Lauren Pacini and John Grabowski 240 pages hardcover
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 in throughout greater
Cleveland.
