Abraham Lincoln was a guest at the Weddell House on his way to his first inauguration on February 15th, 1861, and in a speech from its balcony he declared, “A devotion to the Constitution; to the union and to the laws; to the perpetual liberty of the people of this country. It is, fellow citizens, for the whole American people and not for one single man alone, to advance the great cause.” The Weddell House became Cleveland's most historic hotel, hosting noted guests including Horace Greeley, Salmon P. Chase, John Sherman, Jenny Lind, and Louis Kossuth. In this building the Board of Trade, the forerunner of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, was founded on July 7th, 1848.
