Sixty Good Years and One Damn Beautiful Mural
Okay Cleveland, check this photo out.
Is this not the most spectacular sports mural you have ever seen? This was a Kenneth Bates mural created specifically for the lobby of the new Campus Sweater Company building at 3955 Euclid Avenue. Campus Sweater Company was launched in 1922 by entreprenuers Samuel Kaufmann and Loren Weber originally in the Warehouse District. The Company specialized in casual clothes, sportswear and sweaters. At one time it was the largest manufacturer of men’s clothing in the U.S. (Wasn’t everything in Cleveland once the “largest in the U.S.?) The Company was eventually acquired by Interco in 1968 and enjoyed good fortune in Cleveland until 1982 wehn the plant was closed ending any presence of Campus Sweater in Cleveland. The building became an office for the county. I cannot tell what happened to this mural.
What I find fascinating about the mural (outside of its gorgeous look) was that it was placed in front of a large “picture window” on Euclid Avenue so that everyone walking along the street could see this magnificant piece of art. Kenneth Bates, too, was a world renown artist who was based out of the Cleveland Institute of Art. The building this piece was a part of, I believe, is now gone - but I would love to know what happened to this great piece of art. Does anyone have any ideas? Please, please, please let me know.
We need to have an inventory of the many beautiful murals that have graced buildings in Cleveland. Walter Leedy was a proponent of preserving this art form and someone needs to pick up his flag.
Not only this one, which is probably gone (you could ask at CMA and CIA) or visit the microfilm files in Cleveland Public Library. The WPA indices are great. You could also ask John Paul Miller or Joseph McCullough or Franny Taft - all knew Kenneth Bates and are still here in the area. Try Franny first as she has a phone number at CIA.
I also wanted to point out some other fab murals that are endangered by those who would “scour” the current Cleveland Convention Center. See these Public Works of Art Program (PWAP) “lunettes” at this site: http://groupplan.dhellison.com/buildings.php. (The PWAP 1933-34 immediately preceded the more well known Federal Art Program.) Click on the image of the murals to see the slides. Also click on the image of the Convention Center to take a tour of the building we hear is obsolete. If the county had anything to do with this mural (like, they trashed it) I would be worried about “The Resources of Cleveland”, part of the American Scene murals in the convention center. I guess I’ll just come right out and say - I am worried about this fab art and architecture on the mall…
Your blog have a good sense of humor,i guess so do you.