Fenn Tower is a 22-story

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

. It is owned by

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in oper ...

. It was built for the National Town and Country Club, but was only used for one event before closing. It was originally known as the National Town and Country Club before being sold. It was purchased by Fenn College in 1937 for $250,000. It is currently being used as student housing. It is the second tallest structure on the Cleveland State campus, second to Rhodes Tower. The tower was named after Sereno Peck Fenn (one of three principal founders of

Sherwin-Williams Sherwin-Williams is an American paints and coatings company based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is primarily engaged in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of paints, coatings, floorcoverings, and related products with operations in over 120 coun ...

), whom Fenn College was named after. Fenn Tower is listed 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 ...

as the National Town and Country Club. It was originally furnished by Rorimer-Brooks Studios, Inc. Originally where the Fenn Gym and The Ellwood H. Fisher Swimming Pool were located, they were removed during the 2005 renovation.

History

Fenn started by offering night classes in the 1930s in engineering and its model was to specialize in low cost higher education. Fenn's first president was Dr. Cecil V. Thomas who was a well known academician and Ohio educator. In 1932, Fenn added business classes to the growing roster of student programs. The National Town and Country Club Building was supposed to house the gentleman's club for

Greater Cleveland The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 census results, the six-county Cleveland, OH ...

ers who wanted a central location in which to hold club meetings and events. However, due to the stock market crash in 1929, the club was no longer solvent and the high rise building lay vacant until purchased by Fenn College in 1937 because of Fenn's need for more space. This meant that Fenn was only the third college in the United States to have a skyscraper on its academic campus (the others being the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

and

Thomas Jefferson University Thomas Jefferson University is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

) and further gave Fenn a much more coveted Euclid Avenue downtown address.''Cleveland State University: A Brief History''
Retrieved on 2015-09-29

References

External links

Official Fenn Tower website
* FennCSUCLE

{{National Register of Historic Places Cleveland State University Residential skyscrapers in Cleveland Buildings and structures completed in 1929 Art Deco architecture in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Cleveland, Ohio

History

See also

References

External links