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 When Western Reserve College was founded in 1826 it was the only college in northern Ohio. Its location in the town of Hudson placed it in the region's then-largest population area, since the nearby lakeport city of Cleveland had only begun to grow. But by 1875, a number of other schools had been established nearby, and Cleveland had emerged as clearly the dominant population and business center of the region. Competition from institutions such as Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Hiram College, Baldwin College, Wallace College, Wooster University and Buchtel College had a detrimental affect on admissions, and support for the institution weas more and more being drawn from Cleveland rather than from its immediate surroundings.
At this time, the trustees determined that major changes would have to
be made to ensure the success of the college. By 1876, a contingent of
trustees, including President Carroll Cutler, Mr. Hiram Haydn of Cleveland,
and Mr. Lee of Toledo had the idea that they could put the college in
a different class from its country brethren by moving it to a more urban
environment. Although Mr. Lee had made some effort to secure funds for
a Toledo location, Cleveland became the logical choice. By this period
many of the students at the college were from Cleveland, and more importantly,
the bulk of donations to the school were from Clevelanders.
This
was not the first time that such a move had been suggested.
Prior attempts had met with resistance from the people of Hudson and were
thus abandoned. But this time, the City of Cleveland was anxious for a college.
Richard Parsons, the owner of the Cleveland Herald ran an editorial in his
paper urging that a wealthy citizen should provide the funding necessary
for the college to make the move. "We
want no rival college in Cleveland to that in Hudson," he stated, "but want that college
to come here." The trustees were ready to proceed. By 1879 they determined
that gifts of $500,000 would be necessary to remove the college to the city.
While the trustees readied their plans, other events were transpiring
in Cleveland. The benevolence of both Leonard Case, Jr. and Amasa Stone
would have the greatest impact on the move. In 1877, unbeknownst to the
trustees of Western Reserve College, Mr. Case established a trust of over
a million dollars to be used to establish in Cleveland a polytechnic school
called the Case School of Applied Science. News of the gift became public
in 1880 just after Mr. Case's death. During this same period, Amasa Stone--perhaps
influenced by his friend Richard Parsons, and perhaps motivated by Mr.
Case's gift--agreed to fund the move of Western Reserve College to Cleveland.
With funding in place, it was now time to choose a location. Among the conditions of Amasa Stone's gift were requirements that Western Reserve and Case occupy adjoining campuses, and that the land for the campuses be paid for by the community, without his help. The trustees of the two institutions agreed on a location on the south side of Euclid Avenue opposite Wade Park. By March of 1881, a committee had raised a total of $119,400 from 56 donors, $33,000 of which was contributed in the form of a price reduction by the owners of the 43-acre property, Cordelia Ford and Liberty E. Holden. The Ford family continued to maintain a farm east of the campus, while their homestead served in various times as the first home of the Women's College of Western Reserve University as well as the first home for the School of Law. The family eventually conveyed their remaining land to the University and Lakeside Hospital in 1916, and their ties with the University remain strong to this day.
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