laura4cliff

We remember our great friend and colleague Robert W. Thiebout. May 6, 1923 – April 23, 2013

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.