Cleveland History Center at Western Reserve Historical Society Reviews

I cannot say enough about the WRHS -- we had an amazing wedding in the rotunda space. The carousel was the biggest hit, and it was so fun seeing pictures of all our guests on it. We also had access to the Crawford Auto Museum for the cocktail hour, and the guests loved looking at the old cars.
There was some confusion prior to the wedding (the venue went through 3 sales coordinators in a few months), but I thought they did a good job of passing the baton and communicating with me beforehand. There was a lot more staff from the museum on hand at the wedding than I was expecting, and they were all very nice and helpful to me and the guests. WRHS is a unique venue, and the staff there do a lot to help make the day special.

My daughter's wedding here exceeded our expectations. Our out of town guests were blown away by this venue. If you want to be married in a beautiful garden, have cocktails while admiring antique cars, have plenty of room for dinner and dancing, and then just to make it really over the top, add a carousel for guests to enjoy - this is your location! The staff was awesome and so helpful and it was so unique and unforgettable.

We held our daughter's wedding in the Hanna Garden and her reception in the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum which are both housed in the Cleveland History Center which is located at this address. (They have recently changed the name of the venue). The garden was absolutely perfect for the ceremony - it needed no extra decoration at all! It was also great to go inside for the cocktail hour and reception. Our guests loved the setting and seeing all the cars and planes which are on display!

BEAUTIFUL! After our first ceremony site didn't work we moved the ceremony here and I never looked back. The Hanna Gardens are gorgeous! As is the inside rotunda in the car museum. As it so happened it rained all morning the day of our wedding so we had to move it inside. The venue was gorgeous. Seriously. The staff was so helpful and kind, and even though we ran a few minutes late getting the ceremony started they were ever so helpful. Every question I had was promptly answered within a reasonable time. The only thing that occurred was some miscommunication regarding the extra hour, they thought it was before the wedding and I thought it was after the wedding. You also can't bring in your own alcohol, and while I sent a list of what we wanted was missed in the set up they didn't have any record of it. Luckily for me my photographer took care of the timing difference before I even knew it was a problem and when we mentioned the alcohol request they quickly corrected the mistake. You can't go wrong having the ceremony. Best decision ever! (Aside from my husband of course!)

My new husband and I just had our wedding here this past weekend and we could not be happier with this venue. It was amazing!!

First, the Hanna Garden was a beautiful spot for the ceremony, and the pictures are stunning with the columns, shrubs, and doorway framing us. There are so many great photo opportunities throughout the two gardens, museum, and mansion, so our pictures have a lot of variety.

Next, we had cocktail hour in the auto museum, which was great because it provided guests with a chance to mix and mingle, but also provided a great conversation starter as they walked around looking at the cars. Plus, our guest have been posting photos of themselves in front of these classics, and it is great to see they were also having a good time.

Finally, the reception was in the Crawford rotunda that offered a nice open feel with cars and planes continuing to add character to the event.

This place was perfect!! The rental price was reasonable, relative to other venues, the staff and Angie, the event coordinator, were so great and accommodating to work with, and they don't overcharge for alcohol by charging per glass. It was such a fun and unique event that we have been getting complements on the venue and our pictures all week. People are crazy not to book this venue.

We only had our ceremony here and I cannot believe more people don't get married here. We got married on 6.22.13 and it was BEAUTIFUL. We got lucky with the weather and it was a very hot June day but we were able to have our outdoor wedding in the Hanna Courtyard. We got so many compliments on our location and people who now want to go back to visit.

I loved working with WRHS. They are friendly and try to accommodate you in any way. Although it is a bit pricey, I think it is very worth it. The space is beautiful and makes for great pictures. Our guests loved having things to walk around and look at if they didn't want to dance. I would definitely recommend it for a unique, beautiful wedding!

My husband and I had our ceremony here earlier this month (Sept. 2014) and it was stunning.

It rained in the morning but cleared up hours before our 5:30 wedding. Angie and her staff worked to set everything up including the gorgeous bridal suite so I didn't worry about anything. The location is also super convenient and the car museum aspect of the site is really fun for out of town guests.

I fully agree with other commenters that the natural beauty of the grounds and the buildings mean you don't have to worry about additional flowers or decorations.

My only small complaint is that we had to set up our own audio with the DJ which we were more than happy to do, but pretty sure that when staff shut down part of the museum for the evening they also inadvertently cut power to our mics. Not a huge issue bc the space lends itself well to projecting your voices, just something staff there may want to consider for future weddings.

Again I think any couple would be lucky to get married here- amazing location, great staff and your pictures will turn out great!

The Hanna Garden was such a beautiful backdrop for my daughter's wedding! The pictures are stunning! The cocktail hour in the basement of the museum was fabulous and unique and the reception in the rotunda was just perfect. One good thing about this venue is that they provide the alcohol. I was pleasantly surprised at how economical the alcohol was when I received the bill! EVERYONE loved the wedding and commented on the lovely WR was! Issues: I rented colored uplighting for the reception area which was a waste, since the museum guards refused to turn down the lights surrounding the rotunda. Also somehow they didn't supply any gin for the bar, which I found out when I received the bill. Otherwise it was wonderful!

