02/01/2025
The Museum will be closed tomorrow, Sunday, February 2. We will see you for tours again on Wednesday. Thank you!
An inclusive place that inspires and enriches lives through history, nature, and community.
6709 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH
44103
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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 a designated Cleveland Landmark listed on the National Register of 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 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 individual donations, grants, sponsorships and the generosity of the Museum’s members and visitors.
A stroll along our Heritage Trail adds another dimension to your visit. Surrounded by industrial and commercial development, the museum is a reminder of the Western Reserve as it once was. Our 900 ft. path features depictions of early settler life along with a stagecoach, log cabin, and community gardens featuring 1800s landscaping and local vegetables.