Barton Brunswick had no plans to
move from the 1,200-square-foot
Shaker Heights apartment he’d lived
in for 10 years.
“I wasn’t looking,” says
Brunswick. “I was in the Blair House,
which was built in the 1960s and is a
unique, upscale building. I had made
my apartment my home and was
happy there.”
But while having brunch with
friends one Sunday, he agreed to look
at a condominium at The Barclay, just
a few doors down Van Aken Boulevard
from the Blair House. Another guest
at that brunch, a realtor, was trying to
encourage the morning’s hosts to downsize. They agreed to
take a look if he would tag along.
“I said, ‘Sure, I’ll go,’” says Brunswick. “I’d ridden my bike
past that building my entire life and never been inside. I’d
always wondered what it was like.”
Brunswick grew up in Shaker Heights, just around the
corner from The Barclay, on Parkland Drive. His father was
the founder of Brunswick Florists, on Carnegie Avenue in
Cleveland, which Brunswick owned and operated for 42 years
after his father’s retirement.
32 WINTER 2019 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
Barton Brunswick
The original dining
room was an
enclosed space,
typical of the era in
which The Barclay
was built. Brunswick
opened the wall
between the dining
room and living room.
The living room’s
expansive picture
window was added
when the suite was
created in 1960
from two separate
apartments.
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