We held our wedding ceremony in the Hay-McKinney garden on the museum property. It's a beautiful outdoor venue, resembling an Italian villa, and perfect for smaller ceremonies (we had 40 guests). Everyone who came complimented how lovely it was. The Hay-McKinney house is also reserved in case of inclement weather, a must in Cleveland.

Can't believe more people don't get married here. Wonderful site. Helpful staff. Romantic spot.

We used the Crawford Car Museum and the Rotunda for our reception. I loved that is was a little different than the standard wedding venue, and our guests seemed to enjoy the cars and loved the carousel. I liked it because it was easy to decorate, they were all nice to work with and very accomodating. While my contacts were flexible and even-keeled, I didn't give it a 5 for flexibility just because you have to use one of their approved caterers per the contract you sign.

We did not want a run of mill wedding venue. Especially since we had so many coming from out of town, we wouldn't something with lots of interest. If thats you, this is the place!! The CHC was the perfect venue. Very easy to work with, though sometimes they can require to persistence to get a hold of. They did everything to help make our day amazing, despite cruddy weather the day of. Gorgeous and such an interesting space. Our guests are still talking about the venue, the carousel, and just everything. 10/10 would recommend. Also, the consumption bar they require, instead of open bar saved us so much money compared to other places we looked at.

The Hanna Garden at the WHRS is absolutely beautiful. The natural beauty of the space means that you don't really need to add any other flower arrangements or decorative touches. The rental price is a bit high and chairs are included, however, they are old metal framed chairs. If you want the nice white chairs, you have to pay extra. Emails were responded to, but it generally took a few days to get a response. The indoor space used in case of rain is dark and not very pretty. Thankfully we didn't need to use it. There is a nice prep room for the bridal party to use before and after the ceremony. It is not air conditioned but they do provide a fan.

CHC is a spectacular and beautiful venue for a wedding reception, including the Rotunda, the gardens for photos, and the library. We booked the carousel for our reception, and it was an excellent and memorable part of the day. Our guests from the littlest kids to adults enjoyed taking a spin on the carousel. We loved the central location in Cleveland, and there were good hotel options nearby. They had plenty of parking for all of our guests. We had our reception in the Rotunda, and it was a magical night. The guests loved the classic cars around the space, and lots of guests commented on how unique and cool the venue was. For the most part, the staff members were friendly, especially the folks who ran the carousel. The point person, Brianna, had a good understanding of the space and sent us pictures of other wedding setups at the venue so we could get an idea of the look.

Our biggest challenge with this venue (and our biggest challenge planning our wedding reception overall) was working with the point of contact at CHC, Brianna. We had read reviews online prior to selecting this venue that mentioned that Brianna was difficult to communicate with and nonresponsive. We took those comments into account and planned to be proactive in our communications, but we did not realize the extent of the communication challenges we would face. Brianna did not communicate in a timely or complete matter. There were several occasions where it would take multiple attempts over weeks for Brianna to answer our questions, or for her to tell us that our email was lost in her inbox. Some of our questions were complicated, so we understood some delay, but she would not even acknowledge receipt of our messages. This seemed to extend to some of our vendors, as our DJ could not get ahold of her until we called and she was very short with the florist, who had also been struggling to get in contact with her. Brianna was also not flexible in scheduling meetings with us and would often arrive late. The most egregious example of bad communication was when we (the bride, groom, and father of the groom) received an email at 9pm the night before the wedding (for reference, while we at our rehearsal dinner) saying that some of the alcohol we had selected was not actually available. We only saw the message by happenstance, so we scrambled and made it work, but that's a serious misstep that suggests that CHC was only verifying their alcohol roster less than a day ahead of a large event. We’re not sure what Brianna’s backup plan would have been if we didn’t answer that email. Was she planning to call us the morning of our wedding? This did not feel professional and was extremely frustrating.

Two final negatives. During our reception, the Rotunda got uncomfortably hot, despite it being a nice day in April (maybe 70 degrees). The CHC staff weren’t very forthcoming with ideas about how to cool the area down. They at one point said the temperature could not be changed because of some rule against it, and the staff was rude to the mother-of-the-bride when she asked about the temperature being adjusted. It was so hot that we (the bride and groom) had to leave the reception to go outside to cool down. A member of the staff did later come to us to apologize for the heat and the rude treatment of the bride’s mother. He explained that the HVAC had been damaged in the fire (see below) so it would take a long time for the building to cool down. In Brianna’s best move of the night, she brought the bride an excellent electric fan, which cooled her down a lot. After the sun went down and the air had been running for about an hour, things cooled down.

One of the reasons we picked the venue was because of a scenic library we could use for pictures. Well, the library burned down six months before the wedding, and no one told us until we asked about it during our walkthrough a month before the wedding. To be clear, the fire was a tragedy, and we still got great pictures in the other library, but it would have been nice to know that we had to pivot.

Okay, let's wrap this up. CHC is a great location that seems to be suffering a bit from mismanagement that introduces additional stress and work when planning a reception there. If you can handle that, it's an amazing venue, especially if you love the idea of a history museum. Keep in mind, it's expensive to hold your wedding reception here. The base cost of reserving the space is high, not including alcohol or the carousel fee. Be prepared to go the extra mile in handling logistics...because CHC won't.