ART & ART DECO CLEVELAND 2006
September 13-17, 2006

Wade Memorial Chapel (1902)

Hubbell & Benes, Architects. Interior by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Jeptha Wade was a Cleveland industrialist and early telegraph pioneer who organized the group of companies that created Western Union. This small, neoclassical temple was built by his grandson. The temple's spartan exterior belies the extravagant Art Nouveau interior done entirely by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany's studio did the marble and mosaics in New York and then shipped them to Cleveland. The Resurrection Window is among Tiffany's most famous works: it won a gold medal at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris. The Wade family had the window shipped from Paris to Cleveland and hired Tiffany to design the chapel around it.

Wade Chapel is located in Lake View Cemetery (12316 Euclid Avenue), modeled after the grand Victorian garden cemeteries of Europe. It was founded in 1869 and is the final resting place of many famous Clevelanders, including President Garfield, John D. Rockefeller, Elliot Ness, and the Van Sweringen brothers. While visiting Lake View we also saw the James A. Garfield Monument (1890), Richardson Romanesque in style with some Gothic features. Mary Krohmer, Director of Community Relations at Lake View, kindly offered her time and expertise with a short tour, with special attention to the monuments and mausoleums that were Art Deco in style. Like other cemeteries of its era, Lake View is also a renowned arboretum, providing a leafy respite from our mostly urban tour.

West Side Market