In 1907, Chicago author Hamlin Garland and friends founded the Attic Club, which two years later was re-named The Cliff Dwellers. Now, as then, it is a private club and functions as a non-profit organization for men and women either professionally engaged in, or who support, the fine arts and the performing arts.
Since its 1996 move from atop Symphony Center (formerly Orchestra Hall) next door, all the facilities of The Cliff Dwellers Club are located in the 22nd floor penthouse of the office building at the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue at Adams Street. Its lakefront facilities overlook Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago.
100th Anniversary Chicago Tribune Article
Our Club was named after the novel The Cliff Dwellers by Henry Blake Fuller. Fuller however refused to join the Club and does not appear to have used it after it was established. Why did he refuse to join and what does this action tell us about the Club?
Annals of a Bygone Era
Bill Bowe, retired Executive Vice President of Encyclopaedia Britannica and a former Club President, gave a short talk about the history of The Cliff Dwellers at the Club's 117th Annual Meeting of Members in 2023.
The Cliff Dwellers: The History of a Chicago Institution
Read Henry Regnery's history of the Club
Past Presidents of The Cliff Dwellers
Learn the names of our 44 board presidents going back to 1907
Robert W. Thiebout
We remember our great friend and colleague Robert W. Thiebout. May 6, 1923 – April 23, 2013
What a Global City Can Learn from The Cliff Dwellers- Past, Present and Future
It all began in the Fine Arts Building, that hothouse for the arts. This 1885 building had been constructed as the Studebaker Corporation's carriage factory and showroom, but a decade later, was transformed into a home for studios, clubs and offices.
Reminisces: A Literary Puzzle
Our Club was named after the novel The Cliff Dwellers by Henry Blake Fuller. Fuller however refused to join the Club and does not appear to have used it after it was established. Why did he refuse to join and what does this action tell us about the Club?
The True Story of the Bird Girl
A recognizable figure of a girl with outstretched palms stands motionless in full view of diners at the Cliff Dwellers. It is the famed Bird Girl, whose statue has become forever associated with the John Berendt bestseller, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” and the subsequent movie.
The Club Moves: 1996 to Present
Enter the welcoming ambiance of this private club and you sense the reassuring familiarity of a second home. And, indeed it is a home — call it a comfortable refuge for those who’ve made the fine arts a valued part of their lives, a premiere social site nurtured by nearly a century of active interest and participation.
Above It All
There are 31 marble steps from the eighth floor of Orchestra Hall up to the Cliff Dwellers' penthouse. Even when you're alone on them, people keep looking over your shoulder.
The Early Years: 1907 to Early 1980’s
It was the purpose of the founders of The Cliff Dwellers to establish a place where people seriously interested in the arts, both professionally and, so to speak as committed observers, could come together in a congenial and friendly way. The moving spirit was the writer Hamlin Garland, who is remembered for such books as Main-Travelled Roads and Son of the Middle Border.
