Breakfast in bed, anyone?
By Amanda Glatfelter
Mather Mansion, once a part of Cleveland’s famed Millionaires’ Row, may no longer house university offices. It may become a bed and breakfast.
In May, Cleveland State’s Board of Trustees agreed to explore the option of turning Mather Mansion into a bed and breakfast, according to John Boyle, vice president for Business Affairs and Finance.
“[Mather Mansion] doesn’t work well as an office building,” Boyle said. [It has the] highest and best use as a bed and breakfast.”
CSU would lease, not sell, the mansion to an outside company that would in turn operate the bed and breakfast without any risk to the university. Paran Management Co. Ltd. won the bidding war to run the bed and breakfast and will need to raise an estimated $9 million to make the changes happen. Out of this, $4-5 million will be from private donors, while tax credits and the Paran Management’s investments will make-up the difference. An L-shaped addition will be built on to the existing building, transforming the 30 room mansion into a bed and breakfast with 50 rooms.
The university is giving Paran Management until December 2008 to raise the funds.
If Paran Management doesn’t come up with the money, the university will use the mansion for lectures.
Paran Management runs Case Western Reserve’s very successful Glidden House Inn.
Glidden House, which was once a mansion as well, is often overbooked, and could therefore offer new business to Mather Mansion, according to Boyle.
The hope for the restored mansion is that it will house visiting students and parents, athletic teams and visiting lectures.
“[It would be] a nice amenity to the university,” Boyle said. “A lot of colleges have amenities like this on campus.”
Guests of the bed and breakfast will be able to use CSU facilities.
According to Boyle, guests will be given passes to the recreation center, and will also receive parking passes for the new garage located next to Mather Mansion.
Currently, Mather Mansion houses the Department of University Advancement as well as Marketing and Public Relations. Both of these departments would have to relocate if the bed and breakfast project occurs.
Once the College of Education building is complete, and space in Rhodes Tower is available, the Department of University Advancement and Marketing and Public Relations will move to Rhodes Tower. However, until then both departments will be located off-campus in the Keith Building.
When it was a part of Millionaire’s Row, Mather Mansion housed Samuel Mather, a millionaire from the iron industry. The mansion was finished in 1910 and was valued at more than $1 million, the most expensive home in Cleveland at the time.
In 1967, CSU acquired the mansion, turning it into the new home of the African-American Cultural Center and First College, according to CSU.
Mather Mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Cleveland State currently owns two of the three millionaire’s row mansions left on Euclid Avenue: Mather Mansion and Howe Mansion. Howe Mansion is currently being renovated into the College of Graduate Studies and will be re-named Parker Hannifin Hall.
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