The Historical Significance of the Cold Storage Warehouse

Photograph by Thom Sheridan

If you drive on Interstate 90 through downtown Cleveland, you've surely seen the Cold Storage Warehouse, most notable at this point in time as the large flat surface used as a support for billboards. The building is located just south of the Cuyahoga River.

Built in 1927-1928, the Distribution Terminal Warehouse represented a major change in the way food was handled and distributed in greater Cleveland. This insulated cold-storage structure will be demolished to make way for the new I-90 bridge.

I've wanted to write something about the structure. I recently learned that the Ohio Historical Society had published a document detailing the historic significance of this building. I wrote to the author, Nancy Campbell, who was kind enough to mail me a copy. I present here the PDF (warning: 17 MB!), Historic Context for Cleveland’s Distribution Terminal Warehouse: The Significance of a Cold Storage Building.

In this document Ms. Campbell provides historical context for the Cold Storage Building, explaining why it was needed and how it fit into the food service industry in this area. She further describes grocery shopping in northeast Ohio at the time. In addition to a description of this building, she also describes other extant cold storage structures in Cleveland. Finally, she concludes with a reprint of a 1932 article about the terminal by Wilbur J. Watson, and compares the photos used in the article with recent photos of the same structures.

This structure is likely past the state of preservation. The building appears to many a simple concrete box with few aesthetic merits. The historical significance of it is not in the exterior details, but in the landmark it represents in our commercial history. Nancy Campbell's 48 page analysis is worth a read, or, at the very least, a skim. We need to understand just what it is that we are losing.

A bit out of place?

When I first saw this apartment building, at 8115 Wade Park Avenue, in Cleveland, Ohio, I thought it looked a bit out of place. The beautiful façade seemed out of place with the ordinary structure of the apartment block behind it. I knew that there had to be a story behind this.

The block was built in 1901 for Genessee Savings and Bank Comany. The architects were Steffens, Searles and Hirsh. The Ohio Savings Bank building on West 25th Street in Ohio City is one of the firm's notable commissions.

The bank occupied one half of the first floor. Another commercial enterprise rented the other half. The second and third floors contained apartments. The entire side of this block was built this way - apartments blocks, most with retail on the first level. The exception was the fire station immediately to the east of this building.

The design of the block explains the construction of this structure - the sides wouldn't have been seen, because they would have been close to touching the adjacent buildings.

Immediately west of this building was a bowling alley. At the east end of the block, there was a drug store.



For an apartment building, the level of detail is impressive. It was clearly geared toward a more affluent renter. Note the level of detail in the windows, or here, in the railings on the balconies.

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To answer the question that surely has been on the eyes of many of the people who have driven past this structure, yes, this was originally an apartment building. I can only imagine how interesting the interior might be.