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'Lakewood Mansion' photograph

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@ Ohio History Connection

Ohio Federal Writers' Project

Description

This is a photograph of a large home in Cleveland, Ohio. The typed caption on the back reads, "Lakewood 'mystery' mansion with secret passage to beach. Cleveland, Ohio." Handwritten underneath this reads, "Tunnel said to have been used to take runaway slaves to the beach--Lakewood a station of the Underground R.R." This has since been identified as the home of Julius Feiss (1848-1931), a prominent Cleveland businessman in the garment industry. The original address for this home, which numerous references refer to as Ednawood, was 10520 Lake Avenue in Cleveland, which was later changed to 10530 Edgewater Drive. Rumors about use of the home's tunnel as an Underground Railroad route appear to be false, as the home was constructed in the 1890s, and the connection to Lakewood, a nearby Cleveland suburb, is also incorrect. This is one of many visual materials collected for publication in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of...
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Ohio History Connection

Record Harvested From

Ohio Digital Network