Pondering:   Cleveland's Terminal Tower

These photos of Cleveland's Terminal Tower were pictured during the early 90s.   Since then, the building owner has made countless upgrades to the skyscraper.  The Terminal Tower is 52 stories tall.

Viewing this old-timey photo of the Terminal Tower amidst the blotchy, incandescent lighting of that era,  one ponders the invention of the LED lightbulb, alongside all of the other improvements that have been made to the tower that Clevelanders see, today.   

This photo was pictured by Tom Wible who, at the time, was a twenty-something-year-old man finishing his undergraduate studies. During this time, the author was working downtown completing an internship at a Cleveland-area advertising agency that had been situated within the terminal tower complex, itself.   Following the December 1993 internship, the author would earn his degree - a Bachelor of Science in Advertising from the Kent State School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kent State main campus. 

To avoid traffic, to maximize windshield time,  and to save on parking fees, the author would make his departure from his boyhood hometown on the Laketran  which ran from Lake County to the (then) bustling city of downtown Cleveland, Ohio.  Keep in mind, all of this was before the invention of the internet, as we know it, today.  This was before Zoom meetings.  People would commute into downtown.  Picture the gentlemen wearing suits and ties.  The ladies would wear pant suits.  There was a Brooks Brothers store on the main level of the Terminal Tower complex that I would walk past, each morning.  The window displays featured mannequins wearing the apparel of the day. 

Adjacent the complex, city blocks were being razed and Clevelanders were building Jacobs Field which would become the future home of Cleveland's Major League Baseball Team - which has had a few names, by now.  

Eventually, folks would go to that stadium and to everywhere else around downtown when their workdays had concluded.   

All of this after working at their office tower jobs, that were located in downtown Cleveland.    There might be some of that still going on to some extent.   Nevertheless, I can say with 100% certainty that things were different, back then.  I remember.   

During this era, there had been a giant Kaufmann's  store that had occupied several floors at the base of the Terminal Tower complex, itself.    I would shop at that Kaufmann's in the Terminal Tower complex during my lunch hours.

These lunch hours were provided during each of my workdays and during the time when I was working at an advertising agency internship.   The internship was located at a downtown Cleveland, Ohio advertising agency with offices across the road from the Terminal Tower, itself.   

All of that had left an impression on me.  In my mind, "this is how it was."  If you are a successful Clevelander, then you shop, here, at these stores.  You wear these clothes.   For that matter, there was a Brooks Brothers in Tower City Center, which also was the talk of the town.   

Anyhow, here are some of the menswear items that I had purchased from that Kaufmann's store during the late 80s into the early 90s adjacent the Terminal Tower and beyond:

COMING SOON / future photo:   A necktie purchased from Kaufmann's 

COMING SOON / future photo:   A pair of cedar shoe trees purchased from Kaufmann's

Undoubtedly, lighting technology has improved during the last two decades.     Today's Terminal Tower features new and improved multi-color exterior lighting that makes use of the newest advances in technology.   Today, the folks who manage Cleveland's Terminal Tower will switch up the color schemes of the skyscraper's exterior lighting based on various occasions throughout the year.                      

Below we see a photograph of Cleveland's Terminal Tower pictured within this decade:

Above: Cleveland's Terminal Tower in 2017