From the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
CASE, LEONARD, JR. (27 Jan. 1820-6 Jan. 1880), a philanthropist who endowed Case School of Applied Science, was born to LEONARD CASE† in Cleveland and educated in law at Yale. Sickly all his life, he neither married nor practiced his profession, but devoted himself to scholarly pursuits. Along with his brother WM. CASE†, Leonard was an Arkite, a group of prominent Clevelanders who conversed about natural science in a small building (the Ark) filled with specimens they shot and mounted. Case helped form the CLEVELAND LIBRARY ASSN. (CLA) Inheriting $15 million in 1864, Case regarded his wealth as a trust to be used for good. In 1859, the Case brothers constructed Case Hall, a civic and cultural center which housed the CLEVELAND ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, the Cleveland Library Assoc., and the Ark club, as well as theater productions and lectures. Case built the commercial Case Block in 1875.
Case anonymously gave $1 million to establish a technical school to teach pure science, an orientation that attracted support from local businesses, permitting the institution to become an important center for industrial research. To provide annual revenues, Case bequeathed the rental income from his downtown properties to the school. The Case School of Applied Science, as it became known, opened in 1881 on Rockwell Ave. and moved to UNIVERSITY CIRCLE in 1885. Case left the city 200 acres for industrial plants and railroad rights-of-way, which became the city’s first comprehensive industrial district. Other beneficiaries were the Old Stone Church, the Cleveland Orphan Asylum, the Industrial Aid Society, and the CLEVELAND FEMALE SEMINARY.
