Hezekiah Eldridge

Hezekiah Eldridge was born on April 3, 1795, in South Mansfield, Connecticut. He moved to New York then on to Cleveland, Ohio. He became known as a fine carpenter and because of his skills later turned to building design and contracting. He began building St. John's Episcopal Church (Cleveland, Ohio) in 1836, which was completed in 1838. Where he was a charter member and was a member of the Vestry.

The 1837 Ohio City Directory lists Mr. Eldridge as follows; Eldredge Hezekiah, architect and builder, Vermont st. c. Hanover st. [http://academic.csuohio.edu/clevelandhistory/olha/documents/OHIOCITYc.htm]

Eldridge was probably familiar with John Henry Hopkins' "An Essay on Gothic Architecture", the first book on Gothic ecclesiastical architecture to be published in the United States. St. John's is a good representative of a small group of American churches inspired by Hopkins' book. [http://urban.csuohio.edu/sacredlandmarks/csl/gothic.html]

In addition to St. John's he has been credited with:
*The Ohio City Exchange (1835)
*The Cleveland Center Block (1836)
*The Baptist Meeting House (1836)
*The Pearl Street House (1837)

References

* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pphhdatapage&fileName=oh/oh0000/oh0009/data/hhdatapage.db&recNum=1&itemLink=S?pp/hh:@field(TITLE+@od1(St++John's+Episcopal+Church,+2600+Church+Avenue,+Cleveland,+Cuyahoga+County,+OH)) History St. John's Church, Cleveland, Ohio]