The HORACE KELLEY ART FOUNDATION, established in Feb. 1899 as the Cleveland Museum of Art, eventually combined funds with the JOHN HUNTINGTON FUND FOR EDUCATION to build the CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART. Real estate entrepreneur HORACE KELLEY stipulated that the bulk of his estate (about $500,000) be used to build an art school and art gallery in Cleveland and that, if necessary, a corporation be formed for that purpose. Kelley's wife, Fannie Miles Kelley, obviously played a large role in his decision: after his death she gave up all rights to his property except for a stipend and their summer residence. Kelley named 3 trustees in his will: Judge James M. Jones, Alfred S. Kelley (Horace Kelley's cousin), and Henry C. Ranney. (Ranney also served as trustee of the estate of HINMAN B. HURLBUT, who had left a bequest for an art gallery in 1884.) The two other incorporators of the original trust were William Miller and Edwin Perkins. In 1913, when the Cleveland Museum of Art opened, the trust changed its name to the Horace Kelley Art Foundation. New trustees included Stevenson Burke, WILLIAM BROWNELL SANDERS, JEPTHA HOMER WADE II, SAMUEL LIVINGSTON MATHER, LIBERTY EMERY HOLDEN, and THOMAS H. WHITE. The foundation at first held little cash since Kelley's estate represented mostly land and buildings. The VAN SWERINGEN brothers eventually purchased 2 of these land parcels at the future site of the TERMINAL TOWER. In 1995 Horace Kelley's bequest still provided funds for the art museum.
Leedy, Walter C., Jr. Cleveland Builds an Art Museum: Patronage, Politics, and Architecture 1884-1916 (1991).
Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.