Browse Items (35 total)
Carpenter Apartments
In the 1920s this house, located west of Rice Hall, was owned and operated by Florence Jenny as Jenny's House, a dormitory for women. In 1939 the College purchased it for use as apartments for faculty. In the early 1960s Rice Hall was converted to a…
Cranford
Cranford was purchased by the College for use as a women's dormitory and dining hall for men and women in 1946 from Mrs. Bertha Pope Cairns. At the time of purchase Cranford housed 43 women and provided board for 82 men and women. The farm estate,…
Burton Hall
Burton Hall was named in honor of trustee and Republican U.S. congressman Theodore Elijah Burton of the Class of 1872. His sister, Mary, married Civil War hero Giles Waldo Shurtleff, a professor, secretary and treasurer, and member of the Board of…
Wilder Hall
From the College's founding men had lived in boarding houses scattered throughout the town. The College had built dormitories for women, including Talcott and Baldwin, but not for men. This building, constructed from a design by architect Joseph…
Harkness House
This three-story, mid-20th century dormitory was designed by Eldredge Snyder, who also designed the Jones Field House (demolished) and the Service Building. The front/east facade features a central entry, which has a rounded, projecting bay, which…
Stewart Hall
Stewart Hall was a two-story brick building, used for many years as a private residence. It was first rented by the College in 1880, and was purchased March 10, 1881 at a cost of $5,000, which included an additional lot. Stewart Hall was a dormitory…
Metcalf House
Metcalf House was built in 1908 by Maynard Metcalf, professor of zoology at the college and also the lead expert witness for the defense at the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' in 1925 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law). In about 1909 he built…
Program Houses/Dormitories (1968)
In 1968, eight dormitories were built as program houses: Lord and Saunders (now Afrikan Heritage House), Bailey (French House), Barnard (substance-free), Harvey (Spanish House), Kade (German House), Price (now Third World House), and Zechiel…
Thurston House
Thurston House was a three-story home, known for some time as the Knowlton House. The college purchased the home in 1971 from Eloise Thurston Landis Knowlton, daughter of Hiram Thurston. Hiram Thurston was the Treasurer of Oberlin College from…
West Lodge
From 1927 to 1937, West Lodge at 106 West Lorain Street had been used as an office annex, for the work of the photographic and photostat departments, for the faculty stenographic service, and for three departmental offices. From 1926 to 1929 it was…
White House
The property at 144 North Professor Street, formerly the residence of Mr. A.M. Loveland built in 1902, was purchased by the College in 1931. The house was moved to the site at 160 North Professor Street, was remodelled for use as a house of residence…
Webster Hall
Webster Hall, at 51 South Professor Street, came to the College from the Kindergarten Association in 1932, and was used for the year 1932-33 as a dormitory for women in the Kindergarten Training School. It was remodelled and opened as a college hall…
South Hall
South Hall is the second largest hall on campus at around a 230 capacity. It was designed by Potter, Tyler, Martin & Roth, who also designed Dascomb Hall and Barrows Hall in 1956, and East Hall in 1964. The aerial view, taken during construction,…
Pyle Inn
For many years a private dormitory for women, owned by Mrs. Lettie H. Pyle, the property at 158 West College Street was purchased by the College in 1931 and from that time on was operated as a house of residence for women. It furnished rooms for…
Noah Hall
Noah Hall was named in honor of Andrew Hale Noah of Akron, Ohio, for seven years a member of the Board of Trustees, who contributed significant funds towards its construction. Ground was broken for its construction February 16, 1932, and the hall was…
Squire Cottage
Nancy Squire Cottage was owned by the Kindergarten Training School as part of a complex comprising Squire and May Cottages, both built in 1870, and a brick connecting structure built by the School in 1922. Squire Cottage had been renovated in 1908.…
Dascomb Hall
Dascomb Hall was one of two (the other being Barrows Hall) of the first modern residence halls constucted at Oberlin, in the wake of high enrollment after the Second World War. Oberlin had previously housed its students in a number of older…
