CLEVELAND — It was the first library Andrew Carnegie donated to the city of Cleveland more than a century ago. However, it’s been a long time since people went inside the closed Broadway Avenue branch in Cleveland’s Slavic Village.
Now, Darl Schaaff, an Alaskan entrepreneur, is finishing up work inside as he converts it into The Darl Center for the Arts.
Schaaff explained the collection consists of 400 pieces of art he's accumulated over the years.
"Everything you see is something I bought because I liked it, something I made, or something that was part of a show I produced," he explained.
Like a parent showing us baby pictures, this classically trained ballet dancer turned worldwide event planner shared his art collection with News 5 recently.
Works that range from Andy Warhol and Norman Rockwell to an antique Chinese wedding bed and a replica of the Iditarod sled dog race finish line.
One of the most memorable pieces of art that greet visitors who first walk inside is a large tree made entirely of metal dancing poles.
"I brought this from Alaska because I loved it," Schaaff explained. "I sold this concept of a chrome steel tree to one of my clients, a major oil company, for a big party they were doing. The reason I have all this steel is because I had a friend in Alaska who had stripper clubs, and they were torn down for development, and he gave me the stripper poles and kick rails that went around the bar. It’s a very sturdy tree. You can climb on it."
"If you wanted to put on display what your life collected, what would that look like," Schaaff said of his motivation behind the project. "This is my life. This represents 50 years of collecting, 50 years of travel, 50 years of friendships, and I get to tell my story every day, and I was too lazy to write the book."
Property records show Schaaff bought the decagon-shaped building for $237,000 last October.
Prior to that, the property exchanged hands several times, having been used for local events and, most recently, had plans to become a social club.
The Cleveland Public Library sold the property in 1989. When it's all said and done, Schaaff said he expects to put $1 million into the building.
"The roof had not been fixed," Schaaff explained. "The water damage was extensive here. I had to replace everything."
Schaaff first came to Cleveland in 2009 as part of the advance team picking a city for the 2014 Gay Games.
While preparing for the games, Schaaff said he bought an apartment in Cleveland and began to realize it was where he wanted to settle down and open his own museum. He formally made the move a little more than a year ago.
"I’m hoping this is a gift from me to Cleveland," he said. "You should live your dream. This building was a dream that Andrew Carnegie built. It went through some hard times but reinvented itself through me, and I’m reinventing myself through it."
The property also features a theater space in the basement that Schaaff hopes the community will embrace and use.
Schaaff told News 5 there are still quite a bit of logistics to sort out.
However, he hopes to start welcoming some visitors in November for a soft opening, with a possible official opening sometime early next year. Schaaff said he is not planning on charging admission when he opens the Darl Center for the Arts.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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