The Observation Deck

World famous muralist Richard was in town the past two days overseeing the installation of two large murals he created for The Lakewood Public Library's Great Reading Room.

Richard Haas could easily lay claim to one of the top 3-5 muralists in the world today, has created two murals, that really capture the feel and history of Lakewood.


Mary Anne Crampton, Richard Haas, and Kenneth Warren stand beneath the east mural..

After spending nearly a week in Lakewood, getting tours and information from Lakewood Historical Society, and tours of the city by Kenneth Warren, Rhonda Loje, DL Meckes(who has known Richard for 30 years), and myself, he came up with some nice murals that will put Lakewood once again on the world map.


Artists Richard Haas goes through his ipod showing me recent photos from China, I. M Pei's Museum, and some other projects he has worked on around the globe.

Haas murals grace some of the finest building in the world. In our beautiful Robert A. M. Stern library, his artwork is right at home. Robert Stern and Richard Haas have worked together before.


Richard Haas going over notes as he build the directory of items in the mural.

So with the great work of Library Director Kenneth Warren, and his great staff, supporters, and residents of Lakewood. That has placed a building designed and built by one of the top five architects in the world, with art work from one of the top five muralists in the world.

This weekend stop by and check out what the Library has brought to this town with your help and support.

Be proud.

Ken, everyone, thank you.

More photos in my December Photo blog.

http://lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs
Start you photo blog today!


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The scaffolding should be down by now, and the Grand Reading Room back together.

I would urge everyone to stop by and view these wonderful murals. Even though I've been following the process from day one, seeing the finnished product, made possible with a generous bequest, is quite awe inspiring.

How many of the places pictured can you Identify?

Jeff

Sneak Peak!



Richard Haas mural for the Lakewood Public Library. This is on the west wall of The Great Reading Room, of the new Robert A. M. Stern building.




Richard Haas mural for the Lakewood Public Library. This is on the east wall of The Great Reading Room, of the new Robert A. M. Stern building.

A nice subtly I spoke of with the artist Richard Haas. The Lakewood Map on the east wall, came from a hand drawn 1885 map of Lakewood. No ariel view, just surveyor's numbers. The Lakewood Map on the west wall, was done with satellite imaging from Google Maps. A series of 32 satellite dumps.



Lakewood Public Library board members, Suzanne Metelko, and Nancy Seibert enjoy the new murals with Library Director Kenneth Warren.


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Wow! Nice murals...




The picture with Haas and the LO is priceless..

The cars in the one mural are right out of the Crawford Auto Aviation (Hass must've gone there to sketch them) ... there's a Templar, a 1904 White Electric, a Winton, and a Rauch and Lang. (I know them well from my years working there) Technically the Rauch and Lang and the White (and even the Winton) don't have much of a connection to Lakewood ... Rauch and Langs were made on West 25th (the building's still there), and Whites were made down in the Flats for a number of years until the truck plant was built over on St. Clair. I suppose the Winton could be sort of Lakewood-related, because the plant was over on Berea Road, and Alexander Winton himself lived in Lakewood ... but I guess just having the Templar wouldn't have looked so good.

c. dawson wrote:The cars in the one mural are right out of the Crawford Auto Aviation (Hass must've gone there to sketch them) ... there's a Templar, a 1904 White Electric, a Winton, and a Rauch and Lang. (I know them well from my years working there) Technically the Rauch and Lang and the White (and even the Winton) don't have much of a connection to Lakewood ... Rauch and Langs were made on West 25th (the building's still there), and Whites were made down in the Flats for a number of years until the truck plant was built over on St. Clair. I suppose the Winton could be sort of Lakewood-related, because the plant was over on Berea Road, and Alexander Winton himself lived in Lakewood ... but I guess just having the Templar wouldn't have looked so good.

CD

I thought the owner of the White lived in Lakewood as well.


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posted more photos of the murals and details of each side on my photo blog for december.

http://lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs



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Chris:

I believe the connection is with the inventors, who as you suggest, lived in Lakewood.

Walter C. Baker, for example, in connection with the electric car, as Dan Chabek notes in Lakewood Lore:

“....In 1900, they accounted for 38 percent of the nation's car market. And the man who produced more of them than any other manufacturer was a Lakewoodite -- Walter C. Baker.

