The History of Cleveland’s Tiffany Glass Building

Downtown Cleveland features plenty of imposing and awe-inspiring sights, with any trip to the city giving history buffs and architectural enthusiasts plenty to enjoy. One shining example is the Tiffany Glass Building that sits at 850 Euclid Avenue and has been a prominent part of the Cleveland skyline for over 100 years.

Construction and Early History

The lot where the Tiffany Glass Building stands was originally owned by the city of Cleveland, which was then purchased by Citizens Savings and Trust in September of 1899 for $310,000, equal to more than $10 million today.

The local architectural firm Hubbell & Benes was awarded the opportunity to design a building for the site, the same firm that would design Cleveland landmarks like:

• The Ohio Bell Telephone Co. Building

• The West Side Market

• The Cleveland Museum of Art

The 14-story building the firm designed for the bank was to feature a granite portico, a lobby with a skylight, and elevators, which were becoming more standard in major cities at the time due to safety innovations.

Original cost estimates placed construction costs at $1.2 to $1.5 million, the equivalent of roughly $46 million to $58 million in 2025 dollars. Later revisions brought the price down to $450,000, or approximately $17 million in 2025.

Delays for the Project

The project was scheduled to commence in the spring of 1901, but problems began to emerge. Citizens Savings, the future building’s owner, entered a dispute with architect Levi Scofield who was designing the Schofield Building next door.

In short, the Schofield Building was to extend further than the Citizens Savings building, and a shared wall had been agreed upon, but Citizens Savings did not want a blank brick wall adjoining their newly constructed and ornate property.

A thicker wall with ornamental columns was to be featured, but the resulting wall encroached on the bank’s property line beyond an acceptable amount. Following more than one wall replacement, several lawsuits, and a Common Pleas court unsure of how to address the contractual issue, construction was delayed for roughly a year. Ultimately, a compromise was reached that allowed construction to resume for both parties, and the Citizens Savings building was back underway by 1902.

The bank opened to the public on September 28, 1903, but in an unfinished state. By October of that year, the finishing touches – the incorporation of safe deposit boxes and vaults – were completed, making the building fully operational.

Key Building Features

Originally named the Citizens Building, the property housed a variety of impressive features upon its opening:

✅ A mixed architectural style, using mostly a Renaissance Revival approach with elements of Neoclassical

✅ A granite façade on the first two floors

✅ Brick and ivory-colored glazed terra cotta around the windows for the third floor through the eleventh floor, with the upper floors featuring exclusively ivory-glazed terra cotta

✅ A portico designed to call to mind the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, featuring four 30-foot columns with Doric capitals that were each made from a single piece of granite

✅ A 38-foot-wide and 50-foot-deep lobby featuring a barrel vault ceiling of leaded came glasswork, serving as a focal point and skylight for the space

✅ Lobby walls and adornments that used Italian marble, colored glass, gold, and mother-of-pearl from Tiffany & Co.

✅ Two murals within the lobby – The Uses of Wealth by Edwin H. Blashfield and The Sources of Wealth by Kenyon Cox, both depicting allegorical scenes relating to work, prosperity, and industry

Major Milestones for the Tiffany Glass Building

As the decades passed for the Citizens Building, a number of changes came its way, not least of which included multiple alterations to its name. Here are some key points:

The Modern Era

Today, the Tiffany Glass Building is owned and operated by E.V. Bishoff Company, a premier provider of commercial and residential real estate rentals in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Michigan.

6,000+ Units Within Walking Distance of Downtown

The Tiffany Glass Building is one of our most beloved Cleveland locations, featuring more than 6,000 units within walking distance of Public Square, Playhouse Square, and many major Cleveland landmarks.