The Architect

The Henn mansion is vaguely Tudor Revival in style with Bungalow/Craftsman overtones, the Henn house was built to the design of Cleveland architect Earl J. Andrews, who designed and built more than one hundred large houses in the city and it’s inner-ring suburbs during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The Albert W. Henn house is the only known example of the architect’s work in Euclid.

Andrews a Cleveland architect and builder, was born in Wilmington, Ohio. He was educated in the public schools there and graduated from Ohio State University in 1904. During summer vacations, Andrews served as an apprentice carpenter in Cleveland. Following college, he took technical courses at the New York Technical School and worked briefly in the New York offices of Andrews & White.

According to Avery’s History of Cleveland and Its Environs (Vol 2, p. 363) The “Andrews “ of Andrews and White was a cousin of Earl J. Andrews, while “the junior member of the firm” was Stanford White. This information has not been corroborated.

In 1905 Andrews opened an office in Cleveland. He marketed himself as the only architect in Cleveland who also did his own building. “Mr. Andrews as both architect and builder employs his own labor, furnishes material, and makes himself responsible for every detail of any given building plan and contract,” Avery notes. By 1918, he had designed and built 136 houses in Cleveland, 100 of which are located in the Wade Park section of the city. Many of these have been identified as part of the Magnolia-Wade Park National Register Historic District. Other Andrews-designed houses have been identified in the East Boulevard National Register Historic District (where two apartment houses are also attributed to him), and in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights.

Notable are two houses Andrews designed and built for himself: 11201 Wade Park Blvd. (1914) in Cleveland; and 2170 South Overlook road (ca. 1917) in Cleveland Hts.

Andrews designs are characterized by the eclecticism of the period, with elements of Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival, English Medieval, and Bungalow/Craftsman styles. Between 1908 and 1934, Cleveland city directories list him variously as a carpenter – contractor, general contractor, architect, and architect and builder. Despite his great output, Andrews does not appear anywhere in the architectural -historical literature of Cleveland.

Death information from the Cleveland Public Library Necrology File:

Name: Andrews, Earl J.
Date: Jan 12 1938
Source: Cemetery record; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #002.
Notes: Andrews: Earl J. beloved husband of Clara B., brother of Clifford, of Cincinnati; residence. 1878 E. 90th St. Friends received at the De Vand Funeral Home, 11130 Euclid ave. Services Wednesday at 3 p. m. 1881 – 1938. Acacia Park Cemetery Mayfield Hts., Ohio.