Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sterling Lindner Davis Department Store

Sterling Lindner-Davis Christmas tree, 1936

Located on grand Euclid Avenue at East 13th Street, this department store was a conglomerate of three other stores (hence the mouthful of a moniker) and as you can see, they always had a very large Christmas tree. Sterling Lindner Davis began the tradition of putting a stupidly enormous Christmas tree inside their atrium, starting in 1927. Legend has it the tree grew a foot while inside the store.

From a 1952 postcard:
A live, 50 ft. tree, festooned with 60 lbs. of 'icicles', 1000 yds. of tinsel, 1500 ornaments, and illuminated by 6 banks of 750 candle-watt spotlights. It requires 650 man-power hours to trim by swinging stages suspended from the skylight.
Their "Santaland" included a device where you could insert a coin and receive a gift that came down a slide, a train, and an enchanted forest display.

Update September 2023:  The former Sterling-Lindner Building is now home to the City Club of Cleveland.

Sources:
Cleveland Christmas Memories (about.com)
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Cleveland Memory Project
POSTCARDY: the postcard explorer

3 comments:

  1. who was responsible for the stained glass Skylight above the Christmas tree , it was salvaged before demolition .some have said it was a Tiffany creation but that is often said when folks see beautiful art glass work.WS Tyler created the beautiful portico ,perhaps they subcontracted the work

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    1. I have searched for infomration online and can find no mention of the stained glass or its designer. However, I did learn the exact location of the building which I had always assumed was on the opposite side of Euclid and had been demolished. And I was shocked and delighted to learn I have been working right next to the former Sterling-Lindner building for the past twenty years, as it is located on the northeast corner of East 13th and Euclid in Playhouse Square, now home to the recently relocated City Club of Cleveland.

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    2. thanks for your time !!

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