On June 23, 1962, 26000 Lakeshore Blvd. opened it's doors for the first time as St. Clair Savings. Mayor Kenneth J. Sims performed the ribbon cutting and special guests included superintendent of Ohio Building and Loans association Andrew Putka, City of Euclid administrative director Michael Spino, Euclid municipal Judge William Burns, attorney Joseph Bergeron, retired physician Frank Kern, director of finance for the city of Cleveland Edward Knuth, director of public service for the city of Cleveland Louis Drasler, St. Clair Savings president Paul Schneller, St. Clair Savings secretary treasurer Don Schneller, and all Euclid city councilmen.
From Saturday, June 23 until July 16, 1962, the new Euclid St. Clair Savings celebrated their open house. Free souvenirs were given away, gifts were given for deposits over $50, and anyone was welcome to enter the grand prize giveaways, which were a GE Mobile Maid Dishwasher, a GE home freezer, and a Westinghouse room air conditioner.
Built by Kapel construction and designed by architect Raymond Davies, there was planned landscaping to provide a screen effect from neighboring residential properties. Interior design was done by Jordan Truthan. Harold Swope was named the new location's manager.
A community room was included with this build, and called the General St. Clair Community Room. It contained full kitchen facilities, and was decorated in the style of the revolutionary war in which General St. Clair served. On one wall was a decorative scroll honoring General Arthur St. Clair.
The bank building contained a vault and a covered drive-up window. Outside rear, you would find a paved 26-car parking lot.
St. Clair Savings was founded as Slovenian Building & Loan Association by Anton Grdina, who came to Cleveland from Yugoslavia in 1897. Grdina was the son of a poor farmer and worked his way up from the very bottom, becoming one of Cleveland's most well-known Slovenian leaders and businessmen. Grdina passed away in 1957. A St. Clair branch was the first bank robbery ever recorded by surveillance video on April 12, 1957.
In 1969, St. Clair Savings purchased Superior Savings & Loan Association. In late 1978, parent company Broadview Financial Corp. decided to merge subsidiary St. Clair Savings Association into the Broadview Savings & Loan Co. At the time, this made the newly formed savings and loan association the largest in Ohio.
On March 24, 1982, The Broadview Savings & Loan at 26000 Lakeshore was robbed by Wilson Perez. Perez demanded $5,000 and said he had a bomb. The teller gave him the only money she had in that moment, which was $1,000. Perez dashed across the street, and was arrested, literally, minutes later in the underground garage of the Watergate apartment building.
May 1986 saw 18 of Broadview's branches sold to National City Corp.
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| Photo taken by blog author on a foggy day, March 2006 |
National City Bank was at this location until the chain was acquired by PNC in 2010.
PNC bank did business at this location, now branded as a PNC, until it decided to close 26000 on June 21, 2013, citing changing bank habits by consumers.
After PNC shuttered this location, it sat empty until the fall of 2016, when Hudec Dental moved in. They are still there as of this writing, June, 2024.
Interesting that all this time, it's remained a blue brick building. Still standing at 6139 Wilson Mills is a reverse version of 26000 Lakeshore blvd., but a few years ago the brick was covered, and the drive thru-enclosed as it was made into a pizza shop. One has to wonder if the Wilson Mills location also had a functioning kitchen built in. Roto Pizza remained in here only briefly. As of this post, it is Smilebliss Orthodontics. Am I sensing a trend, here?
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