Empire Builders: An Illustrated History of the Rise and Fall of Cleveland’s Van Sweringen Brothers

Empire Builders tells the story of Cleveland’s Oris P. and Mantis J. Van Sweringen, two brothers born near Wooster, Ohio, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although they were born into abject poverty, O. P. was an extraordinary visionary who, with the help of M. J., his devoted younger brother, amassed a vast fortune in real estate and railroad developments. Their breakthrough came with establishing Shaker Heights, an affluent garden suburb, soon to be connected by a brand-new interurban railroad to the booming midwestern metropolis of Cleveland.

Lauren Pacini will talk in depth about his research and resulting book, the first new biography of the Van Sweringen brothers in more than twenty years.

Free and open to the public.
Registration encouraged, not required.