In 1908 Clara Stone Hay, daughter of Amasa Stone and widow of John Hay, engaged Abram Garfield, youngest son of President Garfield, to design a home for her in the Wade Park Allotment. Today the Hay-McKinney house is furnished as a series of period galleries exhibiting furniture, decorative and fine arts and domestic artifacts from the WRHS collections.
About
Only briefly inhabited, this living museum tells the stories of Mrs. Clara Hay, the McKinney family, and prominent Clevelanders who built a city through savvy entrepreneurship and generous philanthropy. This mansion is now open to the public during their visits to the Cleveland History Center.
Built in 1911 by Clara Hay, daughter of railroad magnate Amasa Stone and wife of diplomat and Washington socialite John Hay, this mansion tells the story of Cleveland’s influential citizens. Like many wealthy Clevelanders, the Hays originally lived on Euclid Avenue, or Millionaire’s Row, as it was known. After John Hay’s death in 1905, Clara wanted to be closer to her sister Flora. She had their home demolished and decided to build a new one, this mansion, in Wade Oval. Although the Hay family carefully oversaw the home’s construction they never moved in. Unfortunately Flora passed away within the year so Clara chose to return to Washington D.C. after overseeing the completion of the mansion.
The house sat empty, only visited by the groundskeepers and servants who maintained its condition, until Cleveland industrialist and steel executive Price McKinney bought the property in 1916. He, his wife Lucy, and his three children inhabited the house until 1925. The house then sat empty once again until the Western Reserve Historical Society purchased the home from Lucy McKinney in 1938.
The home is now furnished with period artifacts from the WRHS collections, ornate yet comfortable. Each room is laid out as it might have been in the late 18th and early 19th century – even the kitchen. Built from Clara’s vision, shaped by the McKinney’s daily life, and furnished by historic Clevelander’s donations, the mansion on East Boulevard is a picture of a city’s rise and the men and women who shaped it.
Today, the Hay-McKinney Mansion is the only historic house in Cleveland open for guided tours on a semi-regular basis.
