Case School: The Evolving History

New Location

The School was looking to expand and for that it needed additional space. The opportunity for a new site came with the railroad magnate Amasa Stone's donation to relocate Western Reserve College from Hudson to Cleveland in 1880. As Stone and many others believed that Case and Western Reserve should exist in “close proximity and harmony” to their mutual benefit sharing resources and accommodations, Case trustees contributed $10,000 to the $100,000 needed to purchase the land. Stone’s gift was contingent upon the Case School move, and that Western Reserve University's men's undergraduate college be named Adelbert College.

The 43 acres of land west of Adelbert Road and south of Euclid Avenue were acquired from the farm of Liberty Holden with a small part coming from the farm of Martha Ford that were located in the University Circle neighborhood. The land was split between Case School of Applied Sciences on the western side and Western Reserve on the eastern side of the land.

Western Reserve College moved to Cleveland in 1882 and was renamed Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. In April 1883, Case Trustees approved ground breaking for Case Main on the newly dedicated land adjacent to Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. 





Case Main opened in September 1885 and it was the first building to host students at its new location in University Circle.  The building on Rockwell was maintained as business headquarters until Cleveland city advanced its  Mall Plan.

The two campuses were separated by a fence until 1948 when the Presidents of the two schools - Glennan of Case and Leutner of Western Reserve - used an axe to tear it down.

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