Baker who lived for 46 years at 18131 West Clifton Road in Clifton Park, was an engineer and inventor. He was born in Hinsdale N.H., in 1868 and brought to Cleveland by his parents when he was 3 years old.....â€Â￾

Source:
http://www.lkwdpl.org/lore/lore197.htm

Kenneth Warren
Director
Lakewood Public Library

Walter Baker's house, the one mentioned by Ken, is kitty-corner to mine. One unusual feature of that house is the very large “turntableâ€Â￾ (now inoperable) in the garage. Apparently, Baker Electrics could not go in reverse, so you parked the car, used the turntable to turn it around, then you could pull forward out of the garage.

The house I live in now was build by Walter Baker for his mom Jeanette in 1912. I think Dad was gone by then. He was the one who founded White Sewing Machine. Jeanette was wheelchair-bound so my house has an ornate old quartersawn oak “Otis Plungerâ€Â￾ (hydraulic) elevator that also required hand assist. It's beautiful but doesn't work anymore. I'd drop some serious bucks to anyone who can fix it without ruining the cab (which I have been offered a lot of money for but refuse to sell). Fortunately, the people who owned my house for almost 40 years right before me were, shall we say, “thrifty.â€Â￾ So they never got around to painting all the wonderful quartersawn oak trim, mantle, staircase, etc. that still have original shellac.

Ironically, another feature of my house is/was a 250 gallon gasoline tank that was buried under the driveway. We had to have it removed by an EPA certified firm before I could get a mortgage. The brass handpump and a firehose are still in the garage though, I have left them there. And there is an odd firedoor between the garage and the main house. It's held back by a rope that, if burned, would release the door and presumably then protect the house from an inadvertent fire in the garage.

The two houses were, at one time, connected by something resembling an intercom system that Baker himself apparently custom built. There is still a call button in our bedroom that enabled Jeanette to “pageâ€Â￾ someone from Walter's house. You can see the wire bundle leaving my basement, the wires were cut long ago. There are written rumors of a tunnel but I have never found any signs of one.

well, Baker definitely has a connection ... and one of the cars IS a Baker (the one with the parasol top, which I did mistakenly identified as a White ... So I apologize for my mistake, the car in question is actually the Crawford's 1904 Baker Newport Runabout). When I first saw it in the picture, I thought it was the White, but it's not ... though there probably shouldn't be any White connection to Lakewood. As far as I know, Thomas White, who founded the White Sewing Machine Company, lived in Cleveland, and even was a Cleveland City Councilman for a time ... the automotive business was spun off by his sons Walter, Rollin, and Windsor ... Rollin was the engineer, and Walter was the sales leader ... Rollin left the business in 1914. I'm pretty sure Walter lived in Cleveland Heights, and ended up dying in a car accident at Cedar and Fairmount in the late 1920s. The company was foundering, and later merged with Studebaker, though later it emerged as an independent company.

Though there is a White tie to Baker ... Rollin White joined with Walter Baker to help develop his electric car, and also helped set up the American Ball Bearing Company in 1895 to produce axles for horse-drawn wagons, and later automobiles.

The blue car on the right does sort of have a Baker tie, in that the car is a Baker Raulang, probably from 1915, because by that time, Baker had merged with Rauch and Lang, as electric car sales waned a great deal (the big issue then, much like now, was the range allowed by the batteries, and surprisingly, the range back then for an electric car is pretty similar to what an electric car today would get). He also built one of the fastest cars in the world at that time, the Baker Torpedo, which could hit speeds faster than 75mph. Though Mr. Hass must've seen that car in a picture, because the Crawford removed that one from the collection some time ago.

But the 1904 Baker is still definitely in the collection, and it's a beautiful car, with a canvas umbrella top (with tassles attached) and a wicker seat! It was meant to be a lady's car, and it WAS a lady's car, owned by Mrs. Fred White ... again, related to the White family (and also the Norton family). See a pic of the car in the museum at http://cleveland.about.com/od/cleveland ... ford_5.htm

Though Walter lived in Lakewood, his production facility was on the east side until 1905, when he moved to West 83rd ... so the '04 Baker is an eastside car, sadly enough!

Next to the Baker Raulang and the 04 Baker is a Winton ... I'm not sure of the actual year, because that particular image is taken from a photograph of Alexander Winton standing next to one of his cars ... Though I can't entirely see all the detail in the picture on Jim's photoblog, I do see a guy standing next to the car, and he appears to have a hat and a mustache ... so I think it's Winton, because I've seen an indentical photo of that scene. Behind the three cars is another Winton, one of his famed "Bullet" cars. It's unclear from the photo, so I can't tell if it's Bullet No. 1 or Bullet No. 2, but I think it's No. 1, because of the hump of the engine cover over the engine. Bullet No. 2 is a bit of a longer and sleeker car, because Winton actually bolted two of his four-cylinder engines together to create effectively the first 8-cylinder car. It's pretty impressive. Both Bullets are actually owned by the Smithsonian, but are now on exhibit at the Crawford, and have been there for probably more than 20 years (The Smithsonian has limited exhibit space, so they were happy to get them out of storage and have them with us at the Crawford, rather than gathering dust in their warehouse). The Smithsonian also has another Winton, the 1903 Winton which was the first car to drive across the US ... but they wouldn't let us have it, because it's a centerpiece of their new transportation exhibit.

