Dunham Tavern @ Two Hundred
A Dunham Tavern Museum Exhibit Spotlight
Duncan Virostko, Museum Assistant
Artifacts give history form and substance. Although no one exhibit could ever encompass the entire history of Dunham Tavern from 1824 to 2024, each artifact in this new exhibit helps to make the constant progression of history something tangible for our visitors. This blog entry delves into each of the objects in the new exhibit, Dunham Tavern @ Two Hundred, which help make up the two hundred year long story of Dunham Tavern.
Painting: Dunham Tavern, Joseph J. William, 1949
The first artifact on display is a depiction of the Tavern itself. This painting, from the rear perspective of the Tavern looking south, shows the Donald Gray Garden and its Armillary Sphere (or model of celestial objects in the sky), as well as the Tavern in a yellow and green paint scheme. This scheme reflects its later period as the home of Dr. Stephens & his wife Oriana, from 1896 to 1936, rather than its Tavern period under the Dunhams from 1824 to 1853. Earlier restorations of the tavern used this paint scheme.
However, according to documentary evidence from the Stephens, the building was originally a gray color, as seen today. This was confirmed by later paint analysis, which showed an underlying gray color, with technology not available in the 1940s, and restored in the 1980s. History, and by extension preservation, is ever changing as new information comes to light.
Gavel Made from wood of Dunham Tavern, ca. 1941
Numerous renovations over the last century have replaced unsound timbers at Dunham Tavern and added additional structural support to aging original wooden beams. In 1941, an inventive use was found for leftover original wood: it was turned into a pair of gavels used to call to order meetings of the Society of Collectors, a former antique collectors society whose volunteers acted as docents and curators until the 1980s. The gavels, along with a model of the Tavern now on display upstairs, were gifted to the Society in a ceremony when it took over operations of the Museum in 1941.
Mrs. Roberta Holden Bole , 1876-1950
This photo shows Roberta Bole, one of the most significant people in the story of Dunham Tavern’s eventual preservation as a museum. An early advocate for the building’s preservation alongside A. Donald Gray, Mrs. Bole leveraged her society connections, and the considerable fortune of her husband, to fund the acquisition and restoration of Dunham Tavern. She and her sister Delia White were the two most important figures in the museum’s earliest years.
Mrs. Delia Bulkley Holden White , 1871-1947
Delia White was one of many women involved early on in the long process of saving Dunham Tavern from threat of demolition and restoring it to its original state as a tavern of the 1840s. Mrs. White funded and supervised the restoration of the Dining Room, in addition to volunteers from the Daughters of the American Revolution, in 1938. Ironically, given the museum founders’ goal of preventing Dunham Tavern from becoming a used car lot, she was also the wife of Windsor T. White, a famous early Cleveland car maker.
Women have played a significant role in the history of Dunham Tavern, starting with Jane Pratt Dunham. It was her extra income, from straw hat making, that allowed her husband Rufus Dunham to built the frame house that forms the central section of Dunham Tavern in 1824. Mrs. Oriana Stephens, the final owner of the building, profiled later in this blog, later played a central role in its preservation alongside the numerous women involved subsequently in keeping Dunham Tavern for future generations to enjoy. This legacy is today continued by our present Executive Director, Mrs. Lauren Murray.
Dunham Tavern Memorabilia, 1940-2024.
Over the years, Dunham Tavern Museum has produced a fascinating array of items to promote itself. These have ranged in medium from ceramic tiles in the 1940s to a hand-crafted wooden handbag from the 1970s, and a multitude of print materials through out the years. These artifacts reflect the passion and talents of the volunteers who have kept the Tavern open for visitors on a regular basis since 1941, and the profound love that Clevelanders have for the oldest building in their city.
Dunham Family Relics, 1824-1853
Because artifacts connected to the Dunhams are scarce, they have by necessity been generally spread out throughout the museum in the past. For this special exhibit, however, and effort has been made to concentrate them in one place. Most notable are the small green clay lion which was owned by Caroline Dunham, the youngest of the Dunham children, and a pewter teapot belonging to her father Rufus Dunham, owner and builder of the tavern.
