2024 Bicentennial

In 2024, Dunham Tavern Museum & Gardens commemorates the bicentennial of the Dunham family putting down roots in Cleveland, Ohio. This celebration provides the opportunity to showcase the city's early days in the “age of homespun” before the Civil War. During this period, settlers like Rufus and Jane Dunham, who headed west across the Appalachian frontier, had to make do for themselves and have been celebrated for their fortitude and resiliency, sustained by their hopes and aspirations.

Families like the Dunhams had to clear the land, build their own homes, raise crops to feed their families and for sale to others, make their own clothes at home (hence “homespun”), raise their fowl and livestock, and try their hand at a number of crafts and trades. In this era, the Dunham’s residence featured a tavern, serving as a community social hub. And the family figured in the participatory democracy of the city, holding elected office and serving shared community interests.

To tell the Dunham family story, we have formed a committee of historians, archivists, and genealogists devoted to documenting and revealing Ohio’s early history. They will help present the Dunhams’ world through museum exhibits, as well as diverse programming, culminating in an “old time County Fair” promising to be both entertaining and informative. Our focus on the Dunhams will conclude with presentations on the origins of the Dunham Tavern Museum in the 1930s for preserving and celebrating Cleveland’s past.

Following the conclusion of our bicentennial commemorations, we will embark upon telling a broader history of our MidTown Cleveland neighborhood in the post-Dunham era, from the Gilded Age through the present. Community engagement and participation will drive this effort in documenting and telling its own ongoing story.