CASE HALL - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

CASE HALL was a noted concert and lecture hall located in the Case Block on Superior, at PUBLIC SQUARE. The Case Block displaced private residences on Superior and necessitated the moving of the ARK, the meeting place for Cleveland's literary and scientific leaders. Built in 1867, the building provided quarters for CLEVELAND CITY HALL from 1875-1915. Situated over the stores on the first floor and offices on the second, Case Hall was a third floor auditorium that seated 2,000 on "patent opera chairs" and boasted a decor by the Italian artist Garibaldi. Over the years, Case Hall was a stopping place on the lecture circuits of Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and Mark Twain. German Clevelanders held a Peace Jubilee there at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, and English citizens celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria. The hall was the meeting place of the First Unitarian Society of Cleveland, and of the first convention of the National Association of Woman Suffrage. In addition to cultural, social, and religious events, the building housed the CLEVELAND LIBRARY ASSN. (CLA), and by 1876 featured animal exhibits of the Kirtland Historical Society. Despite its fame as a cultural center and local landmark, Case Hall was converted totally to office space in 1894, its first tenant being the Citizens Savings & Loan. In 1916 the Case Block was leveled to make way for the United States Post Office, Custom House, and Court House, known (in 1993) as the Old Federal Building.

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