The Library’s diverse collections appeal to a wide spectrum of users including scholars, students, genealogists, historians, hobbyists, government, media, and others. Since its founding, the primary focus has been to document the many facets of the history of the region. This portrayal includes genealogy, religion, politics, immigration, gender, ethnicity, transportation, business, labor, war, philanthropy, medicine, leisure, and countless other dimensions.

Dear Friends of the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) Library:

On behalf of WRHS, thank you again for your outpouring of support for our work to restore the Library facility and collections.  As you know, on September 28, 2023 there was a fire in the basement of the WRHS Library and the Library is closed for restoration as a result.  The Cleveland History Center (CHC) reopened on September 29, 2023 to the public and all events, exhibits, and after-hours parties and events have continued as scheduled.

As previously reported, the fire was limited to an area of the WRHS Library basement, and the cause remains under investigation. There was damage to some materials in the basement from water, and the event caused smoke and soot damage throughout all four floors of the Library facility. Soot contamination affected collections to varying degrees, as well as office furnishings, equipment, and mechanicals. WRHS remains in contact with organizations and individuals whose collections require special treatment. Otherwise, the majority of library and archival materials are fine and will be treated by document conservators to remove smoke and soot contamination.

WRHS continues to work closely with experts from Belfor Property Restoration and The Conservation Center (TCC) to restore the Library environment, assess, treat and restore damaged collections, and temporarily relocate collections. The temporary relocation of collections will allow WRHS to restore the Library facility and safeguard collections in the process. Collections transferred to a remote processing center (RPC) are cleaned, deodorized and re-boxed to prepare for their return to the Library at a time that is to be determined.

At this time, we expect to reopen early 2025. We are continuing our work with restoration, conservation and insurance experts to develop the timeline. WRHS expects all library activities, including processing collections, to resume. The library team continues to work on several digitization and cataloguing projects and is responding to telephone and email requests for research assistance and information. We are considering ways to accommodate Library collection requests during the interim. All staff and library activities have been relocated to temporary offices and workspaces on the second floor of the Hanna Mansion and the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum. 

While the Library is closed for restoration, research materials are available by request. Please contact Ann Sindelar at aksindelar@wrhs.org.

If you are a member of WRHS, and you would like a refund on your membership because you are unable to access the Library for research, please contact Angie Lowrie at alowrie@wrhs.org.

WRHS will continue to provide regular updates to staff, Board, donors, auxiliary organizations, membership, partners, stakeholders and the media about our work. In the meantime, we genuinely appreciate your patience, your flexibility, and confidence that WRHS is taking all of the correct and necessary steps to resolve this truly unfortunate accident. Please contact Kelly Falcone-Hall, President and CEO, at  kfalcone@wrhs.org with questions.

Thank you,

Kelly Falcone-Hall
President & CEO

Access to our WRHS digital collections and resources are available through our digital portal

DIGITAL CLEVELAND STARTS HERE