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Once a stagecoach stop on Buffalo-Cleveland-Detroit post road,
today Dunham Tavern Museum is the oldest building still standing
on its original site in the city of Cleveland. The 1824 home of
Rufus and Jane Pratt Dunham in MidTown Cleveland is now a
designated Cleveland Landmark listed on the Register of National
Historic Places. In stark contrast to the cityscape that
surrounds it, the museum and its gardens offer a glimpse of
history and insight into the lifestyles of early Ohio settlers
and travelers.
The Tavern
Rufus and Jane Pratt Dunham came to the
Western Reserve
in 1819. The young couple from
Massachusetts
acquired 13.75 acres of land, which they began to farm. A log
cabin served as their home until the north portion of the
present structure was built in 1824. Later, the main block of
the home seen today was added in front of the original wing and,
as late as 1832, the west wing was built.
Capitalizing on the home’s position along a well-traveled
stagecoach route, Rufus Dunham soon became a tavernkeeper as
well as farmer. The Dunham Tavern became a social and political
center facilitating parties, turkey shoots and meetings of the
Whig party. The Dunham’s sold the Tavern in 1853, but it
continued to serve as a tavern until 1857 when a banker bought
it for his home.
Amazingly, this residence stood through Euclid Avenue’s rise and
fall. Stagecoach stops to car dealerships, Millionaire’s Row to
urban renewal . . . Dunham Tavern has remained.
In the 1930s the Tavern served as studio space for a group of
WPA artists and printmakers. The Society of Collectors,
organized in the early 1930s, became interested in the historic
site and eventually took responsibility for the structure,
opening it to the public in 1941. Dunham Tavern is now a
nonprofit museum supported by
donations, members, grants, sponsorships and monies raised
from tours and outreach events.
What Is This?
Featured Collection Item
Because it was preserved by the Society of Collectors, today the
Tavern is filled with many fascinating items of early
Americana. It has a formal 18th Century parlor, the original
taproom and several rooms furnished with 19th Century antiques.
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 Clementi Square Fortepiano
(circa 1798/99)
More than 200 years
old, this early and primitive square piano was made by Clementi
& Company. It was purchased by the Society of American
Collectors in 1938 for $450.
Muzio Clementi
(b. Rome, 1753, d. Evesham, England, 1832) was a composer,
pianist and music publisher of considerable note. It has been
said that Clementi probably influenced Beethoven in his use of
the piano as a cantable instrument. Clementi certainly
contributed a great deal to developing a style of writing that
exploited the characteristics of the piano, rather than the
harpsichord.
In the early
1790s, Clementi invested in the London piano firm of Longman &
Broderip. After its bankruptcy in 1799, Clementi entered into a
new partnership and thereby established Clementi & Company.
Trading on his fame was no doubt helpful in successfully
promoting the instruments. In addition to pianos, the firm
produced a few harpsichords and some woodwind instruments
bearing his name. In 1807 a fire damaged the factory, but the
firm continued despite considerable financial loss. Ultimately,
Clementi died a wealthy man.
This fortepiano’s
outer case consists of Honduras mahogany and English walnut with
decorative inlay stripping. The internal frame members are made
of pine, while the soundboard is spruce. Unlike modern pianos,
the sustain on this fortepiano is controlled by a small knee
lever located under the keyboard. The strings are made of low
tensile “soft iron” and red/yellow brass, instead of hard steel.
Despite its small size and five octaves (61 keys, F to F), it is
surprisingly versatile.
Dunham Tavern
Museum’s fortepiano was restored by Philip M. Cucchiari in 1990
through a grant from The Kulas Foundation.
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GARDENS
Heritage Trail
Weather
permitting, a stroll along Heritage Trail adds another dimension to
your visit. Surrounded by industrial and commercial development, the
museum is a startling anachronism—a reminder of the Western Reserve
as it once was. Its Heritage Trail is a garden oasis in the heart of
Cleveland’s Midtown Corridor.
The 900-foot path
features silhouettes depicting aspects of life in the early 1800s.
