CLEVELAND HEARING AND SPEECH CENTER, affiliated with CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIV (Case), was created in June 1945 from the merger of the Cleveland Association for the Hard of Hearing and the speech clinic at Western Reserve University. With branches in SOUTH EUCLID, Broadview Heights, and in Lorain, Ohio the center has provided research, clinical services, and education in the fields of audiology and speech pathology to northeast Ohio.
Helen Newell (Mrs. JAMES RUDOPLH) GARFIELD, daughter-in-law of President JAMES A. GARFIELD, founded the Cleveland Assn. for the Hard of Hearing in 1921. Located at 2336 Euclid Avenue, it offered lip reading and recreational programs. In 1923 the association became a member of the Health Council of the Welfare Federation and the next year established its headquarters, the Cleveland Hearing Center. Western Reserve University created its speech clinic during World War II to provide speech evaluation and rehabilitation to residents, as well as cadets of the Army Air Corps.
In 1946 the center moved to its present (2005) location, Garfield House, at 11206 EUCLID AVE. By the 1950s it served about 15,000 people per year. In 1952 NATHAN L. DAUBY, who had previously established a scholarship fund at the center, donated his house to the facility. The Louis D. Beaumont Trust (later the LOUIS D. BEAUMONT FOUNDATION) gave the center $25,000 that year and $65,000 in 1956, to establish the Daniel Dauby Foundation for Children with Language Disorders. The Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center replaced Garfield House with a new building on the same site, completed in 1967. Since 1973 the center has housed counselors from the Ohio State Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation to facilitate job placement. Throughout its history it has cooperated and contracted with other local agencies, such as the VISITING NURSE ASSN. OF CLEVELAND, UNIV. HOSPITALS, CUYAHOGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, and the CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The center has offered practicum experiences to Case students and some staff teach at the university. Financial support has come from UNITED WAY SERVICES, grants, fees, donations, and special projects. In 2005 it was the city's only nonprofit organization dedicated solely to serving those with special communication needs. At that time, the nonprofit organization's guiding principle was "to serve as many persons as possible regardless of their demonstrated ability to pay."