And Winton of course lived in Lakewood ... and his plant was just outside Lakewood, at 10601 Berea Road, part of which survives as Roman Chariot customizing!

And of course bringing up the rear is the Crawford's lovely yellow-tan 1922 Templar, which really is a beautiful car, small and sporty! And like all Templars, it came standard with a Kodak camera (which is still in the Crawford's collection as well).

It's great that this west-side nod to Cleveland's automotive history is in the mural, especially as most of the big Cleveland car companies were located on the east side (Jordan, Chandler, Peerless, White). Interestingly enough, Cleveland is still a "car town" because of all the production facilities here for the Big 3 ... and most of them are West of the Cuyahoga!

Hopefully the mural will spawn interest in various aspects of Lakewood's history ... who knows, maybe even one of these days the Crawford could loan out the Templar for display within the completed library!

c. dawson wrote:I do see a guy standing next to the car, and he appears to have a hat and a mustache

CD

I am thinking this might be Richard Haas the artist. He dropped his son into one part of the mural, and it does look like him. I have sent him a note asking that.

David Buehler, who owns 13 Templars was in the office this morning, talking about the art and the cars. David is working on creating a Templar Motors Museum up at Lake Erie Screw, and it is something that I along with the Observer is working on.

Next year we are hoping to have 18 of 25 Templars at the car show. As it is their 100th anniversary I believe.

I will keep you posted.

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Chris:

You are very good, with a hawk eye for history.

We are working on a legend and Web page, and Jim is looking to do something in the LO as well. So having a knowledgeable historian's verification for the artist's notes is immensely productive.

According to artist notes from Richard Haas, Alexander Winton, circa 1917, with the automobile.

His notes indicate a Baker Electric, circa 1902, which would be the one in the center. Is circa 1902 or circa 1904 the better date?

His notes also indicate the Baker Electric closest to the map is circa 1912.

Then there is The Templar, circa 1922, facing the Birdtown stores, and the Templar race car in the middle, circa 1912.

Please let us know how these dates compute with your knowledge and expertise.

Thanks again for sharing your expertise.

Kenneth Warren
Director
Lakewood Public Library

He's close ... the Baker is a 1904, because it definitely is the one in the Crawford, the Newport Runabout ... and that's NOT a common model!

The racer really looks like the Winton Bullet; I'm not familiar with Templar's racing cars, though nearly every company in that era did create racers, which helped promote the car companies. As for the Baker Raulang, I think that's later than 1912. The Crawford has a pair of 1916s that are a bit taller and more elegant than that model pictured. I'm pretty sure it might even be circa 1920 (the electrics kept that "phone booth" styling literally to the end, because they were marketed as refined ladies' cars). I'm not sure if Mr. Hass actually went to the museum, or worked off photographs, but I'm pretty darn sure of the cars, because I took care of them for 8 years, so I definitely recognize them. But the blue one on the right hasn't been in the collection for a number of years, leading me to think that perhaps he utilized some photos in his research.

The WRHS library does have a number of Templar factory photos in the Crawford automotive marque files, so hopefully someone can get in and access them for any future exhibits!

I heard from several people that the murals were up. I stopped in and was in awe. Being a Lakewood resident for less than 10 years, I was curious to analyze both the icons and architectural features in the murals but also the significance of certain things.

Forgive me if I missed this info earlier on in this thread.

Who is the old man sitting in the chair?

I have so many other questions, but can't recall since I don't have a picture in front of me. Are there plans to do a miniature of the murals with callouts and arrows indicating all of the details.

It would be helpful to me and my family as we view the wonderful piece of art. Yet another reason to be proud.

Chris,

the old man in the chair is Jared Potter Kirtland, famed naturalist and medical doctor of the Western Reserve.

For some basic background:
http://www.lkwdpl.org/lore/lore21.htm
http://www.case.edu/artsci/dittrick/cemetery/stop16.htm

We will be posting a guide to the murals on the library Web site very soon, and I will post that link in this thread.