Powel Crosley Jr. (September 18, 1886 – March 28, 1961) was an American inventor, industrialist, and entrepreneur. He was also a pioneer in radio broadcasting and owner of the Cincinnati Reds major league baseball team. In addition, Crosley's companies manufactured Crosley automobiles and radios, and operated Cincinnati radio station WLW. Crosley, once dubbed "The Henry Ford of Radio," was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2010 and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2013. He and his brother, Lewis M. Crosley, were responsible for many firsts in consumer products and broadcasting. During World War II, Crosley's facilities produced more proximity fuzes than any other U.S. manufacturer and made several production design innovations. Crosley Field, a stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, was renamed for him, and the street-level main entrance to Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati is named Crosley Terrace in his honor. Crosley's Pinecroft estate home in Cincinnati, and Seagate, his former winter retreat in Sarasota, Florida, are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Early life and education Powel Crosley Jr. was born on September 18, 1886, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Charlotte Wooley (Utz) (1864–1949) and Powel Crosley Sr. (1849–1932), a lawyer. Powel Jr. was the oldest of the family's four children. Crosley became interested in the mechanics of automobiles at a young age and wanted to become an automaker. While living with his family in College Hill, a suburb of Cincinnati, 12-year-old Crosley made his first attempt at building a vehicle. Crosley began high school in College Hill and transferred to the Ohio Military Institute. In 1904, Crosley enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, where he began studies in engineering but switched to law, primarily to satisfy his father. He dropped out of college in 1906 after two years of study.
Marriage and family Crosley married Gwendolyn Bakewell Aiken (1889–1939) in Hamilton County, Ohio, on October 17, 1910. They had two children. After his marriage, Crosley continued to work in automobile sales in Muncie to earn money to buy a house, while his wife returned to Cincinnati to live with her parents. The young couple saw each other on the weekends until Crosley returned to Cincinnati in 1911 to live and work after the birth of his first child. Gwendolyn Crosley, who suffered from tuberculosis, died at the Crosleys' winter home in Sarasota, Florida, on February 26, 1939. Crosley married Eva Emily Brokaw (born in 1912) in 1952. She died in 1955 in Cincinnati.
Real estate Crosley's primary residence was Pinecroft, an estate home built in 1929 in the Mount Airy section of Cincinnati, Ohio. He also had Seagate, a winter retreat in Manatee County, Florida, built for his first wife, Gwendolyn. In addition, Crosley owned several vacation properties.
Pinecroft
Pinecroft, Crosley's two-story, 13,334-square-foot (1,238.8 m2), Tudor Revival-style mansion and other buildings on his estate in Mount Airy was designed by New York-based architect Dwight James Baum and built in 1928–29. Crosley's daughter, Marth Page (Crosley) Kess, sold the property after her father's death in 1961, and the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor acquired the property in 1963. Saint Francis Hospital bought a portion of the property north of the Crosley mansion in 1971 and built a hospital, which was renamed Mercy Hospitals West in 2001. The land surrounding the home has been subdivided into parcels, but the Franciscan Sisters have used the mansion as a retreat since the early 1970s. Pinecroft was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Seagate
Seagate, also known as the Bay Club, along Sarasota Bay in the southwest corner of Manatee County, Florida, was a Mediterranean Revival-style home designed for Crosley by New York City and Sarasota architect George Albree Freeman Jr., with Ivo A. de Minicis, a Tampa, Florida, architect, drafting the plans. Sarasota contractor Paul W. Bergman built the 11,000-square-foot (1,000 m2) winter retreat in 1929–30 on a 63-acre (25-hectare) parcel of land. The two-and-a-half-story house include ten bedrooms and ten bathrooms, as well as auxiliary garages and living quarters for staff. The house contains and is reportedly the first residence built in Florida using steel-frame construction to provide protection against fires and hurricanes. After Crosley's wife, Gwendolyn, died of tuberculosis at the retreat in 1939, he rarely used the house. During World War II, Crosley allowed the U.S. Army Air Corps to use the retreat for its airmen training at the nearby Sarasota Army Air Base. Crosley sold his estate property in 1947 to the D and D Corporation. Mabel and Freeman Horton purchased the property in 1948 and owned Seagate for nearly forty years. The house and 45 acres (18 hectares) was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 21, 1983, by a subsequent owner who intended to build an exclusive condominium project on the site using the historic house as a clubhouse, but the project failed when the economy faltered shortly thereafter. Kafi Benz, the Friends of Seagate Inc., a nonprofit corporation, and local residents saved Seagate from commercial development, and initiated a campaign for its preservation and public acquisition. In 1991 the state of Florida purchased the property and 16.5 acres (6.7 hectares) of the bay-front estate that included the structures that Crosley had built in 1929–30. A larger portion of the original property was developed into a satellite campus for the University of South Florida. The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus opened its new facilities in August 2006. The present-day mansion, called the Powel Crosley Estate, is used as a meeting, conference, and event venue.
Vacation homes Crosley, an avid sportsman, also owned several sports, hunting, and fishing camps, including an island retreat called Nikassi on McGregor Bay, Lake Huron, Canada; Bull Island, South Carolina; Pimlico Plantation, along the Cooper River north of Charleston, South Carolina; Sleepy Hollow Farm, a retreat in Jennings County, Indiana and a house at Cat Cays, Bahamas.
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