The Cultural Hub

 Last week I took another one of my local excursions.  I drove to the east side of Cleveland, parked the car, and walked around the neighborhood known as University Circle.  University Circle has the densest concentration of cultural and educational institutions anywhere in the nation.  The area gained its name in the late 1800s when Western Reserve University located its campus here, followed shortly afterward by Case School of Applied Science.  In 1967 the two schools merged to become Case Western Reserve University, one of the most prestigious private universities in the state.

I began my walk around the neighborhood at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Although not as large as some institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is highly regarded for the comprehensiveness and quality of its collection.  

Numerous additions have been built throughout its history, but the beautiful, neoclassical, marble façade of the original structure, opened in 1916, remains unchanged.

The banners on either side of the entrance say "For the benefit of all the people forever", a quote by Jeptha Wade II, one of the museums early presidents and benefactors.  It has one of the highest endowments of any art museum in the country, and admission to the museum is free.  The museum has once again opened after being closed for several months during the pandemic.  However, to limit the number of visitors, you must call ahead to reserve a time to visit.

In front of the museum is "The Thinker", the renowned statue by the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin.  It is one of only five casts of the sculpture that were supervised by Rodin himself.  On March 24, 1970, in the wee hours of the morning, a bomb was set off at the statue, and the lower portion of it was destroyed.  The museum decided not to try to repair it, but to leave it as testimony to a senseless act of vandalism.

 

Lovely Wade Park with its lagoon serves as the museum's front yard.

Across from Wade Park is Severance Hall, the home of the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra.  The neoclassical concert hall was opened in 1931 and is named after patron John Severance and his wife Elizabeth.

Just beyond Severance Hall is the campus of Case Western Reserve University.

A contrast to the traditional architecture of the older university buildings is the Weatherhead School of Management which was designed by contemporary architect  Frank Gehry.

I have heard that one must be cautious walking by this building in the winter.  There supposedly have been cases where snow sliding off the metal surfaces create mini-avalanches. (I don't know if that is really true.)

This monument on the campus was designed by noted architect Phillip Johnson, a Cleveland native.  Johnson referred to it as a modern version of Stonehenge.

Across Euclid Avenue from the campus is University Hospitals which is affiliated with Case Western Reserve, and which is one of the leading medical institutions in the Cleveland area (second only to Cleveland Clinic).

Housed in the university's medical library is the Dittrick Museum of Medical History.

Continuing down Euclid Avenue past the university and the hospital, is the newest addition to University Circle... the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Backtracking, heading down East Boulevard past the Art Museum is the Cleveland Botanical Garden.  In addition to the outdoor gardens there is the "Glasshouse" which features plants and animals from the biomes of the Madagascar spiny desert and the Costa Rican cloud forest.

Just beyond the Botanical Gardens is the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music.  The faculty includes many musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra.

Continuing down the boulevard we come to the Cleveland History Center which is operated by the Western Reserve Historical Society.

In addition to exhibits on local history, the center includes the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum with over 150 antique cars and airplanes, the costume wing with over 30,000 garments from the late 18th century to the present, and the library and archives for genealogical research.

Attached  to the History Center is the Hay-McKinney mansion which features furnishings from the early 20th century.

The mansion, which was completed in 1911 was the home of John Hay, the secretary of state.  The architect was Abram Garfield, the son of President James Garfield.  The house was later the home of Price McKinney, a Cleveland steel magnate.

Finally, across from the Art Museum, where I started, is the Cleveland Natural History Museum.

The museum contains more than four million specimens.  In 1974 Donald Johanson, who was at the time the museum curator, gained fame when he unearthed in Ethiopia the remains of a skeleton of a female hominid more that three million years old.  The skeleton was nicknamed "Lucy", and a cast of the bones is on display in the museum.

I think that this winter, when my long walks will no longer be possible, I shall have revisit some of these museums which are a part of Cleveland's cultural hub.