stan hywet hall

Cleveland, Ohio is an oft overlooked Midwestern town. Little do people realize that Cleveland during the Victorian period was a booming metropolis that eclipsed many cities we think of as major these days. For example, John D. Rockefeller was raised and schooled in Cleveland where he began his career. The Civil War helped to fuel Cleveland's meteoric rise as an American manufacturing city. By 1870, the city's population had doubled since 1860. Many mansions were built along the city's more prominent streets, such as Prospect Avenue, and those on Millionaire's Row or as it was properly known, Euclid Avenue. Stan Hywet originates in this period and as a country retreat about thirty minutes South of town in the suburb of Akron.

Between 1912 and 1915 F.A. Seiberling and his wife Gertrude built Stan Hywet Hall. F.A. Seiberling was the founder of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, naming it after Charles Goodyear, the inventor of the vulcanization process for rubber. They named the property “Stan Hywet” which is Old English for stone quarry. The manor house was built in the style of Tudor Revival and built by architect Charles S. Schneider for a mere $150,000. During the building process around 3,000 separate blueprints and architectural drawings were drafted to ensure every detail. To facilitate the massive project they even constructed a railroad spur for delivery of supplies and materials to the property.

The gardens are equally spectacular. The Seiberlings hired a Boston landscape architect by the name of Warren H. Manning. They also employed New York interior decorator Hugo F. Huber. For the interior of the house, many furnishings and pieces of art were purchased by Huber in New York which were integrated with some pieces purchased by the Seiberlings in England in 1915.

In 1957, the family opened the doors to the public. Above the door still sits the original inscription "Non Nobis Solum" or "Not for Us Alone" which now seems quite fitting.

Images courtesy of the Stan Hywet Hall site and their Flickr. You can also see more at Seiberling Visual History