A Piece of Northeast Ohio History
Built in 1930 as part of the Dudley S. Blossom estate, The Hangar is a remarkable example of Art Deco architecture and design. Nearly a century later, this historic building remains a place for swimming, tennis, gatherings, and community.
The Blossom Estate
The Hangar was built in 1930 as part of the Dudley S. Blossom estate, in what was then Lyndhurst and is now Beachwood, Ohio. Many estates and country houses of the era incorporated private sports facilities, and The Hangar was designed as a “gymkana” that would make “vigorous summer sports accessible and practicable year round.”
Its glass roofs were designed to bring natural light and warmth to both the swimming pool and tennis court, allowing the facilities to be enjoyed throughout the year.
Dudley Blossom was a successful Cleveland businessman, but he and his wife, Elizabeth Blossom (née Bingham), are perhaps best known for their philanthropy and support of the musical arts. Blossom Music Center, the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra in Cuyahoga Falls, was named in their honor..
Designed by Abram Garfield
The Blossoms asked their longtime friend Abram Garfield, son of President James A. Garfield, to design The Hangar. Garfield would go on to found the school of architecture that later became part of Case Western Reserve University.
He designed many notable Cleveland-area buildings, including Mather House at Case Western Reserve University and the Hay-McKinney Mansion of the Western Reserve Historical Society. He had also designed the Blossoms’ Tudor Revival home in Lyndhurst, built about a decade before The Hangar.
The Hangar was Garfield’s first and only foray into the Art Deco style that had swept the world following the 1925 Paris exhibition of “arts decoratifs.” The movement was characterized by streamlined classicism, geometric forms, and symmetrical compositions.
Cleveland is home to many celebrated examples of Art Deco, including Severance Hall, the pylons of the Hope Memorial Bridge, and the “Muse with the Violin” screen at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Yet The Hangar remains a distinctive example of the style.
“The Hangar shows the fluency that Abram Garfield had,” said Dean Zimmerman, Chief Curator of the Western Reserve Historical Society from 1986–1992. “He’d worked in Colonial Revival, in Beaux-Arts … yet this was cutting-edge.”
A Building Taking Shape
Garfield’s daily diary entries from the summer of 1930 frequently mention the Blossom project, although he referred to it primarily as the Blossom tennis court.
“Stopped at the Blossom tennis court, coming along very well,” he wrote in one entry. In another, he noted that the project was “almost completed” and called it “a meaningful piece of work,” adding that the mural work was particularly interesting.
Those murals would become one of the building’s defining interior features.
The Details Inside
The real magic of The Hangar can be found in its interior spaces. Visitors entering the main lounge are surrounded by a vivid, sea-themed mural that leads upward to a sapphire-glass tray ceiling and a sleek, silvery chandelier. The mural is signed “June Platt, 1930.”
June Platt and her husband, Joseph, were influential tastemakers of the 1930s, 1940s, and beyond. Joseph Platt decorated sets for Hollywood films, including Gone with the Wind and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. June Platt, the daughter of renowned sculptor Rudolf Evans, became a nationally known author of cookbooks and guides to entertaining, as well as a wallpaper designer. The Platts lived primarily in New York and later Paris.
The only other known mural attributed to the Platts is located at the Country Club of Detroit.
Another distinctive detail is the sea-themed decorative railing surrounding the pool. It was designed by Martin Rose of Rose Iron Works, a nationally renowned firm at the time.
A Private Club
Since the late 1940s, The Hangar has been a private club where members gather for swimming, tennis, celebrations, and community events. Over the years, its distinctive interior spaces and tennis court have also hosted large weddings and other special occasions.
The building is currently owned by Charles Bolton, whose great-aunt was Elizabeth Blossom. Bolton and his wife, Julia, oversaw a major restoration of The Hangar in the mid-1980s with Cleveland firm Residence Artists.
A Legacy Worth Preserving
“The Hangar is a gem,” said Paul Westlake, Principal Architect at Westlake Reed Leskosky, the firm that evolved from Abram Garfield’s architecture firm. “It tells a unique story of the sophistication and wealth that Clevelanders had.”
In recognition of its architectural and historical significance, The Hangar was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. In 2021, a foundation was formed with the goal of helping ensure that this remarkable building remains for another century.
Today, The Hangar continues that legacy as a private club in Beachwood—a historic place where generations can swim, play, gather, and make memories of their own.