Bond clothing building, Cleveland

Cleveland Memory Project, Clay Herrick Collection

Cleveland State University

This was the Bond Clothing Store at Euclid and East Ninth in downtown Cleveland, taken sometime in the late 1970s, I suppose based on the empty streets. The Bond name is best known today for its iconic store on Times Square, which was frequently caught by movie camera's in the 1940s.

The Bond Company was established by Charles Anson Bond, a brash young man who came to Columbus Ohio at the turn of the 20th century with his wife and family, and he opened up a men's shop. Bond was a natty dresser, and had a head for business. Somehow he ended up running for Mayor of Columbus and won, much to the surprise of the Columbus' establishment. His victory was tinged with tragedy. Within weeks of the election Bond's wife Blanche died in childbirth - the still born baby was buried in the arms of Mrs. Bond in Greenlawn Cemetery. Bond's term was disappointing as well. City father's refused his plans for a Columbus with sweeping boulevards and grand vistas as detailed in the 1908 plan for the city. After two years, Bond returned to his clothing stores and parlayed the one store into many throughout the nation, becoming the first chain store specifically devoted to men's fashion. Bond remarried and he and his second wife raised his two children from his first; the couple also had a son, Charles Anson Bond II.

This Bond store in Cleveland was really one of the final gasps of the company trying to remain relevant in downtown shopping. The building was mod, even by 1950's standards, and had it been built in any place but Cleveland it would be at the center of a downtown Renaissance. But not Cleveland. Now, Cleveland allowed this great piece of optimism to fall to the wreckers ball and get replaced with another boring building. Yawn.