Western Reserve Academy history

153-155 College Street (1829-30), The President’s House Designed and built by architect/builder Lemuel Porter to house the College president and head of the theological department, it is considered one of the most elegant buildings in the Western Reserve.

79 Hudson Street (1831), Rufus Nutting House Professor Rufus Nutting was the first resident of this Federal style house.

120 Hudson Street (1832), Elizur Wright, Jr House Gambrel-roofed houses are unusual in the Western Reserve.

135 College Street (1836), Academy Chapel The focal point of WRA’s significant “Brick Row,” the plans for the Chapel came from New England and were similar to those for Johnson Chapel at Amherst College.

147 College Street (1837-38), North Hall Built from a mail order plan from New Haven, Connecticut, this Federal building – the least altered of all Academy structures – has remained a dormitory for its entire history.

169 College Street (1839), Carroll Cutler House Built by Professor Clement Long, this Federal brick house was used as the official residence of Carroll Cutler, president of the college at the time of its move to Cleveland.

130-132 College Street (1841), Philo Wright House Probably built by Porter and Rice, architects for the Athenaeum and Nathan Seymour’s house, this structure has been much altered and serves as an Academy dormitory.

15 Prospect Street (1843), Seymour House Classics professor Nathan Perkins Seymour’s was the only house built of the five faculty residences planned for this block.

36 Baldwin Street (1846), Vernon D. Taylor House A classic Greek Revival house, the front door and door case of this building were designed from a pattern book by Asher Benjamin, who greatly influenced American architecture before the Civil War.

Ohio’s first Phi Beta Kappa chapter was founded here in 1847.

113 Hudson Street (1855), Gross-Gregory House, 109 Hudson Street (1855) Baldwin-McKisson House: These two Gothic Revival cottages were built during Hudson’s railroad era.

Just months after his death in 1880, the Case School of Applied Science was born.

A committee for the two institutions raised $119,400 from 56 donors by March 1881.

With funding from American industrialist Amasa Stone, the college moved in 1882 to “uptown” Cleveland, where it lives today, and assumed the name Western Reserve University.

And in 1888, Margaret Ann Brown was the first African-American woman to graduate from the college.

1891 - Founding of Western Reserve University's School of Law

1892 - Western Reserve University creates Department of Dental Medicine; later renamed the School of Dental Medicine

Western Reserve Academy remained open for another twenty-one years until 1903, when it closed due to financial problems.

This one was built by Leander Starr for Elizur Wright Jr., a mathematics professor often called “the father of American Life Insurance.” An ardent Abolitionist, Wright resigned from the Western Reserve faculty over the colonization/abolition controversy. It was renovated by J.W. Ellsworth in 1913.

In 1916, however, the school reopened due to the graces of benefactor James Ellsworth, a former student and Hudson resident who had returned after making millions of dollars in the coal industry.

178 College Street (1922), Ellsworth Hall Serving in turns as a dormitory, dining room and common room for Western Reserve Academy, this large building reflects the architectural style of the original college buildings.

1925 - Cleveland College is established

1947 - Case School of Applied Science becomes Case Institute of Technology

1952 - Western Reserve University creates a School of Business

1992 - Case School of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences established

2002 - Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine opens, providing full tuition for admitted students

2019 - Opening of the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, including a new Dental Clinic