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The Union Club, Cleveland, Ohio
The Union Club of Cleveland was first incorporated in 1872 as a private businessman’s social club. Significantly, from its inception, The Union Club was conceived as a gathering place fostering not only the socialization, physical education and relaxation of its members, but also the learned discussion and debate of issues of import to the growing Midwestern city. Its initial charter subscribers comprised a roster of prominent Cleveland political leaders, businessmen, industrialists and philanthropists: Hanna, Payne, Everett, Waite, Bingham, Stone, Wade, Mather, Townsend, Westlake, Armstrong, Pettengill, Brayton, and others.
Since 1905, The Union Club has occupied its current home, an historic structure at 1211 Euclid Avenue designed by prominent Cleveland architect Charles F. Schweinfurth. The building, a dignified neoclassical mansion of stately presence, was designed to accommodate the needs of The Union Club’s current membership of roughly 1,000.
This distinctive four-story structure hosts the City Club of Cleveland, the longest-running free speech forum in the nation. The City Club, founded in 1912 as a non-partisan forum for political, civic and social speech and debate, has over the past century welcomed such dignitaries as six U.S. Presidents, as well as a host of U.S. Vice-Presidents, cabinet members, Supreme Court Justices, military leaders, authors, civic activists and other national opinion-makers. See more at rickzworld.