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Once the city’s tallest structure in 1883, the Grand Arcade headquartered numerous iron ore and oil companies, as well as railroad lines and a manufacturer of industrial cleaners.

Note the balance of the horizontal and vertical elements on the main facade. This balance is achieved through the use of piers and stringcourse walls. Originally the Grand Arcade had an iron skylight that allowed natural light to reach most parts of the building’s interior.

The building’s owner, William C. Scofield, founded Scofield, Sherman, and Teagle, a pioneer firm in the oil industry and prominent competitor to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. By the 1890s, tenants included Pickands, Mather & Company (see Perry-Payne Building), Western Union Telegraph and the Phoenix Oil Company, a manufacturer of industrial and home cleaners, including Murphy’s Oil Soap.

In the early 1930s, the building was occupied by the Standard Drug Company. By the 1940s, Standard Drug had become Cleveland’s largest drug store chain. It vacated the Grand Arcade in 1961 when the company was purchased by Regal Drug Stores, which later became part of the Revco chain. Rehabilitated in the early 1990s, the Grand Arcade now houses apartments.