Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

by Ron Chernow

In August 1868, after his rebate deal with the Lake Shore Railroad, he certified his enhanced status in Cleveland when he and Cettie moved from Cheshire Street to a solid brick home at 424 Euclid Avenue. This move dramatized the immense distance he had traveled after a few years in the oil business. Local boosters had already tagged Euclid Avenue “the most beautiful street in the world,” with homes that lavishly mirrored the local fortunes in oil, iron, banking, timber, railroads, and real estate. All of the town’s new opulence was reflected in this street of massive houses. The residential address for such local luminaries as Henry B. Payne, Amasa Stone, and John Hay, Euclid Avenue claimed so many mansions that it had richly earned its sobriquet of “millionaires’ row.”