New Book Releases

Downtown Cleveland is home to many architectural landmarks that define this proud city on Lake Erie.

Most famous is Terminal Tower, the "grand dame'? of Cleveland skyscrapers, which was also the tallest office building outside of New York City from 1930 until 1967. Other notable high-rises such as the BP building, Key Tower, and the new Federal Courthouse with its distinctive lighted cornice also dominate the city's beautiful skyline. Almost more than the buildings themselves, Cleveland's architectural prowess lies in the details--the terracotta "starburst'? motif on the exterior of the Standard Building, the extensive metal decorative work inside the gargoyle-encircled atrium of the Arcade, and the immense stained-glass dome of the Cleveland Trust Rotunda.

John D. Rockefeller's Cleveland roots stretched across the oil-drenched banks and murky flats of Kingsbury Run in Cleveland and ended in the wooded sanctuary at Forest Hill. Six miles east of Public Square, Forest Hill was the Rockefeller family's country estate and summer home for four decades. It had formal gardens, greenhouses, a lake and lily pond, a golf course, a horse track, and acres of farmland. In the early 1900s, tourists and local residents rode the streetcar out Millionaires' Row to East Cleveland, where they peered through the imposing iron gates scrolled with an R to peek at the gatekeeper's lodge, the manicured lawns, and the road that led to the mansion atop the hill. Unfortunately, in 1917, Forest Hill burned to the ground. Because so many records, mementos, and photographs perished, the estate remains as shrouded in secrecy today as it did during its lifetime. Forest Hill: The Rockefeller Estate unveils the story of the estate, how it evolved and changed over the years, and how its legacy continues.