Tank Hall
Tank Hall, formerly known as Tank Home, was erected in 1896 as a home for children of missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It was named for Mrs. Caroline L.A. Tank of Green Bay Wisconsin, who gave a quarter of its…
East Hall
This three-story dormitory comprises three wings connected at the east to form an "E" shape. The building is faced with brick, except for the ends of the main facade, which are capped at the corners with large three-story bays of patterned ashlar…
Langston Hall (North Hall)
Langston Hall, constructed as North Hall, was renamed in honor of John Mercer Langston in 1994. It is the College's largest dormitory complex housing over 200 students. At the time of its construction it signaled a move to modern dormitory…
Kahn (Robert Lewis) Hall
Robert Lewis Kahn Hall was dedicated September 25, 2010. It is a 52,000 square foot, 150-bed residence hall, with three floors plus basement. Kahn Hall is part of the First Year Residential Experience Cluster and is focused on sustainable living. The…
Grey Gables
This house was purchased by the College in 1946 from Mr. and Mrs. Carl H. Dudley for use as a women's dormitory. It had been operated by the Dudleys as a private women's dormitory and dining hall for men and women prior to purchase by the College. At…
Heusner House
This late 19th century house was a private residence operated as an apartment house by Mrs. William Heusner when the College negotiated for its purchase in 1948. Mrs. Heusner continued to live in the first floor apartment, and the rest of the house…
Federal Hall
At the close of the Second World War, the G.I. Bill enabled scores of discharged servicemen to attend college, swelling the ranks of students across the country. Federal Hall was a temporary housing solution for such students at Oberlin. The building…
Lord Cottage
Lord Cottage, named for its principal donor Elizabeth W.R. Lord, originally provided dormitory accommodations for forty women. The dining room offered table board for and additional thirty-five others. The builder, Adam Feick and Brothers of…
Johnson House
Formerly the home of Mr. And Mrs. Albert H. Johnson, the Johnson House, built in 1885, and approximately twenty-five acres of land surrounding it were purchased by Charles Martin Hall in 1911 and presented to the College. During the years from 1912…
Keep Cottage
The cottage was opened for use in January, 1913, with dormitory accommodations for fifty-two women. It was named in honor of Rev. John Keep and Mrs. Theodore J. Keep. Mr. George M. Clark and his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Keep Clark, contributed funds…
Council Hall
The construction of Council Hall was begun in 1871, and the cornerstone was laid at the meeting of the National Council of Congregational Churches, held in Oberlin in November of that year. It was dedicated at the Commencement exercises in 1874, and…
Beacon (2nd)
The men's dormitory called Beacon was first located at 204 North Professor Street. In the summer of 1937 the house at 195 Woodland was used as the second location for Beacon. Beginning in 1947, the house was used for apartments and later as rental…
Shurtleff Cottage
Shurtleff Cottage (actually a large house) was built on a large parcel of land along the back of Plum Creek by Giles W. Shurtleff in 1892 for his home with his wife Mary Burton and their children. He hired the architects Weary and Kramer of Akron to…
Fairchild House (residence hall)
The grand-niece of President James Harris Fairchild (1817-1902), Mrs. Amy Frances Fairchild Williams, together with her husband, contributed a substantial sum for a new women's dormitory for 80 women, Fairchild House. The residence hall stands on the…
Talcott Hall
On this site originally stood the Second Ladies Hall, a three-story brick dormitory of Italianate design built during the Civil War. When it burned in January 1886, the College first planned to rebuild it using the bricks of the burnt-out shell. But…
Barrows Hall
Barrows Hall, named in honor of Oberlin's fifth president, John Henry Barrows, was opened in spring of 1956 and provides dormitory accommodations for approximately 130 incoming First Years. Previously on this site stood the Botany Department gardens…
Antlers
The property at 228 North Professor Street, called Antlers, was purchased by the College in 1928 as a part of the proposed Men’s Campus. The house had served previously for many years as a house of residence for men under private management,…