This week is the royal wedding of Prince Harry to Megan Markle. But did you know of Cleveland’s royal wedding connection?
Megan’s great grandparents, Netty Arnold and James Arnold lived and worked in Cleveland. Netty, her great grandmother, was an elevator lift operator at the Hotel St. Regis back in the early 1900’s. James, her great grandfather, also worked at the Hotel St. Regis as a bell-hop. They met while working at the hotel. They married and raised their children in Cleveland, including Megan’s grandmother, Jeanette.
When Jeanette married Alvin Ragland, and had their daughter, Doria, who is Megan’s mother, in 1956, they left Cleveland and moved to Los Angeles. It is in Los Angeles where Megan was born in 1981.
The Hotel St. Regis was located on Euclid Ave and E. 82nd St and opened in 1905. The hotel was seven stories with 20 large, luxurious suites. William Rockefeller, the younger brother of John D. Rockefeller and co-founder of Standard Oil, lived there. It was said to be the “only fireproof apartment home in the city”.
But by 1920, the hotel had become more of a budget hotel and the 20 suites were turned into 124 small apartments. It eventually became a retirement home and nursing home and even sat abandoned for years until it was torn down in the 1990’s to make way for a strip mall.
That is Cleveland’s royal wedding connection!