Abram Garfield (1872-1958) was the son of James A Garfield, 20th President of the United States buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland. After studying at Williams, MIT and a year of travel abroad, Garfield returned here to open his architectural practice in 1897. This is the beginning of the firm known today as Westlake Reed Leskosky. The legacy is long and distinguished. Mead and Garfield, 1898—mostly residential; Abram Garfield, 1905-1922 expanding to Garfield, Stanley-Brown Harris and Robinson, 1926-36; then Garfield, Harris, Robinson and Shafer; in 1957-9 Garfield, Harris, Schafer, Flynn, and Williams;
then Van Dijk, Pace, Westlake and Partners. This firm’s buildings include homes in Bratenahl and Shaker Heights, Eldred Hall, CASE (1900), The John Hay Residence now part of the Western Reserve Historical Society (1910), Blossom Music Center (1968) and The Nathan and Fanny Shafran Planetarium, Cleveland Museum of Natural History (2001).
