Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center

Founded in 1921, the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center (CHSC) began with the simple mission of "providing lip reading classes for adults who are deaf or hard of hearing," and is the nation's oldest freestanding speech center and Northeast Ohio's only non-profit organization dedicated solely to serving those with special communication needs.

The first headquarters of the organization was established in 1924 under the guidance of Helen Newell Garfield, daughter-in-law of President James Garfield. Called the Cleveland Association for the Hard of Hearing, the name was later changed to the Cleveland Hearing Center when services were expanded to include deaf and hard of hearing children. In June 1945, the Cleveland Hearing Center and the Western Reserve Speech Clinic merged to create a new institution, the Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center. It began operations out of a University-owned house at 11206 Euclid Avenue that was aptly named "Garfield House" in honor of its founder. In 1953, to keep up with the rapid increase and demand for services and the accelerated growth in scientific development in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, a new addition was added to the Garfield House headquarters. A modern facility was constructed in 1967, replacing the Garfield House structure.

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