GOOD THINGS SOMETIMES DO HAPPEN

It will most likely surprise -- or even shock -- the regular visitors to this blog to see a post that is NOT about a threatened or doomed building. But, for a good number of recent years, this actually was a threatened building. It seems nearly unbelievable that this, somehow, reversed itself. Originally known as the George Howe mansion, it is one of the tiny handful of mansions still standing on the long-ago-glorious Euclid Avenue of Cleveland, Ohio. Designed by Cleveland architects Coburn & Barnum and built in 1893, its exterior is more Renaissance Revival than any style one would expect from 1893. Although having suffered losses of some interior features and unrestorable deterioration of other features, an impressive combination restoration-renovation has recently been completed by its owner, Cleveland State University. The main staircase and several fireplace mantels have survived and look great, today. Primarily, it is already being used for some graduate studies offices, and will also be used as a conference center.