Category: Technology

The REPUBLIC STEEL CORP., headquartered in Cleveland, was the 5th-largest steel producer in the U.S. at the time of its merger into LTV Steel in 1984. Republic was established on 8 Apr. 1930 by CYRUS EATON and WM. G. MATHER through an amalgamation of several steel companies.

RESTAURANTS. Since Cleveland's earliest days, restaurants, taverns, and saloons have generally served as social centers for communities or neighborhoods. The isolation Cleveland's first settlers felt would have been lessened at LORENZO CARTER's tavern on Superior St. (ca.

The RETAIL MERCHANTS BOARD, INC., organized to promote sales and influence buying patterns, began in 1898 as a committee of the Chamber of Commerce and was formally organized in 1900. The board, made up of downtown merchants, met weekly to discuss the state of retail trade in Cleveland.

REVCO D.S., INC., one of the largest drugstore chains in the area and a pioneer in the discount drug field, was founded in 1956 by Detroit drugstore operator Bernard Shulman. Shulman, who saw an opportunity to apply high-volume, low-margin merchandising to the drug business, had a chain of 4 stores in 1957, which he named Regal D.S., Inc. The company was an instant success, with $300,000 in annual sales.

The RICHMAN BROTHERS CO. manufactured and sold men's suits, furnishings, and hats, supplying a national network of stores from its 23-acre tailoring plant and offices at 1600 E. 55th St. The firm began in 1879 when Henry Richman moved his manufacturing and wholesale clothing business to Cleveland from Portsmouth, OH.

ROCK SALT. Cleveland generates massive amounts of salt from below ground annually, but few outside academia or the salt industry may know that the area's halite deposits were discovered generations before the INTERNATIONAL SALT COMPANY opened the WHISKEY ISLAND mine.

ROEDIGER, STANLEY I. (9 Nov. 1910-1 Jan. 1998) formed Roediger Construction Inc. and played a role in helping to build some of Greater Cleveland's most prominent structures. Roediger was born in Ohio to William A., a building contractor, and Mary (Doyle) Roediger. He graduated from Shaw High School in EAST CLEVELAND and began a carpenter apprenticeship with his father.

The ROOT & MCBRIDE CO. was one of the leading pioneer wholesale dry goods firms in the Midwest. The A.M. Perry & Co., a partnership of 2 local merchants, Ashbel M. Perry and Ralph R. Root, founded the City Mills general store in 1849 on the corner of Superior and Seneca (W. 3rd) streets. In 1857 Root and another local retailer, Edmund P.

The ROSE IRON WORKS, INC., custom fabricators of art and industrial metals, is one of the oldest firms of its kind in the U.S. It was founded by Martin Rose in Cleveland in 1904. Rose (1870-1955) was born in Hungary and studied and apprenticed in Budapest and Vienna. He emigrated to Cleveland in 1903 with his wife and a son.

The ROYAL APPLIANCE MANUFACTURING CO. had its beginnings in 1905 in the P.A. Geier Co. on E. 105th St. In 1912 the punch press manufacturer decided to launch a new line of vacuum cleaners which it marketed under the "Royal" trademark.

RUETENIK GARDENS has been an innovative leader in northeastern Ohio's greenhouse vegetable-growing industry since its founding in the 1880s. Martin L. Ruetenik, son of Rev. HERMAN J. RUETENIK, was a young truck farmer on Schaaf Rd. when he built Cleveland's first greenhouse there in 1885 and began raising leaf lettuce and tomatoes.

S. BRAINARD'S SONS was Cleveland's leading 19th-century musical-instrument dealer and music publisher. SILAS BRAINARD founded the company in 1836 and opened a piano store in the American House hotel on Superior Ave., selling Chickering pianos shipped from the factory in Boston. In 1845 he purchased Watson's Hall, which had been built in 1840, and renamed it Melodeon Hall.

S. K. WELLMAN CO. See BRUSH-WELLMAN, INC.

SALT. See ROCK SALT.

SALT MINES. See AKZO NOBEL SALT, INC.

SAVINGS AND LOANS. See BANKING.

SAYLE, WALTER DANIEL (10 September, 1860-5 September 1941) was a prominent industrialist affiliated with several successful businesses, including the Cleveland Punch and Shear Works. A native Clevelander, Sayle was one of six children born to Thomas Henry Sayle and Jane Clark. Sayle graduated from CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL in 1880.

SCHAEFER BODY, INC., initially specializing in custom-made wagons and carriages, grew with the AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY, building auto and truck bodies and supplying related services.