Station 1:
The Stagecoach
Stagecoaches took
48 hours to travel from
Buffalo to western settlements like
Cleveland. In
their time they were considered a fast, though exhausting, way to
travel. Passengers and drovers on the hard and sometimes dangerous
journey along Buffalo-Cleveland-Detroit Road welcomed resting places
like Dunham Tavern.
Station 2:
Wild Animals
The wild animals
featured (Black Bear, Red Fox, Cottontail Deer) represented
important sources of food. Their furs provided the settlers warmth
in the winter.
Station 3:
The Eastern
Postrider
A postrider
traveled on horseback, carrying mail in his saddlebags. Money for
postage was collected from each letter or parcel’s recipient. In the
earliest days, he might only deliver as far as he could travel in
one day, changing horses at fixed points to keep to a fixed
schedule.
Station 4:
Dog and Hunter in
Canoe
Native Americans
taught settlers how to make canoes by using simple wooden frameworks
and covering them with bark or hides. These canoes offered swift
transportation over large lakes or small streams for hunting and
fishing.
Station 5:
Winter Skating &
Sledding
As any resident
or winter visitor knows, the ponds and streams of Northeast Ohio
freeze in January and February. Winter family fun might have
included ice skating, sledding or other weather appropriate games
like stick hockey or crack-the-whip.
Station 6:
Sleighs
Sleighs were
designed to move gracefully over an icy crust of snow. Neighbors,
wrapped warmly in robes, would race to see who had the fastest
sleigh.
Station 7:
Farm Animals
Many farm animals
provided food. The family would preserve meat by salting, smoking,
drying or pickling processes. Other staples of life would also come
from the animals. For example, obviously cattle provided milk,
cheese and meat, but they also produced tallow hides and horns in
which settlers could carry gunpowder. Sheep provided wool that could
be spun into yarn that would then be woven or knit into cloth. Goats
gave milk, but their hair too could be spun into yarn.
Station 8:
Farm Work
In the early 19th
century, farmers had a variety of tools to help them labor in the
fields. Many examples of these implements are on display in the
tavern and the barn. Farmers labored from dawn to dusk to maintain a
food supply and provide for their families.
Station 9:
Conestoga Wagon
Conestoga wagons
came from shops in Conestoga, Pennsylvania. They carried heavy
freight that often included lumber, metal, tools, grain and
household goods for the pioneers heading into the developing western
territories.
Station 10:
Canal Boat
Cleveland became
the most important canal port in Ohio because it was a transit point
for products from the interior to be shipped to the Erie Canal and
the eastern seaboard. Packet boats on the canal carried wealthy
passengers, speeding along at four miles an hour. The 209-mile trip
from Cleveland to Portsmouth took 80 hours at a cost of four cents a
mile.
Station 11:
Native Americans
It is important
to recognize that the area was not unpopulated. The history of the
region goes way back. Native Americans lived in
Northeast Ohio for thousands of years before the early settlers
arrived.
Station 12:
Prairie Gardens
Dunham Tavern
Museum’s prairie gardens are designed to show some of the tall
grasses and larger plants that grew in other wide, flat, treeless
areas of northern Ohio. They are, however, also representative of
plants that grew and bloomed farther west in the Midwestern
prairies.
Station 13:
The Plow
After the land
was cleared, the farmer would plow the soil so he could plant crops.
The farmer guided the plow that was pulled by horses or oxen.
Station 14:
Barnyard Fowl
Settlers raised
chickens, ducks and geese because they matured in a short amount of
time and could produce eggs and meat. The feathers were also used to
stuff pillows and beds.
Women cared for
and fed most of the smaller farm animals like the fowl. They also
milked cows, cooked, baked, cleaned, spun, wove, sewed, made candles
and cared for the family’s young, infirm and elderly.
Station 15:
Children at Play
Wheat, oats and
corn were staples of the settler’s diet. Grinding removed hard
shells from these grains. For many years, this preparation was done
by hand. As water and windmill power came into use, a larger amount
of grain could be ground more quickly and much more easily.
 Station 17:
Flower Garden
Dunham Tavern’s
garden features a variety of flowers. Some are perennials,
meaning that they come up year after year from their hardy roots.
Others are annuals, which means that they go through their
life cycle in one season.
