The Cleveland Athletic Club (CAC) was a historic organization founded in 1908. Founding members included Mayor Charles A. Otis, Walter Baker, and Elbert Baker; banker William Parmalee Murray was its first president. In 1911 the organization commissioned a 15-story social club building at 1118 Euclid Avenue, a structure with facilities for its boxing tournaments, office space, a 12-room hotel, a dining room, an eight-lane bowling alley, a basketball court, and many other amenities. Olympic and Hollywood swimmer Johnny Weissmueller broke the record for the 15-yard backstroke in the club's penthouse pool in 1922. The architect was J. Milton Dyer, who also designed the

Cleveland City Hall Cleveland City Hall is the seat of government for the City of Cleveland, Ohio, and the home of Cleveland City Council and the office of the Mayor of Cleveland. It opened in 1916 and is located at 601 Lakeside Avenue in the Civic Center area of ...

. Murals in the club were among the first commissions of American muralist William P. Welsh. The building is a contributing property to the city's Euclid Avenue Historic District on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, and a part of the

Nine-Twelve District The Nine-Twelve District is a major area of downtown Cleveland, in the U.S. state of Ohio, that is the re-branding of the former Financial District of Cleveland. This re-branding has largely been championed by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. The ...

as designated by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. The club was in financial difficulty in 2007. It closed its doors permanently on December 31, 2007, because of "sagging membership and financial problems". In 2015, the building was sold for $3.3 million in a

sheriff's sale A government auction or a public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a governmen ...

, with announced plans for its conversion into a residential or mixed-use property. As of early 2020 the building had been extensively renovated into a luxury apartment building called "The Athlon". Another, earlier Cleveland Athletic Club was established in 1890, with early baseball executive Frank Robison as its president. Despite an impressive new headquarters in the former Dodge mansion at 500 Euclid Avenue, and despite a large membership, it appears to have faded after 1895.

References

Residential skyscrapers in Cleveland Athletics clubs in the United States Buildings and structures in Cleveland Historic district contributing properties in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Cleveland, Ohio Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio {{CuyahogaCountyOH-NRHP-stub