Places
Homes Current
12725 Lake Shore Boulevard "Moyenage"
Plat No. 631-09-002
Sublot 2 in the Stackpole and Osborn Subdivision
The home is listed in the Ohio Historic Inventory
Delia Bailey acquired the property from Charles Cromwell on May 2, 1885.
Otto and Augusta Dercum acquired the property on June 9, 1895.
Jay and Seville Morse came from Chicago to Cleveland, the home of his business partners, and acquired the property on August 18, 1902. Morse engaged James Hunt of Chicago to design an Elizabethan Tudor home as a copy of his Chicago residence. Following the death of Mr. Hunt, Charles Schweinfurth completed the design. The house, completed in 1904, included adjacent buildings and stables.
The symmetrical design featured a central entrance with a carved pediment supported on brick columns that picked up by the elaborate dormer in the roof overhead. The façade was framed by two gabled projections at the corners, one of which had a large enclosed porch.
The front door was a large entryway with wrought iron hinges. The entrance hall included an enclosed courtyard with massive beams. A dramatic split staircase in the reception hall had detailed carvings, including carved lions on the newel posts. Paneling in the foyer was black walnut.
The wood throughout the house was imported walnut and oak with the exception of teak wood floors. Skilled woodcarvers created unusual molding featuring heads, animals, and birds. Spectacular cut glass leaded windows were installed throughout the first floor.
To the right of the entrance hall was an elegant living room with a magnificent hand-carved fireplace and molded ceiling. A grand oversized dining room also had a fireplace and molded ceilings, linenfold sconces, and wrought iron fixtures.
Behind the dining room was the observatory with polished marble floors and a leaded amber glass skylight. Off the dining room was a butler’s pantry, kitchen, scullery, and servants’ dining room.
A sunroom at the front of the house, and a vast library with a wood-burning fireplace at the rear, commanded a lake view. The enclosed piazza at the back of the house overlooked a terraced full-sized swimming pool and the lake.
Four master bedrooms with fireplaces, bathrooms, and transom doors were on the second floor. The third floor contained the servants’ quarters and a ballroom. There was a total of eleven bedrooms, six-and-a-half baths, and six fireplaces in the house.
George and Emma Martin acquired the home from the Seville Morse estate on January 20, 1928.
James and Mary Rand acquired the home on September 12, 1947.
In 1962, a CBS-TV production crew came to the home to film an episode from the TV program “Route 66”. The show premiered on CBS on October 7, 1960, and ran until March 20, 1964, for a total of 116 episodes. The show followed two young men traversing the United States in a Chevrolet Corvette and the events and consequences surrounding their journeys. Two other episodes were filmed at 12611 and 12821 Lake Shore Boulevard.
John Belker and Michael Spack acquired the home on November 12, 1969.
Dr. Kenneth and Christine Spano acquired the home on October 10, 1985.
Peter and Maureen O’Neill acquired the home on October 8, 2019