90 Years in 90 Days: Glen Allen Mansion

Cleveland Heights officially became a city in 1921. Cleveland Heights Patch is by compiling 90 photos to create an album of the city's past and present. We'll run the feature for 90 days, one photo at a time.

The idea for today's entry comes from Twitter user @pgerm. He asked for photos of in its heyday. We're still searching for those photos. In the meantime, Cleveland Heights Patch is running photos from the area before the mall was built in 1962.

The property around Mayfield and Taylor roads was home to the Severance family, a clan of financiers, industrialists and philanthropists. The patriarach, Louis Henry Severance, was treasurer of Standard Oil. The photo posted today is of Glen Allen, home of his daugther Elisabeth Severance Allen Prentiss.

Elisabeth Severance Allen Prentiss was a noted philanthropist. In 1926, she established the Allen Memorial Medical Library on the campus of Case Western Reserve University to honor her first husband. She became president of St. Luke's Hospital after her second husband died.

She was also a trustee of the Cleveland Museum of Art. In 1928, she became the first woman to receive the Public Service Medal from the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce.

The mansion was demolished in 1945, a year after Elisabeth Severance Allen Prentiss died.

Sources: The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, The Cleveland Heights Historical Society.