After my grandfather's recent passing, a lot of the family have been sharing old photos of him and his family.  They shared the below image of my Grandfather, some of his brothers and other crew men doing work on the interior of "some old building in Cleveland".  I had no idea he ever did anything like this (his career definitely took a different direction), but it's really cool to see that he had a part of this.  He was born in 1921 and appears to be 15-25 in the photo (best guess), so that would place this work in the mid 30s to mid-40s (he did serve in WW2 so probably not during the war). The ceiling and molding are certainly distinctive and I'm hoping someone here can help me identify the building.  Thanks!

Can't help with the ceiling/building question, but I'm glad you shared this photo.  What a cool piece of family and Cleveland history!

It's hard to tell exactly, but it kind of looks like the ceiling of the old Guardian/National City Bank lobby, now Marble Room. The approximate date you gave would mean this would be some sort of renovation. Again, I'm not sure that's the building, but it's my best guess.

It is the ceiling in Council Chambers in Cleveland City Hall. The only issue is that it opened July 4, 1916.

Thanks kabemt!  City hall is most definitely the place in the photo.  I looked into it and it appears that the interior of city hall was renovated in 1951 - so it's possible that this is a photo of the renovations and my grandfather just aged well (hopefully I got those same genes) - that would make him 30.  For reference he's the bloke in the bottom row, towards the left center in the hat, tie and with (barely visible) glasses. Very cool stuff.

 

 

Very cool - thanks for posting and sorry for your loss. You might want to check with the folks at Cleveland Public Library's photo collection - I think they can help with identifying buildings and/or scanning photos for archiving. https://cpl.org/subjectscollections/photograph-collection/

Thanks kabemt!  City hall is most definitely the place in the photo.  I looked into it and it appears that the interior of city hall was renovated in 1951 - so it's possible that this is a photo of the renovations and my grandfather just aged well (hopefully I got those same genes) - that would make him 30.  For reference he's the bloke in the bottom row, towards the left center in the hat, tie and with (barely visible) glasses. Very cool stuff.

 

 

 

Judging from the quality of the photo, the style of the clothing, and the mustaches, I'm wondering if this is actually from the 1950s. It looks older.

Thanks kabemt!  City hall is most definitely the place in the photo.  I looked into it and it appears that the interior of city hall was renovated in 1951 - so it's possible that this is a photo of the renovations and my grandfather just aged well (hopefully I got those same genes) - that would make him 30.  For reference he's the bloke in the bottom row, towards the left center in the hat, tie and with (barely visible) glasses. Very cool stuff.

 

 

 

Judging from the quality of the photo, the style of the clothing, and the mustaches, I'm wondering if this is actually from the 1950s. It looks older.

 

Yeah I think you're right there - they aren't dressed like its mid-century.  That guy is a splitting image of my Grandfather - I wonder if perhaps his father was on the original crew and this photo got passed down but the story got changed over the years.

^As the digitizing of historical documents and genetic testing have been showing, a lot of family lore gets distorted or just plain made up as it passes down generations.