54 WINTER 2022 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
There was a buildable lot on South Park Boulevard,
with views of a 300-year-old tree on the edge of Lower Lake, that caught
the Jaffes’ eye, and the search for an architect that fit their aesthetic
began. Fortunately for them, a young Harvard-trained architect by
the name of Robert Little had arrived in Cleveland in 1947. They soon
discovered both a personal connection and a design connection with Little.
After studying under renowned modernist Walter Gropius, Little worked
in Boston, where he met and married Ann Halle. After Little’s service in
World War II, the couple moved to Cleveland, where Ann grew up before
leaving to attend Smith College, the same alma mater as Virginia Jaffe.
Ann Little would have been familiar with Shaker Heights, being a
graduate of Laurel School, and from visiting her uncle, Salmon Halle.
Salmon and Ann’s father, Samuel, founded and ran the Halle Brothers Co.,
with its flagship department store in Playhouse Square. By the late 1940s,
the Halles were planning their first branch store on Shaker Boulevard
adjacent to Shaker Square.
The commission to design this store went to Samuel Halle’s son-in-law,
Robert Little, who proceeded to design not just the building but also a
new window display system that he patented. It was also his first encounter
with a Board of Review – the Van Sweringen Company’s – which was led by
architect Carl Guenther. As Little recalls in his unpublished autobiography
(Cleveland Public Library Special Collections), “Carl looked at the flatroofed,
largely windowless, floating brick block of my design and said, ‘But
it’s not colonial.’” Little persevered, “and when the building eventually won
prizes… he Guenther was the first to send congratulations.”
Little’s small architectural firm – which included a young Robert
Madison (Shaker Life, spring 2019), who would go on to start his own
successful firm in Cleveland – kept busy with residential work. Little
explains in his autobiography:
“We designed a number of houses that attempted to fit the land,
the sun, the budget, and the clients’ ideas of how they wanted to live. A
custom-designed house should fit the owner as well as a custom-made suit.
I always tried to find the special hobbies, tastes, desires, and life-style
concepts of a client before drawing a line on paper.”
Top: Robert Little’s rendering of the house,
followed by vintage photos. Images courtesy
of Cleveland Public Library Special Collections.
Bottom: The issue of Better Homes and
Gardens that introduced the “Home for All
America” concept, featuring Little’s various
designs. Honeywell used the house to
introduce their new Zone Control system.
Image courtesy of Cleveland Public Library Special
Collections.
Image courtesy of Meredith
Corporation, Better Homes and
Gardens®, ©Sept 1954.