Travel Adventures: Intriguing Stuff to See the Next Time You're in Cleveland, Ohio
The Cleveland Trust Company & Heinen's Fine Foods - Stop #3
This week’s travel installment features a unique combination of historic architecture, old-world banking, and a modern urban supermarket.
But let’s start at the beginning.
When the Cleveland Trust Company merged with the Western Reserve Trust Company in 1903, they needed a larger headquarters. Renowned architect George Browne Post was chosen to design the new space. Post is credited with creating the New York Stock Exchange and other notable structures.
The project was completed in 1908 and remained a banking center for 88 years. In the late 1960s, a 29-story tower was added to the original building. By 1987 the entity known as AmeriTrust was the eighteenth largest bank in America. Unfortunately, the real estate collapse of the late ‘80s resulted in the 1991 buyout from Society Corporation, now Key Bank. The building and tower closed in 1996 and sat empty for two decades.
Luckily the interior and exterior remained relatively intact and included:
Three stories - white granite facing.
Marble interior rotunda.
A central pediment displaying sculptures by Karl Bitter depicting the primary sources of wealth in the US (land & water) and the industries: labor, agriculture, mining, commerce, navigation, and fishery.
A rotunda that features a dome 85 feet high, with stained glass panels 61 feet in diameter.
Fluted columns, Corinthian pilasters, bronze doorways and grilles, marble floors, and walls reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance.
Far above the main floor, a series of 13 murals by Francis Davis Millet (an American painter, sculptor, and writer.) Entitled “Pioneer and Discovery,” the panels (which measure 5 x 16 feet) chronicle America’s colonization, cultivation, and development.
A 200-ton safe deposit vault encased in eighteen inches of concrete with a door weighing seventeen tons.
The Cleveland Trust Company’s makeover began in 2013 when Geis Companies purchased the property and turned the tower into a hotel and apartment building. Tom and Jeff Heinen invested $10 million to transform the remaining 27,000 square feet into an upscale supermarket, opening in February 2015.
Walking into this gorgeous space, I was struck by the sheer size, amazing architecture, and brilliant lighting!
The food court occupies the center, and the Cleveland Trust Medallion (pictured above) is embedded in the floor, surrounded by seating for diners taking advantage of prepared foods.
Heinen’s is a full-service, two-tier grocery store, and the ground floor offers a deli/bakery, meat/seafood, and frozen foods section. The balcony provides additional seating, local beer, and dozens of wines on tap, the latter of which can be sampled while shopping. (Now, that’s a way to make grocery shopping more enjoyable!) The Euclid Avenue portion of the store contains produce and packaged and frozen foods.
If you’re in the neighborhood, stop in Heinen’s and check out this eclectic retail food store experience!
Once again, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and blessings of whatever sort you may need. For me, it’s spending time with my out-of-state children and grandkids. I’ll be back the week following Thanksgiving and hope you’ll join me…take care!
I lived in Toledo, Ohio. It's been fun to see what Cleveland has to offer if I ever visit.