The Keith Building is a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Playhouse Square Playhouse Square is a theater district in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the largest performing arts center in the US outside of New York City (only Lincoln Center is larger). Constructed in a span of 19 months in the early 1920s, ...

theater district. The Keith is 272 feet tall and 21 stories, and houses the Palace Theater, a former flagship theater of the Keith vaudeville circuit. Retrieved on 2015-10-12 As of 2017, the renovated building is in use as an office tower. At the time of its construction in 1922, the Keith was the tallest building in Cleveland, and currently stands as the 25th-tallest. It is also the tallest performing arts-related building in Ohio. From 1922 through the mid-1950s, the Keith also had a multi-story electric sign on its roof, claimed to be the largest electric sign in the world at the time of its construction.

History

Owner Edward Albee II named it in memory of

B. F. Keith Benjamin Franklin Keith (January 26, 1846 – March 26, 1914) was an American vaudeville theater owner, highly influential in the evolution of variety theater into vaudeville. Biography Early years Keith was born in Hillsboro Bridge, New ...

, his former business partner and one of the most important vaudeville theatre circuit owners in the history of American theater. The Palace Theater housed in the Keith Building is

Playhouse Square Center Playhouse Square is a theater district in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the largest performing arts center in the US outside of New York City (only Lincoln Center is larger). Constructed in a span of 19 months in the early 1920s, ...

's second-largest theater (in seating capacity), which was the flagship for the Keith vaudeville circuit. The Keith was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1978 as the Playhouse Square Group consortium. This in part spurred the city of Cleveland to donate $3.15 million in economic work grants to spear head the starting of the renovation of Playhouse Square as it is known today. In 1980, the firm of Barber & Hoffman, a consulting in engineering company began to identify several structural problems with the then over 55-year-old building and by 2000 had completed a 3 million dollar restoration of the facade and several cosmetic issues. In early 2015, the

K & D Group The K & D Group, of Willoughby, Ohio, is an American major real-estate holder of numerous prominent office and residential properties in Northeast Ohio. K&D Properties was originally established as a partnership by Douglas E. Price, III and Karen M. ...

entered into an agreement to purchase the Keith for what was reported to be 6.3 million dollars in February. However, unlike their other downtown properties, K&D indicated that it will remain an office building and not be converted to apartments any time in the near future. In March, it was announced that K&D did in fact purchase the building but for only 5.2 million instead of 6.3 million as reported in February 2015.

Legacy in community

In 2010, the Keith Building is credited with being one of the biggest donors in Cleveland Thermal's Cleveland Food Bank annual Harvest for Hunger food drive. The Palace Theater is known for presenting children's entertainment for school children in the

Greater Cleveland The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census results, the five-county ...

area and for many of these children it is their first taste of professional theater. Retrieved on 2015-10-12

References

External links

{{Buildings in Cleveland, Ohio timeline Commercial buildings completed in 1922 Skyscraper office buildings in Cleveland

History

Legacy in community

See also

References

External links