Rockefeller's Legacy in Cleveland

One crypt in Cleveland has attracted an unusual custom: The 70-foot obelisk marking the resting place of billionaire oil tycoon and adopted Clevelander John D. Rockefeller is often adorned with currency, dimes in particular, rather than the flowers and wreaths that decorate most graves.

Why Coinage and Not Carnations?

"Visitors to Mr. Rockefeller's grave do leave money on his headstone," says Mary Krohmer, director of community relations and corporate secretary at Lake View Cemetery. "Many people leave behind dimes in honor of Mr. Rockefeller, hoping to enjoy the financial rewards as he did in his life."

Krohmer adds that the tradition honors Rockefeller's own gifting of 10-cent coins to everyone he crossed paths with-from business associates and friends, to children and the underprivileged people he would encounter on the streets. It was a stark contrast to his intense business persona-seen by some as an elaborate public relations scheme-and a big part of his mystique.

"They leave behind nickels and quarters too, with the wish and the hope of becoming the next billionaire," Krohmer says. "Rockefeller gave out some $35,000 worth of dimes to children during his lifetime, which is not a lot of money today, but just think about the value 100 years ago."

Lake View officials have taken another page from Rockefeller's playbook: Mirroring Rockefeller's $500 million in lifetime donations to charitable causes, the cemetery uses the money that people leave at his grave site for educational outreach.

"Carrying on his charitable giving allows us to do educational programs for visitors," Krohmer adds, speaking of the cemetery, which serves as the final resting place to other famous Clevelanders, including former U.S. President James A. Garfield, famed lawman Eliot Ness and others. "That seems to be a fitting tribute to Mr. Rockefeller's legacy of philanthropy."

The Legacy Continues in Cleveland

The remains of Rockefeller's legacy in Cleveland include a "handful of touchstones all over the city," says author and historian Sharon Gregor, who is also a founder of the Forest Hill Historic Preservation Society. These sites include his Lake View Cemetery grave, the Rockefeller Building and the 200-acre Rockefeller Park Greenhouse.

"Beyond that, his legacy can be harder to track," she offers, suggesting that it's more conceptual, and that the buildup of the city and the region was directly impacted by Rockefeller's oil biz triumphs.

She has a point: Millionaire's Row is but a memory in Cleveland's history; the industrial revolution that Standard Oil's near-monopoly spurned on along the Cuyahoga River ran aground due to anti-trust investigation in 1911. And although inspired to donate to Cleveland's cultural institutions and preserve land on the city's near east side, much of Rockefeller's remaining impact there resides in memory only.

"Yet, it is hard to say where Cleveland as a whole would be today if it wasn't for his enormous business success here," Gregor says. "Cleveland really was a dynamic place in his heyday, and it is hard to say what Cleveland would be like today without his involvement in its past. The whole city is his legacy."

Cleveland Produces the Richest Man on Earth

Before he left Cleveland for his birth state of New York in 1885, industrialist and entrepreneur Rockefeller was one of Cleveland's most epic figures both in business and influence. He was well on his way to being America's first billionaire, amassing a fortune through his Standard Oil Company, the largest oil refiner in the world, which he founded in 1870.

Gregor explains that Rockefeller "arrived in Cleveland in 1853 and quickly became the city's most well-known industrialist." Rockefeller, after the Standard Oil Company's incorporation, "split time between his adopted hometown (Cleveland)" and several other financial centers across the country, including New York, says Gregor.

Rockefeller was a summer resident at his Forest Hill estate, established adjacent to Euclid Avenue and what was once referred to as Millionaire's Row. It was there that Rockefeller raised his children and laid the groundwork for his oil empire. His business acumen and success would impact the city (for good and ill), and fortunes of many in the region and the Midwest were inexplicably tied to Rockefeller.

The billionaire's much-publicized tax dispute with Cuyahoga County and the subsequent death of his wife, Laura, ultimately pushed Rockefeller to leave the area for good and return to New York in 1917.

A Tribute

The oft-described richest man in the world (and still considered America's richest man, when adjusting for inflation) came from humble, meager beginnings, born to traveling salesman William Avery Rockefeller and his wife Eliza. John D. Rockefeller was the second-born child; he had five siblings. He is said to have learned his penny-wise ways from his mother's old saying: "Willful waste makes woeful want." He achieved great financial heights, and was seen as a shrewdly spirited capitalist who remembered his roots.

Rockefeller's enormous wealth became a family legacy, one largely focused on benefits for all. This includes success in medical research (hookworm and yellow fever eliminated on his foundational watch); institutionalizing education (University of Chicago, Rockefeller University); the performing arts (Rockefeller was a significant contributor to New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts); and history (Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia was restored on his watch with his funds).

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