User:Ravenclaw7/Sylvester Everett Mansion

The Sylvester Everett Mansion, razed in 1938, was a Romanesque Revival style private home built by U.S. financier Sylvester T. Everett (1838-1922) from 1883 to 1887. It was located in Cleveland, Ohio, on the so-called "Millionaires' Row," a stretch of Euclid Avenue which from the 1860s to the 1920s was famous across the nation for the grandiose houses lining it. It was one of the most expensive among them, with a pricetag of $225,000. The Sylvester Everett Mansion was the first example of the mature Romanesque Revival style on that avenue, a style ... When this style came to Euclid Avenue, it attracted architects and builders from around the country, and so the Sylvester Everett mansion was crucial in lifting the avenue onto the national architectural scene. It was designed by architect Charles F. Schweinfurth, whom Sylvester Everett contracted to design the house after finding his first architect unsatisfactory. The Sylvester Everett mansion was Schweinfurth's first project in Cleveland, and he would go on to design at least fifteen other residences on Euclid Avenue, remodel several churches in Cleveland, and design several Cleveland bridges. In fact, he has been called the "premier residential architect of Euclid Avenue." The mansion received six U.S. Presidents over its 55-year life: Grant, Hayes, Harrison, McKinley, Taft, and Harding, in addition to J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie.

The mansion's dimensions were 70 feet by 120 feet, the shorter of the two being the front on the building. The house had three stories and was 20,000 square feet. It was clad in brownstone from Hummelstown, Pennsylvania ("Hummelstone"). It was structurally sound and well fireproofed, with exterior walls up to four feet thick, an iron skeleton, and walls made either of fireproof blocks or brick. On the first floor, the main public rooms encircled a large hall, paneled in oak, 54 feet wide and 24 feet long. The second floor, luxuriously outfitted for permanent residents and guests alike, featured ten principle bedrooms, each with a private dressing room and bathroom, along with five additional bedrooms and two additional bathrooms. The multitude of bedrooms could sleep Sylvester Everett's seven children and many guests. The third floor featured a Moorish ballroom, complete with a wishing-well fountain, mosaic tile, and sandalwood paneling.