Sitting quietly on the corner of Canal and Carter Roads in Cleveland, Ohio stands a dilapidated, yet intriguing building.
Unknown to most who pass by it daily, this was once the passenger depot and headquarters for the Cleveland Terminal & Valley Railroad.
In this video we’ll be covering the building’s extensive history.
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Back in the mid to late 19th century a group of industrialists, bankers, and businessmen in northeast Ohio
were trying to route a railroad from the Baltimore and Ohio mainline in West Virginia through the Cuyahoga Valley to Cleveland.
They formed a short line railroad called the Valley Railway Company in 1871
and completed and opened part of the mainline from Cleveland to Canton in 1880.
Unfortunately, the Valley Railway never reached the B&O mainline, it instead terminated at a point called Valley Junction in Zoarville, Ohio.
The Valley Railway acted as a feeder by bringing coal, iron ore and other commodities north to Cleveland destined for industries and lake trade.
While freight accounted for most of their traffic, they did have passenger trains.
Statistics show passenger traffic flowed from south to north and Cleveland was the second most popular station on the entire line.
The Valley Railway’s passenger station for Cleveland was located at the foot of a road called South Water Street.
Part of what used to be South Water Street still exists to this day, although it is now called Center Street.
The railroad did well financially in the beginning, however by 1891 the Valley Railway was struggling to pay their bills.
Its existing properties started deteriorating and they lacked the necessary freight and passenger terminal facilities in Cleveland to compete with the city's six other railroads.
In 1892 the Valley Railway fell into receivership and went bankrupt in 1895.
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad swooped in and purchased the company at auction so they could finally gain access to Cleveland.
The Valley Railway was reorganized as a subsidiary of the B&O called the Cleveland Terminal and Valley, or CT&V for short.
The first project the B&O endeavored in was upgrading the CT&V’s lacking terminal facilities.
Half a million dollars was spent for a new freight house complete with steam powered derricks, and a coal and ore dock with rotary car dumpers near Columbus Road.
The second phase of this project was replacing the old passenger station on South Water Street.
As a result, two properties adjoining the Valley Railway station on the corner of Water and Champlain Streets were acquired by the CT&V for the new larger station.
Construction of the station complex began in September 1897.
It was completed in July 1898 and opened for service on August 1st.
The four-story passenger depot measuring 100 feet long by 43 feet wide, was state of the art for its time.
It had the latest amenities like indoor plumbing for toilets, and a generator supplying electricity for indoor lighting and electric elevator.
An 1898 article in the Railway Agent Magazine praised it as a model passenger station compared to other examples in Cleveland.
Unlike the previous Valley Railway depot, which was hidden among the other buildings around it,
the B&O wanted the new depot to stand out.
It was designed in the gothic revival style with an imposing clocktower by William Stillman Dutton and A. Lincoln Hyde.
It has interior steel support columns and steel floors while its outside walls were built with blue Amherst sandstone, vitrified brick, and trimmings of Amherst stone.
If one were a passenger when the depot was open, you would enter the building through the tower vestibule at street level.
You were first greeted inside with the CT&V insignia on the mosaic tile flooring and elevator cage which led to the upper two floors and basement.
On either side of the inside main entrance were separate waiting rooms for men and women
which featured news-stands, a lunch counter, a package check room, and telegraph office.
The CT&V’s president and operating department occupied the second floor, and the telegraph and engineering department occupied the third floor.
There was also a baggage room in the basement and a records storage room in the attic.
Connected with the rear of the depot was a massive two-level steel train shed measuring 300 feet long by 80 feet wide.
It had four tracks elevated to street level so passengers could board or exit trains.
Package freight was delivered beneath on the lower level.
The station was well received by Clevelanders and it was covered prominently in the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper over the years.
However, by the 1890’s plans had already been materializing to replace Cleveland’s Union depot
built in 1866 between Water and Bank Street, which is today’s West 9th and 3rd Streets.
The building was so dirty and gloomy that the New York Central Railroad president called it a disgrace to Cleveland.
While the existing union depot only served the New York Central, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroads,
officials wanted to build something to unify every railroad in the city.
A commission had been formed to plan for a new union depot, however it halted due to World War I.
In 1919 real estate and railroad tycoons the Van Sweringen Brothers
brought forward their plans for building a railroad terminal at Public Square.
The Cleveland Union Terminal, or CUT short, began construction in 1926 and was completed in 1929 and opened in 1930.
The B&O at first initially opposed a new union station in 1910,
but by the time the CUT was finished they wanted in on the project.
Unfortunately, for the CT&V depot on Canal Road, all passenger trains were moved to the CUT on June 17, 1934.
However, the B&O retained the depot for use as its general offices for the Cleveland Terminal.
It also occasionally was used for special passenger excursions.
When the B&O discontinued their passenger service on the CT&V in 1963,
the depot on Canal Road continued being used until 1975 when the Sherwin Williams Company purchased the building.
Ever since then the depot has been vacant.
However, in February 2001, the Cleveland International Community Council tried to convert it into an International Heritage Center.
Sherwin Williams agreed to lease them the building at a dollar per year for 25 years.
The ICC went as far as having the depot’s asbestos and lead paint removed and started holding tours inside it in 2005.
Long story short, the group was never able to raise the money as the restoration price doubled from $6 million to $12 million dollars.
As you can tell, the depot has seen better days.
It’s clock tower, roof and train shed were removed sometime after being converted into offices.
In addition, Chessie System, which was a holding company that owned the B&O,
abandoned the CT&V mainline between Whisky Island and Canal Road in August 1984.
In 1989 Sherwin Williams purchased the abandoned CT&V right of way by Canal Road and turned it into a parking lot for their new research and development center a short distance east of the depot.
However, in February 2020 Sherwin Williams revealed they are planning to build a new global headquarters and technology center elsewhere.
This would replace the center on Canal Road by the CT&V depot.
Might this mean the building will be finally sold and restored?
Or will another piece of Cleveland history be lost forever?
Only time will tell.