There are several more Dunham family relics also on display on the first floor. Surprisingly, given their delicacy, they are all textiles. A comforter made by Jane Dunham, divided at some point in remote antiquity but originally one piece, hangs from the blanket rack in the keeping room. Originally a checked red, white, and blue pattern, it has faded to a blue, orange, and cream. In the dining room, on the front wall above the table, hangs a pair of samplers, stitched by Dunham daughters Loretta & Caroline.
On the second floor are two piece of furniture that also originally belonged to the Dunhams: a vanity in the Front Bedroom belonging to Jane Dunham, and a dresser in the Nursery that probably belonged to Rufus Dunham originally and was gifted by Jane to close friend Harriet Lawrence in 1863, Rufus having died in 1862.
The Stephens Family, 1880-1936
The Stephens family acquired Dunham Tavern in 1896, after having fallen in love with the structure and repeatedly trying to purchase it from its previous owner George Williams, who had bought the old tavern in 1857 from the Dunhams. Stephens was a homeopathic doctor, who served the residents of Millionaires Row. After Stephens’ death during a surgery in 1930, Oriana decided to move out of the home, but was instrumental in preserving the old building. She rented it to Mr. A. Donald Gray, a landscape architect, who used it as offices and in turn rented space to a restaurant called The Brick Oven Room”, the Cleveland Print Makers, and the Society of Collectors. The later organization, established in 1934, would go on to open Dunham Tavern as a museum to the public in 1941.
Pennant, Great Lakes Exposition, 1936:
The Great Lakes Exposition of 1936-1937 was Cleveland’s answer to the World’s Fairs of New York and Chicago. Unlike those events however, it featured only American exhibitors and instead focused on the Great Lakes region, hence its name. A. Donald Gray, the landscape architect who helped to save Dunham Tavern designed extensive gardens for the Exposition, which remained intact until the 1999. The Exposition featured a small model of the Tavern within these Gardens and was also opened to the public for tours for the very first time during the event. It was a soft opening with the tavern largely unrestored and displayed artifacts being borrowed from various collectors. Nonetheless it marked the beginning of the story of the Tavern as a museum. This pennant would have been displayed during that opening, to notify passing motorists that the old home had now become a monument to Cleveland’s earliest days.
Dunham Tavern County Fair Prints, 1938
On September 14th, 15th, & 16th, 1938, Dunham Tavern held a County Fair event to raise funding for the restoration of the museum and belatedly celebrate the Tavern’s centennial. The event, similar to this year’s Dunham Day, featured volunteers dressed in 19th century clothing, games and sports of the period, and a period play performed in the barn. In spite of continual rain, the three-day event saw some 5,643 visitors enjoy the festivities at the Tavern. The printers of the Cleveland Print Club, a WPA program which used the parlor as a sales room, contributed custom prints for promotional materials and sale at the fair. Unfortunately, the fair was not a fundraising success: the costs of bringing numerous organizations together to put on the event equaled the profits. Mrs. Bole stepped in and donated a match to the profits of the fair, however, allowing restoration work to continue on the Tavern.
A. Donald Gray, 1891-1939
Seldom using his first name, Donald Gray was a prominent Landscape Architect. Although much of his work was for the well-to-do, Donald Gray was also an advocate for city beautification through gardening, writing numerous newspaper columns and lectures promoting the hobby and was known to make house calls to anyone in need of gardening advice. He designed the gardens for the 1936 Great Lakes Exposition, which survived until demolished in the 1980s during construction work on the new football stadium. Gray used Dunham Tavern as his personal office in the 1930s, renting it from Oriana Stephens and in turn renting out portions to local architects, artists, and businesses. He spearheaded efforts to preserve the Tavern, worrying for its future as his practice outgrew the building. He also designed the back gardens of the Tavern, still surviving to this day. Tragically, he never lived to see that garden completed: he died suddenly of a heart attack in his home, May 30, 1939.