This is a Unique example of Italian Villa architecture. Currently it is the home of the Cuyahoga County Archives, and is also currently a property and genealogy research center.

{At the age of 19, young Robert volunteered for the 150th regiment of Ohio infantry for one hundred days of service in the Civil War. He was made a corporal and spent most of his deployment in 1864 protecting Washington D.C. Ten years later, Rhodes joined with his father, his brother James and his brother-in-law Marcus A. Hanna to form Rhodes & Co., producers and commission merchants in iron, iron-ore, and coal. The firm was dissolved in 1885, later reorganized as M.A. Hanna & Co.

Robert Rhodes served as the president of the United States Coal Company, Rhodes and Beidler Coal Company and the People’s Savings and Loan Association. As his prestige grew, he was asked to be the director of numerous banks and corporations, including the Great Lakes Towing Company, the Cleveland Railway, Cleveland Storage and other companies. In 1868, Robert married Kate Newell Castle. She was the daughter of a mayor of Ohio City and Cleveland, William Bainbridge Castle. “Although he too married into a political family…he held aloof from political entanglements,” stated local historian Margaret Manor Butler. “Their marriage on September 30, 1868 was a social event of prime importance.” } copied from Lakewood History

 When the County Archives moved into the house they made an effort to restore the building to it's nineteenth century glory. The original ceilings where restored and the walls where painted darker colors. The floors where striped and varnished.

There have been significat reports of supernatural activity since the renovation. according the fact sheet from the Archives "Visitors with pshic abilities also contend that the Rhodws House is occupied by various spirits:and considering the building's remarkable history , as home to families, children, and senior citizens, one cannot but wonder if there isn't some truth to these speculations."

• 1874 House was built by Robert Russell Rhodes and his wife his wife Kathy N. Castle Rhodes
• 1887 House was bought by John Meckes
• 1914 Cuyahoga County Bought the house.
• 1917 House opened as Detention Home
• 1919 The house just west of the Rhodes House was purchased to accomadate small girls and dependend children.
• 1934 The Nelson Stanford House was attained by the county
• 1938 The County Nursing Home began operating int the Rhodes House
• 1962 The Rhodes House became central offices for the county food stamp division
• 1969 The Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation used the house as their central offices.
• 1978 The County Archives relocated to the Rhodes House