{"nrhp_refnum":"84000232","name":"Ohio Bell Henderson-Endicott Exchange Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5400-5420 Prospect Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cleveland","county":"Cuyahoga County","state":"OH","lat":41.502510689000076,"lon":-81.65236280499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-11-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story limestone telephone exchange building at 5400-20 Prospect Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, built in 1928 in the Modernistic (Moderne) style to a design by the Toledo firm Mills, Rheins, Bellman & Nordhoff.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its architecture and as one of the important early twentieth-century commercial buildings in the Upper Prospect area. It is the only Modernistic building on Upper Prospect and one of a few examples of the style in Cleveland. The style was popular for telephone buildings, and the architects had a long working relationship with Ohio Bell.","narrative":"Located at 5400-20 Prospect Avenue in Cleveland, this three-story telephone exchange was completed in 1928 for Ohio Bell. It has a skeletal frame, a flat roof, a polished granite base and limestone walls. Three-story piers divide the bays, and their stepped tops, floral ornament and the Bell Telephone corporate symbol mark it as Moderne. The design came from Mills, Rheins, Bellman & Nordhoff of Toledo, a firm that began working for Ohio Bell in 1924 with the company's Toledo headquarters and later designed 63 other telephone buildings across Ohio. The building was listed because of its architecture and its place among the notable commercial buildings of the Upper Prospect area. It is the only Modernistic building on Upper Prospect and one of few examples of the style in the city. Four of the seven telephone buildings on the Ohio Historic Inventory were designed in this style, which was popular for Cleveland telephone buildings. It remains in office use.","period_of_significance":"1928","architect_builder":"Mills, Rheins, Bellman & Nordhoff (architects, Toledo); builder unknown","architectural_style":"Modernistic (Moderne)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Exterior condition listed as good; present use is office building; interior condition unknown.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:14.565761-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/84000232.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000232/0290a33d60-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000232/0290a33d60-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"LeeG7144","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henderson-Endicott_Exchange.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">LeeG7144</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henderson-Endicott_Exchange.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100006160","name":"Midtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/ohio/midtown-historic-district-100006160/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71984664","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137705503"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/cuyahoga-county/ohio-bell-henderson-endicott-exchange-building-84000232/"}