SPECIAL PLACE
Splendid Edifice
By John Soeder
Photo: Neil Lantzy
When the original Cleveland Clinic Building — designed by architect Frank Ellerbe — opened in 1921, it was hailed in the press as a “splendid edifice” complete with “every device known to science for the correct diagnosis of human ailments.” Explosions rocked the structure eight years later when X-ray film ignited and released toxic gas in a tragedy that claimed 123 lives, but the building was renovated. A century after Cleveland Clinic saw its first patient here, the T Building (as it’s known today) still stands, home to offices for the Neurological Institute and various departments on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus.
