Excelsior was a Jewish social club established "for the purpose of establishing intimate friendly relations among ourselves, and to enjoy the advantages of an association calculated to produce enlightened social and literary pleasure." It was founded in 1872 partly in reaction to Jewish exclusion from such clubs as the Union Club. The Excelsior's membership consisted almost exclusively of the more prominent Jews of German cultural backgrounds. During its existence, Excelsior met at several locations, including the specially designed second and third floors of the newly constructed Halle Building and a large building designed by Cudell and Richardson at E. 38th Street and Woodland Avenue. In 1908, the club moved into a new home on Euclid Avenue in the Wade Park district, which subsequently became Thwing Hall on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. The club sponsored a variety of social events for its members and provided dining and recreational facilities. In 1905, a second Jewish assocation, Oakwood, was established as a golf club in the suburban area of Cleveland Heights. In 1931, recognizing that many of its members preferred the expanded facilities and opportunities of the Oakwood Club, and in light of the financial pressures of the Great Depression, the board of the Excelsior leadership agreed to a merger of the two clubs and Excelsior ceased to exist as a separate entity.
The Oakwood Club
During World War II, the U.S. Army's 729th Military Police Battalion utilized the Oakwood clubhouse as a barracks. The Club continued to meet in a nearby residence. After the war and the return of the facility, further improvements were made, including the enlargement of women's facilities in 1953 and the addition of an entertainment and dining center in 1972. In 1961, the membership approved the purchase of land in Kirtland "suitable for club use against the eventuality of its being needed". The Kirtland property was never developed and was sold off in 1987.
Due to a variety of pressures affecting all private athletic and social clubs, including loss of members and diminishing financial resources, the Oakwood Club decided in 2010 to move its members to the Mayfield Sand Ridge Club and to put its 144-acre property up for sale. The Oakwood Club ceased to exist April 1, 2010.
The collection contains materials from the founding of the original Excelsior in 1872, the beginnings of the Oakwood Club in 1905, and the absorption of Excelsior into the Oakwood Club in 1931. Materials include articles; blueprints; books; broadsheets; constitutions and by-laws; correspondence; ephemera; financial records, appraisals and leases; maps; membership applications, certificates and records; minutes from the board and annual meetings; photographs of people, exterior views and interior views; promissory notes; property records, titles and deeds; rules and regulations; and scrapbooks.
This collection is of value to researchers interested in the social history of Cleveland Jewry from the 1870s through the early twenty-first century. Researchers will find considerable material on prominent Jewish families who applied for, and then became active members in, these two organizations. The materials also illuminate the inner workings and activities of these two social and recreational clubs in particular, but also of such clubs in general. The Oakwood collection is also of value to researchers who are interested in golf clubs and women's golfing as well as legal details concerning the purchase and management of land in the suburbs of Cleveland and in the Kirtland area.
The collection is arranged in eleven series. Series I: Excelsior Club is arranged alphabetically by document type. Series II: Oakwood Club Administrative Records is arranged alphabetically by document type. Series III: Oakwood Board of Trustees is arranged alphabetically by document type. Series IV: Oakwood Membership is arranged alphabetically by document type. Series V: Oakwood Financial Records is arranged alphabetically by document type. Series VI: Oakwood Property Records is arranged in original order. Series VII: Titles, Deeds, Leases is arranged chronologically. Series VIII: Kirtland Property Records is arranged alphabetically by document type. Series IX: Photographs is arranged alphabetically by subject. Series X: Oakwood Women's Golf Association Scrapbooks is arranged chronologically. Series XI: Audiovisual Recording is arranged chronologically.
Processed by Peter Haas and Sean Martin.
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[Container __, Folder __ ] MS 5440 Oakwood Club Records and Photographs, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.