Cleveland's Western Reserve Historical Society Museum

If you haven't been to the Western Reserve Historical Society, on Wade Oval in University Circle, or if you haven't been lately, you owe yourself a trip. This small gem of a museum consists of two early 20th century Cleveland mansions -- the Hay-McKinney mansion and the Mather mansion.

The Mather mansion's high-ceilinged rooms with intricate carved ceilings house a variety of exhibits about Cleveland's history, from Moses Cleaveland and the early surveyors of the Connecticut Western Reserve to the present.

The Hay-McKinney mansion is open to the public via guided tours. (Don't be put off by the tour; I generally don't like them either, but this one is interesting.) The tour touches many of the mansion's 30 rooms (18,500 square feet!), including the walnut paneled dining room (pictured above), the children's nursery, the kitchen, and the servants' quarters. (By the way: the dining room table and chairs pictured above are an original Chippendale set that once belonged to Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry of "Battle of Lake Erie" fame.)

The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10am - 5pm and on Sunday from Noon to 5pm. Adult admission is $8.50 and there are discounts for Cleveland Museum of Art members, AAA members, students, and seniors.

^{(Photo © 2006 S. Mitchell)}