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The "cottage" at the southeast corner of Lee and Monticello Boulevards has served as the gateway to the Forest Hill community for three-quarters of a century.  Built in 1930 as the Forest Hill sales office of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s Abeyton Realty, the cottage was originally located at the corner of Brewster Road and Lee Boulevard near the "Rockefeller homes", where it was clearly visible driving up Lee from Euclid Avenue.  With its wavy-edged cedar shingled sides and steeply pitched cedar shake roof, the building is a miniature replica of one of Andrew J. Thomas' French Norman Rockefeller homes and acted as a unique advertisement for the development.  In 1937, the realty office was moved to its present location, closer to where homes were then being built.

In 1948, Toledo businessman George A. Roose acquired the sales office when he purchased the subdivision from Rockefeller, and the cottage continued to serve as the realty office for this later phase of the Forest Hill development.  When Roose returned to Toledo in 1957, he sold the cottage, along with the original office furniture, to Forest Hill Home Owners.  FHHO continues to maintain the cottage as its office.  The cottage was designated a Cleveland Heights Landmark in 2005.

ABC News 5 Coverage of the Save the Blue Cottage Campaign 

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-cuyahoga/forest-hills-community-fundraising-to-save-a-small-cottage-with-big-ties-to-clevelands-history

Cleveland heights Landmark Designation

March 23, 2023 — The City of Cleveland Heights recently renewed the Cleveland Heights Landmark designation for the Blue Cottage. See the Certificate here.

Cleveland.com Coverage

December 26, 2022 — Forest Hill Home Owners Association seeks happy ending for ‘fairy-tale’ Blue Cottage

By Thomas Jewell, special to cleveland.com

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Efforts continue to save the charming “Blue Cottage,” a foundation of the historic Forest Hill neighborhood for nearly a century.

That’s because the tiny “fairy-tale house” that served as the office for the Rockefeller-Abeyton Realty Corp., remains in imminent danger of losing its own foundation, what’s left of it, or whatever was there to begin with.

Cost of repairs for a complete renovation are estimated at $80,000 -- the heat went out last year, causing some interior damage when the radiator pipes froze and exploded -- with about $10,000 already raised toward that goal.

“It’s always been a place of gathering, of celebration and of welcoming new neighbors,” Forest Hills Home Owners (FHHO) Association Board Chair Beryl Tishkoff noted. “We would like to re-establish that once the house becomes safe again.”

“And if we don’t get it done within 10 years, we could lose it,” she added.

Those were the findings of two structural examinations conducted earlier this year by engineering firms, one of them by I.A. Lewin and Associates of South Euclid.

“The building is currently in poor condition and must be repaired,” senior engineer Gayle Lewin wrote in April. “The foundation has failed and the building is leaning towards the southwest corner of the property.”

Lewin added that the floor is now “sloped significantly enough that it can be felt by standing in the building without the need of a level to confirm.”

To illustrate Lewin’s point last week, Tishkoff placed a roll of tape on the back office floor and watched it roll to the corner of the room where outside, “there is a large hole in the wood framing and foundation is completely rotted,” the report further notes.

The 634-square foot, cedar shingle cottage with a shake roof was built in the 1920s as the real estate office for John D. Rockefeller’s planned neighborhood development providing housing for his Standard Oil employees.

It sat on the corner of Lee Boulevard and Brewster Road, the street where Tishkoff and her husband, Gary, the retired Cleveland Orchestra violinist, live in one of the original French Norman-style homes.

About 80 of them were constructed -- with 400 planned -- before the Great Depression that “even Rockefeller couldn’t afford” to keep building through, Tishkoff said.

In 1937, the cottage was “moved on a flatbed truck and plunked down, basically with no foundation” at the corner of Lee and Monticello boulevards, she added.

Although local legend alluded to railroad ties being used, the engineering report found no evidence of them, although there was a crack in a center support beam.

“The wood timbers used as foundation support are severely deteriorated, in failed condition and have rotted through completely in many locations,” the Lewin report states.

“Concrete blocks appear to be placed directly on the ground with no foundation underneath. The structure for the building sits directly on the dirt in most locations.”

What the “Save the Blue Cottage” campaign hopes to do is secure funding to lift the house up, then pour a 30-to-36 inch foundation underneath before putting it back. Other restoration would follow.

In 1957, it became the legal headquarters for the FHHO and 50 years later was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and remains somewhat in use for board meetings, nonprofits in East Cleveland and the Heights, book clubs, bridal and baby showers, other celebrations, picnics, yard and plant sales.

“There are some things that need to be saved,” Tishkoff said. “It would be a shame if we lost it -- I would hate to come around the corner and not see it there.”

In finding a storybook ending for the “fairy-tale cottage,” organizers are also looking at some grant writing, as well as business solicitations to raise funds.

As a registered nonprofit, donations to the FHHO may qualify as tax-deductible. Contributors are encouraged to check with their tax consultants about charitable giving deductions.

Donations can be made by visiting the organization’s website at www.fhho.org.