Empire Builders

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

By: Lauren R. Pacini

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eBook | 4 June 2024

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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.