Station 18:
Yoke for Oxen
The oxen’s
drawing power exceeded that of a horse several times over, but the
animal was docile enough for a young boy to handle. A yoke, placed
around the neck of the animal, provided a harness that the settler
could then attach to a wagon, plow or sledge.
Station 19:
School Days
Boys and girls
could attend one-room schoolhouses to learn their letters from a
hornbook and to read from the New England Primer. A good deal of
time and effort was spent on penmanship as the possession of a
legible, “joining” hand, plain to be read, was considered the mark
of an educated person.
Station 20:
Community Gardens
Located here are
a number of community gardens coordinated through an outreach
program from the Cleveland Botanical Garden.
Most of the plots
feature vegetable gardens filled with lettuce, radishes, squash,
cabbage, tomatoes and corn.
Station 21:
Log Cabin
The Barn
Originally, there
were stables to the west side of the Tavern with ample room for 15
horses. The barn was a large structure most likely used for storing
harvested crops and fodder for oxen and horses, as well as
sheltering the animals from the harsh winters of the Western
Reserve.
The Dunham barn
is believed to have been built in the 1840s. Hand-hewn timbers, cut
nails, a hinged barn door and simple stone-on-ground foundation
established its age. With a few variations, like gable-entry doors,
features of the barn are representative of traditional English
construction methods. The timber incorporated in the original barn
was poplar and white ash, suggesting that these trees were prevalent
in the region.
For more than 120
years, the old Dunham barn met many needs. It survived until 1963,
when a fire destroyed it just before restoration was slated to
begin. For more than 30 years, DTM Members talked about the
possibility of building a new barn on the site of the old one.
In 2000, Dunham
Tavern Museum opened a slightly smaller replica of the old barn just
east of its original site. Whenever possible, constructions methods
similar to the ones used by the Dunhams were employed, though the
wood used in the replication was Douglas fir. Also, inside the
building was reconfigured for use as a conference, party and
education center.
Banks-Baldwin
House
The Banks-Baldwin
House is located on the north end of the lot, facing Chester Avenue.
It is not original to the property and is not normally open to
public view. The Banks-Baldwin House is used by the Cleveland
Botanical Gardens for the administration of their outreach garden
program on the Dunham Tavern Museum grounds.
Log Cabin
Rufus and Jane
Pratt Dunham did build a cabin when they first arrived at their
Northeast Ohio property, but it wasn’t this one. This mid-1800s log
cabin was
dismantled, transported from Virginia
and reassembled on the Dunham Tavern grounds. The cabin is
originally from the estate of one William Watkins. Watkins first
purchased a tract of 400 acres north of the city of Danville,
Virginia, in 1841. The 19’ x 19’ structure is thought to have served
as a building for drying tobacco.
The logs of the
cabin were cut with a broad ax to yield square cut logs. This is
also typical, actually, of the architecture of Ohio log cabins from
the roughly the same period.
FAQ
Q. What is the
Western Reserve?
A. After the
Revolutionary War, the state of Connecticut retained rights to
western lands granted to it by a 17th century charter.
The federal government granted Connecticut the “Western Reserve”
tract in the Northwest Territory. In 1795, Connecticut sold the land
to a group of investors calling itself the Connecticut Land Company.
Moses Cleaveland was one of the party sent out to survey the tract
in 1796.
Q. Did the Dunhams
have children?
A.
Yes. Rufus and
Jane Pratt Dunham had three children together. Their first child was
Charles H., born in September of 1818. By 1819 the Dunhams were in
the Cleveland area where, in 1824, they purchased their land and
began the process of establishing a new home. Their next surviving
daughter was Loretta J., born in May of 1823. She was followed by
Caroline S. Dunham in May of 1825.
Q. Did people live
in the house after the Dunhams?
A.
Yes. By 1857 the
Tavern had ceased operation and the building was used as a private
home. The first private owner was George Williams, a banker and
broker. The last was Dr. James Stephens, who lived on the property
from 1886 till his death in 1930.
Q. Who owns the
Tavern today?
A.
Preserved by the
Society for American Collectors, Dunham Tavern is now a nonprofit
organization. A public museum, Dunham Tavern is in the National
Register of Historic Places and was a designated Cleveland Landmark
in 1973.
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