CLIFFORD CLIFF III'S PENCHANT FOR MONUMENTAL WOMEN

Clifford Cliff III was apparently attracted to women with BIG ideas, especially when it came to architecture. He married seven times; and each of his wives responded to the urge to build; and none of them remained married to him long enough to see her architectural dream completed.

• Cliff House: 1897-1904
  Commissioned by Mrs. Reynata Carlton Cliff. This extravagant building, just off campus, remains the home of the Cliff family.


• Christie House: 1900-1903
  Commissioned by Mrs. Abigail Slater Cliff. Christie House remains one of the most popular dorms on campus, especially now that its twin, Sayers House, is deceased.


• Sayers House: 1901-1903
  Commissioned by the third Mrs. Clifford Cliff III, Mrs. Louisa Slater Cliff (twin sister of the second Mrs. Cliff). This architectural mirror twin of Christie House, was completed six months earlier than its mate despite being commissioned a year later. It was only recently razed to make room for an expanded, higher-capacity dorm.
  
• Cliff Hall: 1905-1909
  Commissioned by Mrs. Sarah Planter Cliff. Cliff Hall was widely known as the "Cliff Mahal" from the day it was christened. Modeled after the basilica of San Ambrogio in Milan, Italy, it remains the largest and most acoustically ideal auditorium in northwest Ohio.


• Cliff Observatory: 1907-1910
  Commissioned by Mrs. Samantha Samuels Cliff. The best star gazing this side of the Hubbel.


• The Cliff College Episcopalian Church: 1911-1919
  Commissioned by Mrs. Bertha Sawaya Cliff. Picketed and sat-in by a coalition of atheist, Catholic and Jewish protesters in 1969, it was officially reborn as the nondenominational Good God Chapel two months later.


• The Cliff Pagoda: 1919-1921
  Commissioned by Mrs. Sayoko Masaoka Cliff. The Pagoda began life as The Japanese Studies Center, but was commandeered in 1970 by Maoist radicals and renamed the Red Brigade Compound. After lengthy negotiations, it was officially designated the Asian Student Center in 1971. In 1995, due to the loss of sustaining grants from Japanese corporations (as their economy flagged) and to lagging student interest in non-business related Asian studies, the building started a new life as The DeCafe coffee house.