After the first court was built, interest spread rapidly among enthusiastic friends of Shillito, and by 1880, Cincinnati was ready for a tennis club.

On December 3, 1880, Edmund H. Pendleton presided over a meeting held at the Burnet House in Cincinnati, the purpose being the organization of a tennis club.

A constitution was drawn up and the following officers were nominated and elected: President - Jeptha Garrand; Secretary - Howard S. Winslow; and Treasurer - Albert C. Barney.

His father generously made available to the members if the club (CTC) sufficient ground to lay three grass courts at the rear of his property which was adjacent to a lane.

John Keys offered as a gift 3 acres (12,000 m2) of land on Bedford Avenue adjoining the new Cincinnati Golf Club.

Its list of winners reads like a "Who's Who'" of tennis - Nat Emerson, Beals Wright, Bill Tilden, George Lott, Bobby Riggs, Frank Parker, Bill Talbert, Tony Trabert, Barry MacKay (tennis), May Sutton, Alice Marble, Pauline Betz, and Dorothy Bundy, to name but a few.

The club has had a number of nationally ranked players, the first being Nat Emerson who won the Tri-State Tournament when it was first played in 1899, and was a finalist several times afterward.

Another nationally prominent player in the early years was Reuben A. Holden Jr., who won the NCAA Singles Championship in 1910 while a student at Yale University.

It was 41 years later in 1951, when Club member Tony Trabert playing for the University of Cincinnati won the NCAA Singles title.

Throughout this long period the Club continued to bring world class players and teams to Cincinnati, including a Davis Cup tie in 1952, the first ever to be played here.

CTC has occupied its present site at Dexter and Wold Avenues since 1899, and on March 29, 1983 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of Interior for its leadership in the development and advancement of the sport of tennis in the Cincinnati and Ohio Valley Area.

Since 1974, the club has played host to the United States Tennis Association's National Father & Son Clay Court Championships.