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Van Sweringen Brothers Van Sweringen Brothers Oris Paxton (b. 1879) and Mantis James (b. 1881) Van Sweringen came from a farming area near Wooster, Ohio. Their father was for a time an engineer in the oil fields of Pennsylvania and fought in the Civil War, receiving a wound at the Battle of Gettysburg. The family moved to Cleveland, Ohio about 1890. Real Estate After being employed by others, and after suffering several early business failures, the brothers entered the real estate business. They began developing the suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio but lots sold slowly. They concluded that Shaker Heights needed a transportation system between the suburb and downtown. Rapid Transit System At first the Van Sweringens planned only a rapid transit line from Shaker Heights to downtown Cleveland, Ohio. This prompted them to purchase land in the vicinity of Public Square in downtown Cleveland as early as 1909 to provide a terminus for their rapid transit line. In 1906 the Van Sweringens bought a prominent Cleveland railroad - The Nickel Plate Road. By 1926, as their ambitions expanded, they projected and started building additional rqapid transit lines to cover the entire county. They were interested in buses because they hoped commuters would take the bus to the rapid transit and the rapid transit to work. The railroads favored the idea because they did not want the responsibility of providing commuter transportation, which was generally not self-supporting. In 1975 the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority combined the various rail and bus routes into the Rapid. The Terminal Tower The Van Sweringens realized that, if their plans for a Public Square station were to succeed, they would have to include all the electric railways -- streetcars, rapid transit and interurban lines -- as well as local freight and warehousing facilities. Following the suggestion of an official of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad they add plans to include steam railways. On 1 March 1917 the engineers of the Erie Railroad, the Nickel Plate, and the Cleveland Terminal Company reported a new freight and passenger terminal located on Public Square in downtown Cleveland would be economical. The plan provided twelve stub end tracks for the steam passenger trains, with loops for local and interurban cars above. The space above the tracks was to be developed for stores and office buildings. In 1918, A.H. Smith, the regional Director of the Eastern Division of the U.S.R.A. asked whether the proposed facility could be sufficiently enlarged to include the railroads using the lake front station. Thus it was Smith who initiated the idea for a "Union Station" on Public Square. In 1919, the Pennsylvania Railroad withdrew from the project. In 1923 the Van Sweringens announced their plans to build The Terminal Tower (a tall building to increase office space) over the Union Station to compare to the Woolworth Building in New York City. It was necessary to design the buildings so that there wouldn't be unnecessary vibrations from the trains below. Construction began in 1926 as 16 caissons each went down 200-250 feet (60 to 75 m) to support the weight of the building. Construction was complete in 1930. In 1973, Amtrak chose to move out of the station, instead serving a small station along the lake route, ending intercity service to the station, though Cleveland Rapid Transit continued its local services. The station area itself was converted into a mall, known as Tower City Center, which opened in 1988. Terminal Tower Facts - Construction began in 1926.
- Dedicated in 1930.
- 52 floors, 708 feet (216 m) tall, (second tallest building in the world when completed in 1930).
- Tallest building outside of New York City until 1967.
- There is a 63 foot (19 m) flagpole at the top, taking it to 771 feet (235 m).
- Function of the Terminal Tower is office space, hotel, retail space, and Union Station.
- More than 1,000 buildings were taken down to build the Tower Complex.
- Several streets were eliminated and others were built during the development of the complex.
- 2.5 million cubic yards (1,900,000 m³) of material was removed from the tower site making it the second largest excavation project in the world at that time.
Railroad Empire Eventually the Van Sweringens controlled the Nickel Plate, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, the Pere Marquette Railroad, and Erie Railroads. They managed to control this huge (for the time) system by a maze of holding companies and interlocking directorships. By 1929, their holdings were valued at $3 billion, mostly as a result of the high valuation of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange. Their house of cards tumbled when the Great Depression began and the Van Sweringen companies collapsed. Mantis died in December 1935 with a total estate of $3000. His brother, Orris, died of a heart attack less than a year later.
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