Invisible Giants: The Empires of Cleveland's Van Sweringen Brothers (Ohio)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.31 (861 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0253341639 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 360 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-05-15 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
He has written 11 books on railroad and electric railway history.. Harwood, Jr., has concurrently been a railroad historian, writer, photographer, and working railroader. About the AuthorHerbert H. A history graduate of Princeton University, he received his MBA from Columbia University and then spent 30 years in various management positions at the Chesapeake & Ohio and Baltimore & Ohio and their successor, CSX Transportation
Harwood, Jr., has concurrently been a railroad historian, writer, photographer, and working railroader. A history graduate of Princeton University, he received his MBA from Columbia University and then spent 30 years in various management positions at the Chesapeake & Ohio and Baltimore & Ohio and their successor,
Good exposition of these publicity-shy builders. Wayne J. Horvath After reading this very creditable biography I donated it to the local public library.I recall many rather cryptic remarks made by my grandmother years ago during Sunday trips to Cleveland about the Public Square and the Terminal Tower. She remembered the Mall project and other aspects of Cleveland that were obscure even in the fifties. These rather hazy recollections have now been re-examined inder the considerable light that Mr. Harwood has brought to the Van Sweringen brothers who were averse t. "An Empire Lost Turns to Cleveland's Gain" according to Richard C. Geschke. Mr. Harwood has produced a little known true story of two brothers who came from poverty, developed real estate, produced a myriad of holding companies and established a major national railroad network. This is the true life story of two brothers named Van Sweringin who over a period of thirty plus years transformed Cleveland from a small Midwestern city to a national business center. The Van Sweringen brothers were the prime developers of Shaker Heights. Along with trying to establish a direct tr. The Book I wanted to write John R. McCarthy I grew up on the border of Cleveland Heights/Shaker Heights off Fairmount Blvd.A gradeschool classmate was Bernie Bernet. As a boy I rode my bicycle over to Shaker Blvd. to watch the Rapids go by. AtCWRU a colleague was Ian Haberman and my fellow members of NORM are Tolman and Wayne Hayes. I walked the East Cleveland Rapid line when it still stood empty. I was making notes for this history in about 1950. Except for the buying and selling of the various railroads, this book is a part of my life. I
They created the model upper-class suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio, with its unique rapid transit access. Their actions were aggressive, creative, and bold, but their manner was modest, mild, and retiring. Indisputably, they created modern Cleveland.Yet beyond a small, closely knit circle, the bachelor Van Sweringen brothers were enigmas. Invisible Giants is the first comprehensive biography of these two remarkable if mysterious men.. They built Cleveland’s landmark Terminal Tower and its innovative "city within a city" complex. The Van Sweringen story begins in early-20th-century Cleveland suburban real estate and reaches its zenith in the heady late 1920s, amid the turmoil of national transportation power politics and unprecedented empire-building. Dismissed by many as mere shoestring financial manipulators, they created enduring works, which remain strong today. As the Great Depression destroyed many of their fellow financiers, the "Vans" survived through imaginative stubbornnessuntil tragedy ended their careers almost simultaneously. On the eve of the Great Depression they were close to controlling the country’s first coast-to-coast rail systema goal that still eludes us. They controlled the country’s largest railroad systema network of track reaching from the Atlantic to Salt Lake City and from Ontario to the Gulf of Mexico. Invisible Giants is the Horatio Alger-esque tale of a pair of reclusive Cleveland brothers, Oris Paxton and Mantis J