Riverside Cemetery Building
About this property
Riverside Cemetery Gatehouse is a historic office building located in Riverside Cemetery at 3607 Pearl Road in Cleveland, Ohio. It was completed in 1897, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. A significant interior renovation occurred about 1991 to 1992. The Riverside Cemetery Association was formed on November 15, 1875. Riverside Cemetery opened on July 8, 1876, on a bluff overlooking the west bank of the Cuyahoga River in the unincorporated village of Brooklyn Centre (now a neighborhood which is part of Cleveland, but then an independent settlement). It was a garden-style cemetery, and at the time of its dedication the largest cemetery on Cleveland's west side. As the cemetery was being laid out in 1875, the cemetery association constructed a wooden office building in the southwest corner of the property near the corner of Pearl Road and Willowdale Avenue. But as the cemetery grew, this structure proved too small for administrative needs. The cemetery's trustees approved construction of a new building at their annual meeting on December 9, 1895. Noted local architect Charles W. Hopkinson was hired to develop the plans for the new building. The date on which Hopkinson was hired is not known, but he submitted plans to the cemetery trustees probably in April 1896. The trustees approved his plans on May 4. Hopkinson recommended that the building be constructed of granite. But granite was expensive, and the trustees asked the architect to re-estimate the cost using red brownstone (a building material popular at the time) instead. The difference was significant, and the trustees chose brownstone. Construction contracts were let on June 30, 1896, and construction began on July 9, 1896. The architectural style of the building has been variously described as "French château", Gothic Revival, and Romanesque Revival. One source called it a combination of Gothic Revival and Romanesque Revival. The structure consists of a steel beam frame with red-colored brownstone walls. The stone was quarried near Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and mortared with Portland cement. The base of the veranda which wraps around the building is poured-in-place cement. The building features a turret on the southwest corner that reaches beyond the roof, dormer windows on the second floor, and buttresses on all sides. Construction was largely complete by the end of 1896, although interior work continued into early 1897. The final cost of the building was variously reported as $18,000 ($696,600 in 2025 dollars), $19,000 ($735,300 in 2025 dollars), and $20,000 ($774,000 in 2025 dollars).
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Riverside Cemetery Building listed on the National Register?
Riverside Cemetery Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 19, 1987.
What type of historic resource is Riverside Cemetery Building?
Riverside Cemetery Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Riverside Cemetery Building?
The period of significance for Riverside Cemetery Building is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Riverside Cemetery Building?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Riverside Cemetery Building will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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