STEFFENS, SEARLES AND HIRSH - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

STEFFENS, SEARLES AND HIRSH was the firm name from 1897-1905 of a partnership of 3 architects responsible for many notable buildings in Cleveland and northeast Ohio. Geo. H. Steffens (1871-1928) and Paul C. Searles (1870-1947) formed a partnership in 1896 and took Willard Hirsh (1872-1920) into the firm later the same year. Their most important commission was the BOHEMIAN NATIONAL HALL on Broadway, built by a group of Czech societies as a social center and gymnastic hall. Completed in 1897, it was completely restored in the 1970s. In 1905 the partners split into 2 firms, Searles & Hirsh and Steffens & Steffens, the latter a partnership of Geo. Steffens and his brother, John F. Steffens (1880-1943). Steffens & Steffens designed commercial buildings such as the Miller Block on Lorain Ave. at W. 32nd St.; apartments such as the Stockbridge, the luxury hotel on Euclid Ave.; and the Hruby Conservatory of Music, the school on Broadway founded and operated by the Frank J. HRUBY FAMILY from 1917-68. Searles & Hirsh also designed commercial buildings of all kinds and apartments such as the Alhambra on Wade Park Ave. Their masterpiece was probably the residence built in Alliance, OH, for Col. Wm. H. Morgan, founder of the Morgan Engineering Co. and inventor of the electric overhead traveling crane. The house, Glamorgan (1905-08), is a brilliant exercise in eclecticism, with a Tudor exterior of Vermont marble.

Steffens, Searles and Hirsh Records, WRHS.

Related Article(s)

• ARCHITECTURE