot be downloaded as external files, such as PDFs, for use outside of Perlego. However, you can download books within the Perlego app for offline reading on mobile or tablet. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Empire Builders by Lauren R. Pacini in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Urban Planning & Landscaping. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Prologue
  9. Introduction
  10. One | Building a City
  11. Two | The Emergence of Eastern Suburbs
  12. Three | Building Shaker Heights
  13. Four | Creating an Empire
  14. Five | Building a Railroad Empire
  15. Six | The Dominoes Fall
  16. Seven | After the Van Sweringens
  17. Eight | Afterword
  18. Appendix A: Population of the Western Reserve
  19. Appendix B: Genealogy of the Van Sweringen Family
  20. Appendix C: Real Estate Standards
  21. Appendix D: Deed Restrictions
  22. Appendix E: Van Sweringen Demonstration and Master Model Homes
  23. Index
  24. About the Author