Asa Mahan had served as the first president of Oberlin College, but was forced to resign his position in 1850 due to clashes with the faculty.
Ahaz Merchant, Mayor Samuel Starkweather and Richard Hilliard were listed as trustees, and a street grid was laid out, which remains intact to this day.
After clashes with the trustees and faculty, Asa Mahan resigned from the presidency in December 1852, and the school would close by the end of that academic year.
The Humiston Institute closed ten years later, in 1868, and the property was taken over by what was then known as the Western Homeopathic College, founded by Benjamin L.
[6] When the Western Homeopathic College closed, the Cleveland University building went through various incarnations as a factory and secondary school.