CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) – Heinen’s may be leaving the Cleveland Trust Company building downtown, but the legacy of its artist linked to one of the Atlantic’s greatest disasters will remain.
Despite the plans for what happens next after the beloved grocery store closing its doors on July 31 have yet to be seen, those who want to see Cleveland’s connection to the Titanic only have to look up.
Built in 1907, the Cleveland Trust Company building is home to an 85-foot high dome that is 61-foot wide.
Circling the rotunda are 13 murals depicting the evolution of civilization in the Midwest.
Located at the corner of E. 9th Street and Euclid Avenue Heinen’s Grocery Store occupies a space that once housed the Cleveland Trust Company. The 1908 building reflects the grander of the period complete with murals circling the rotunda.(Michael K. Dakota)
The artist, Francis Davis Millet, 1846-1912, painted the murals with two assistants over the course of a year.
Millet’s original renditions were much smaller, 18-inches by three or four-feet wide.
In an odd twist, the small panels were stored, boxed, and only found packaged more than 100-years after the building opened.
Located at the corner of E. 9th Street and Euclid Avenue Heinen’s Grocery Store occupies a space that once housed the Cleveland Trust Company. The 1908 building reflects the grander of the period complete with murals circling the rotunda.(Michael K. Dakota)
Millet lived a life that was as big as the paintings he made.
The artist served as a drummer boy, and a surgical assistant in the Civil War.
Later he worked as a journalist in the Russian-Turkish War, and as a newspaper editor.
However, in the early part of the 20th century, Millet was in Cleveland painting 13 murals inside the Cleveland Trust building at East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue.
Located at the corner of E. 9th Street and Euclid Avenue Heinen’s Grocery Store occupies a space that once housed the Cleveland Trust Company. The 1908 building reflects the grander of the period complete with murals circling the rotunda.(Michael K. Dakota)
Millet’s final adventure sealed his fate.
In 1912 the artist, who had art hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, booked a first class ticket on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic.
Located at the corner of E. 9th Street and Euclid Avenue Heinen’s Grocery Store occupies a space that once housed the Cleveland Trust Company. The 1908 building reflects the grander of the period complete with murals circling the rotunda.(Michael K. Dakota)
Just four days into the trip, the “unsinkable” ship met her cruel fate when she collided with an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912.
Titanic slipped below the Atlantic to her watery grave at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, taking Millet down with her.
His body was later recovered and buried in Massachusetts.
Up until July 31, the Cleveland Trust Building was a Heinen’s Grocery store, where hundreds sip wine and pick up lunch below some of his final masterpieces, not knowing the legacy that blankets the walls way above their heads.
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