75 Public Square (Cleveland, Ohio)

 1915_construction, commercial building

Built in 1915, this building was the original headquarters for the Illuminating Company.

A 15-story high-rise office building at the northwestern corner of Public Square had served the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. as its head office, and was known as The Illuminating Building. In 1958, the growing Illuminating Company moved less than a block westward into the 22-story 300-foot tall Modernist tower of glass and aluminum curtain-wall at 55 Public Square.

The former headquarters still stands as a distinctive and handsome artifact of turn-of-the-Century Revival skyscraper design. Designed by the architectural firm of Hubbell & Benes, the narrow building sports an Italianate design with a highly decorative and broadly overhanging cornice. Hubbell & Benes had a thriving practice in Cleveland from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. Their significant contributions to the region’s architectural heritage includes the YMCA Building (1908), The West Side Market (1912), Wade Park and The Cleveland Museum of Art (1916) and the Ohio Bell Telephone Building (1927).