File:Cleveland, Central, 2018 - Conversion of Saint Paul Catholic Shrine, Midtown, Cleveland, OH (27395595827).jpg

This building was constructed in 1876 as St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and was the congregation's third purpose-built home, after two prior structures on the present site of Quicken Loans Arena. The Victorian Gothic Revival-style structure was designed by Detroit-based architect Gordon Lloyd, and the cruciform-shaped building was constructed of Berea Sandstone, topped out with a bell tower that stands 120 feet high. The interior features several decorative wood trusses, meant to resemble the inverted keel of a ship, and stained glass windows made by the famous Louis Comfort Tiffany. The church served the city's well-to-do, whom at that time lived in grand mansions that lined Euclid Avenue and Prospect Avenue, known as the city's "Millionaire's Row," which once rivaled Fifth Avenue in New York City in value and desirability. The area, however, like many areas of many cities, began to change, becoming increasingly commercialized in the early 20th Century. After inhabiting the structure for 52 years, St. Paul's Episcopal Church left this structure for Cleveland Heights in 1928, following the departure of the well-to-do from the area. The building sat empty for a few years before being bought by the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland in 1931, and being rededicated as the Conversion of Saint Paul Shrine on October 1st of that year. The following year, a convent was added to the grounds, and inhabited by the Franciscan Order of the Poor Clare nuns. The area continued to evolve through the following decades, becoming a major center for the Puerto Rican community during the 1950s, before a major shift to neighborhoods on the west side in the 1960s. The congregation membership reached its peak in 1978, with more than 700 parishioners, which were a diverse cross-section of the city's population, but it has shrunk somewhat since then, as the surrounding area has somewhat depopulated. The church was decommissioned as a parish church in 2008, but remains a Shrine for Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and still performs outreach and charity programs for the surrounding community.