Western Reserve School of Design for Women

It's been interesting to me lately how often I get inspired by presentations to the DAR. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since for the last two years I have been in charge of selecting the speakers, but whatever. In our most recent meeting, the speaker was discussing the history of the Cleveland Institute of Art. The CIA began in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women (WRSDW).

Old City Hall, built in 1875. Source: Cleveland Memory Project.

It was founded by Sarah Kimball, reportedly known as "Cleveland's first militant suffragette," in her own house on Euclid Avenue, intended to train women for a career in design--there was, after all, a shortage of marriageable men after the Civil War, and women had to do something to support themselves. The school was founded to teach "the principles of art and design as practically applied to artistic and industrial pursuits, and also the collection and exhibition of works of art and virtu." (You can see a copy of the original Articles of Incorporation here.) In just six weeks, the school had outgrown Kimball's house and moved to the attic of City Hall. Within one year, the school had grown to five instructors and 77 students.

  

Horace Kelley Mansion. Source: Cleveland Memory Project.

The school was co-ed from its inception, but the name kept its focus on women until 1892. It was renamed the Cleveland School of Art and moved into the Horace Kelley Mansion on Willson Avenue, now known as East 55th Street. Efforts to merge the school with Adelbert College, now part of Case Western Reserve University, were unsuccessful, and the school remains independent to this day.

Cleveland School of Art. Source: Cleveland Memory Project.

The School of Art remained in the Kelley Mansion until roughly 1906, when a new building was constructed in University Circle. In 1949, the school was renamed the Cleveland Institute of Art, and in 1956 moved around the corner into the more modern, and far less pretty, building in which it is still housed today.

In 2015, the Cleveland Institute of Art will move back onto Euclid Avenue into the former Model T Assembly plant that CIA acquired in 1981, and which now houses the Joseph McCullough Center for the Visual Arts.

Clara Wolcott Driscoll, c.1904-05.
Source: Morse Museum of American Art.

One of the WRSDW's most notable alumna was Clara Wolcott Driscoll. Born in Tallmadge, Ohio, in 1861, Clara was a graduate of one of WRSDW's first classes. In 1888, she moved to New York and found a job with the Tiffany Glass Company. Although she resigned in 1889 when she married Francis Driscoll--Tiffany did not employ married women--she returned to the company in 1892 when her husband died. She oversaw a small Women's Glass Cutting Department. Tiffany was a proponent of women in his industry, because, Tiffany noted in 1894, women "were better suited than men for small hand work and possessed 'natural decorative taste' and 'keen perception of color.'”

But in addition to glass cutting, Clara was a designer as well. In 2005, many of her letters came to light, revealing the fact that Tiffany did not design many of the lamps for which he was famous; Clara did.

Tiffany Studios Dragonfly Table Lamp, c. 1900-06.
New York Historical Society

Sources for more information on the Cleveland Institute of Art and Clara Driscoll: 

"Cleveland Institute of Art," Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Cleveland Institute of Art website, http://www.cia.edu/about-us/history
"Designing Women in the Cleveland School of Art," Marianne Berger Woods
"Breaking Tiffany's Glass Ceiling: Clara Wolcott Driscoll (1861-1944)," CIA website, January 1, 2012
"Out of Tiffany’s Shadow, a Woman of Light," New York Times, February 25, 2007
"A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls," New York Historical Society traveling exhibit
"Tiffany Studio Designers," Morse Museum of American Art exhibit
Website of Susan Vreeland, author of Clara and Mr. Tiffany (2012), http://www.svreeland.com/tiff.html 

The Ohio City Bridge War

After my last Cleveland post, a friend asked if I would write something about the Ohio City War. "The what?" I thought I knew my hometown pretty well, but it turns out I knew squat.

The origins of the "Bridge War" lie in Cleveland's inherent schizophrenia. There are two sides of the city: west of the Cuyahoga River, and east of the river. The Cuyahoga is that squiggly blue line running through the center of the city in the map below.

Cleveland, OH, 1910. Source: US Digital Maps Library.

I am actually one of those relatively rare beings who have lived on both sides, but most of my life has been spent on the east. We sometimes joke that you need a passport to go from one to the other.

After Cleveland was founded in 1796, the west side was populated by captains of industry, and most of Cleveland's factories are on that side of the river. The east side came to be inhabited primarily by lawyers, bankers, executives, and the like. Although the east side had its "Millionaires' Row" in Euclid Avenue, the west side had Franklin Avenue, which had its own grand houses, some of which still exist today (including Franklin Castle, which is rumored to be haunted, but I'll leave that as a teaser for another post). As the city grew and prospered, the east side far outstripped the west in terms of wealth and development.

Because the west side was separated from the east by the river, and the ferries that had moved people from side to side were inconvenient, a bridge was built to connect the two halves of town. The near west side was an incorporated municipality in its own right, known as Ohio City. 

One of Cleveland's first bridges was a floating bridge off of Center Street which connected Cleveland with what became Ohio City, and was jointly owned and maintained by the two municipalities. It was made of large whitewood logs chained together. When a ship wanted to pass, a section of the bridge was floated to one side and then drawn back into place by ropes. The bridge was carried away by flood a number of times, each time replaced by something they thought might be a little better. 

In the spring of 1836, an group of east side developers constructed a bridge south of the floating bridge on Columbus Street.

Columbus Street Bridge, c1836. Source: Cleveland Historical Society.

The new Columbus Street Bridge provided a direct route to Cleveland from the Medina and Wooster turnpike (now known as Pearl Road) and bypassed Ohio City's main commercial thoroughfare. It was a covered bridge with a draw at the center allowing ships to pass. Ohio City residents, justifiably fearing that the new bridge would divert commercial traffic, were incensed. In retaliation, they boycotted the bridge. Unimpressed, Cleveland quietly removed its half of the floating bridge in the middle of the night. 

Ohio City then made a number of attempts to destroy the bridge, including an ineffective explosion. Either in late 1836 or 1837--I am not sure which historical account is accurate--a mob of Ohio City residents marched to the Columbus Street Bridge with guns, crowbars, axes, and other weapons, intending to finish the job. They were met by Cleveland's mayor and armed Cleveland militiamen. In the ensuing fight, three men were seriously wounded, and a number of arrests were made. In the end, the courts wisely decided that Cleveland needed more than one bridge. Cleveland restored its half of the Center Street Bridge, and Ohio City stopped trying to blow up the Columbus Street Bridge.

Columbus Street Bridge, c1986. Source: Cleveland Memory Project.  

The original wooden Columbus Street bridge was replaced by a steel span in 1870, then by a double swing bridge, and finally by a lift bridge in 1940. The 1940 bridge is currently closed and is being restored. Ironically, it is now a popular route between Cleveland and Ohio City.

Center Street swing bridge. Source: historicbridges.org.

The many incarnations of the Center Street Bridge were finally replaced by a steel swing bridge in 1900, which remains in use today.














Ohio City was annexed by Cleveland in 1854, and is now home to Cleveland's historic West Side Market and some of the best restaurants in town.

There are a number of great resources on Cleveland's bridges, among them: 
Bridges of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County (1918), available on Google Books. 
The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 
The Cleveland Memory Project, in particular http://www.clevelandmemory.org/ebooks/bmc/Bmcchap3.html
The Cleveland Historical Society, which also has an awesome free app that puts Cleveland history at your fingertips as you travel around town.