Cleveland Press, April 28, 1956
RISE OF THE WEDDELLS
By Winsor French
The name WEDDELL in Cleveland today hardly recoils more than a misty legend. Thefamily's only monument is the old Weddell hotel on West 6th Street. It is now a somewhat frayed and shabby lodging house, but in the long ago days of its grandeur was affectionately called "Astor House of the Lakes" [The writer is in error about this. The Weddell House was torn down to make way for the American Steel and Wire skyscraper. This shabby lodging house, on an adjoining lot, was so named to take advantage of the celebrated hotel's name when the latter was torn down. The real monument of the hotel is a brass plate at the entrance to the skyscraper recording the hotel's location.] and Peter Martin Weddell, who began its construction in 1845, was one of the formidable, dreaming giants of the Western Reserve.
Peter Weddell was born in Westmoreland County, Pa., in 1788, shortly after the death of his father. His mother married soon again, however, and moved on to Paris, Bourbon County,Kentucky. Here Peter spent his early childhood and took his first job at 14 in the general store and in a countryside still terrorized by savage Indians.
When his boss died, young Weddell, restless as well as ambitious, came north to the more settled community of Newark, Ohio. Here he met a Sophia Perry of Cleveland, whose father, Judge Nathan Perry, was one of the first figures to occupy the bench in Cuyahoga County.
The young and beautiful Sophia had been sent to Newark for the dual purpose of furthering her education and finding greater safety. She married Peter Weddell and in 1820 they moved to Cleveland.
Finished with wandering, the young husband, in return for $400, acquired a small lot at the corner of what is now West Ninth and Superior with a frontage of 35 feet by five rods depth. And here, with a general store attached, he built what was then considered the finest brick residence in Cleveland. In it on Nov. 27, 1823, a son, Horace Weddell was born. That same year Sophia died, and shortly afterwards her widower married one Mrs. Eliza Bell.
Soon Peter was becoming more and more interested in real estate, leaving the business of his store to the clerks he had taken in as partners. Also, he began hankering for a country home. Finally he built one, the gracious, rather formal stone house, pictured here, and it was to stand on Euclid as a familiar landmark for 52 years on a site just a few doors east of the present Automobile Club.
The town was growing with astonishing speed and the moment had come, he felt, when it needed a really fine hotel. Anything but hesitant, he commissioned that his "town" house and store be demolished to prepare a site. Construction commenced in 1845, was completed two years later. Of interior decorators then there were none. Cleveland's furniture stores were limited and Weddell, determined his hotel should be fitted with the most modern and magnificent appointments possible, set forth for New York to buy them. Three weeks later an his way home Peter Weddell died of pneumonia.
Horace was now head of the Weddell Household. He must have assumed his responsibilities with a sense of great satisfaction. He had watched his father hack his way out of rugged back country to assume a position of importance and great wealth, all within a rapid generation. Nor was the end insight. The Weddell House, when it was opened, was greeted by the press of the day with gushing, extravagant fanfares. It immediately became the most fashionable eating place in town, its bar was taken over as a sort of club by the young swells, and it became journey's end for all the celebrities and dignitaries coming to Cleveland for one reason or another.
The Weddell's, in short had come a long way but the city they had helped build was to outgrow and pass them by. Horace, at the age of 91, died in his home in Cleveland Heights, June 19, 1914. Ha had seen Cleveland grow from a little frontier community of less than 400, into one of the great cities of the Middle West. He had watched his own family legend take firm root, come to flower, and then ultimately die off . The story had come full circle. The end.