Trip Report: May 12 - June 2, 2002
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
SPRING JOURNEY ACROSS THE CONTINENT AND RETURN
TOWER CITY CENTER
Thursday, May 16, 2002
When the Terminal Tower was dedicated in 1930, it was the tallest building between New York City and Chicago. Excavations for the project were exceeded only by those of the Panama Canal. This project was the second largest integrated group of buildings in the world under one management, the Van Sweringen brothers. (The first was Rockefeller's Radio City in New York.)
Terminal Tower is a 52-story skyscraper. It is the crowning glory of the vast Tower City Center, which consists of the Tower itself, the underground Cleveland Union Terminal, the Hotel Cleveland, and Higbee's Department Store (famous for the Santa Claus scene filmed there in the 1980s for the TV classic "A Christmas Story"). These buildings are joined together in an arc embracing the southwest corner of Cleveland's Public Square, the center of the city since its founding by Moses Cleaveland in 1796. The Hotel Cleveland was completed in 1918, the Tower in 1930, and Higbee's in 1931. All are built on air rights over the Cleveland Union Terminal.
Nine separate Cleveland passenger stations closed and those nine railroads sent their traffic to the Union Terminal when it opened in 1930. Steam locomotives were switched out before trains entered the station tunnels where they were hauled in by Union Terminal electric locomotives. (One holdout from the Union Terminal was the Pennsylvania Railroad, which maintained its own station in the city.)
Ted recalls, at the age of four, taking a trip with his parents from Pittsburgh to Cleveland on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, a subsidiary of the New York Central System. Detraining at the station, they climbed the stairs up to the concourse. Here was a bustling shopping mall, similar to that of present day Union Station in Washington, D.C. From the portico facing Public Square, where the streetcar lines converged, there was an entrance to the Hotel Cleveland, where a bellman stood ready to take their bags. This hotel still operates as the Renaissance Hotel Cleveland.
Intercity passenger train service into Cleveland Union Terminal ended in 1977, when Amtrak moved to its small Lakefront Station, but the terminal's underground tracks still carry Cleveland's rapid transit system, which serves the airport, the waterfront, and the eastern suburbs.
After a restoration in 1989, Tower City Center has retained many of its lavish art deco features. Each store front has a different, but similar, bronze front with a leaf pattern. The mall contains three levels, and brass railings from the station's original boarding gates have been recycled as railings. A large rectangular pool with fountains performing an animated variety of movements to music is surrounded by a multi-colored marble bench. The station's original floor of marble and granite has inlaid geometrical designs of various colors. Chandeliers and wall sconces maintain the art-deco theme. The impressive banking room, originally the Union Trust Company's Terminal Tower branch, is now a high-end men's clothing store. The English Oak Room, the original elegant restaurant, is now available for special functions. It, as well as all of the other food service concessions in the complex, was operated by the Fred Harvey Company until 1977. There is now only a food court in the mall, but elegant dining can be experienced at the Renaissance Hotel as well as the more recently added Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The latter's Century Restaurant was inspired by the dining car of the 20th Century Limited train.
We spoke with several young people who work inside the complex and were pleased to learn that they are knowledgeable about -- and proud of -- the building's beauty and history. A guide brochure is available at the information counter in the Tower Lobby. The young clerk at the mall book store, a popular nationwide chain, was not aware of any books on the subject of the Terminal, but there is one, I learned, available from the Cleveland Landmarks Press.
We spent several hours in the complex, visiting as many historical spots as we could find with our guide brochure. We learned that Higbee's Department Store was recently closed due to competition from suburban shopping malls. The store's art deco fixtures are still in place, as are Christmas decorations, but the store is dim and deserted. The Observation Deck on the 42nd floor of the Tower has been closed since the attack on New York, for "security reasons." Nevertheless, Tower City Center is a place of vitality not only during the day, but into the evening hours as well.
[Author's note: This is the first shopping mall that Ted has ever been interested in. Excited about, to be more specific. We recommend it for all railroad terminal and architecture fans.]
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