Browse Items (62 total)
Village Housing: 184 Woodland Street
The Cowdery family made this house their home for nearly 60 years, beginning in about 1902. City directories list Mrs. Dryer L. Cowdery as well as Kirke L. and Mary T. Cowdery. Kirke and Mary had two sons: Lawrence T. and Karl M. Kirke Cowdery,…
Village Housing: 166 Woodland Street
Much of the ornamentation typically found on an Italianate house of this kind were removed, except for the turned wood spindles supporting the porch, the shaped wooden lintels above the windows, and the ornate brackets over the side door. The flat…
Village Housing: 142 Woodland Street
This home was built in the 1880s, and in 1914 was the home of Mary Breckenridge, mother of Conservatory professor William Breckenridge. She took in boarders, one of whom was a freshman named Edward Willkie. Edward’s older brother Wendell, a…
Village Housing: 136 Woodland Street
This is a typical cross-gabled house built around 1890. The front porch is supported by pairs of Tuscan columns, and wraps around the façade back to the cross-gable on both sides. A very small porch covers the side door on the southwest corner…
Village Housing: 70 N. Pleasant Street
This vernacular house was previously known as the Preston or Luikart House, after two of its owner/residents. By 1927, the Preston family had moved into the house and remained here through 1945. Ray Lambert Preston (b. 1886, Pittsfield, Ohio; d.…
Village Housing: 284 N. Professor Street
This vernacular, gabled ell house has had many residents, including extended family members and occasional boarders. It has been named the Rose, Channon and Drake House after several of its residents. It served as one of many houses for students in…
Village Housing: 140 N. Main Street
This modest house has historically been called the Martin, Harlow, and Jenkins House, after some of its owners. A detailed account of the successive residents can be found on the Ohio Historic Inventory for this address, accessible from the Oberlin…
Village Housing: 158 W. Lorain Street
This house was built some time between 1896 and 1899, and the earliest known residents were Frank Beckwith, a local jeweler and the assistant postmaster, and his wife Minivieve. In 1933 William Durand, architect, is listed as a resident alongside the…
Village Housing: 200 W. College Street
This modest house has a long history of ownership by private individuals and families before the College acquired it in 2009 for its Village Housing program for students. It was demolished in 2020. It was known for many years as the Drummond House,…
Village Housing: 190 W. College Street
This modest brick house was built before 1873, and its earliest recorded resident was a Reverend W.O. Hart. It has been through a series of residents since then, perhaps boarders in the community. The house appears to have been a rental home from the…
Village Housing: 186 W. College Street
Historically this house was called the Falkner-McMillian House or the Shepard House. The occupant who lived there longest was Harold E. Shephard, and his wife, Bernice, the principal of Prospect Elementary. They lived there for at least 35 years…
Village Housing: 143 W. College Street
There has been a building on this site since before 1870, but this house appears to have been built later. The historical names for the house reflect its various owners: Bonstel, Barnard, Burton-Shurtle, and Molyneaux. The earliest known owner, Mrs.…
Village Housing: 108 E. College Street
Owned by Sarah Cowles Little in 1894, the house was named Judson Cottage, after Professor Judson Smith in the Oberlin Theological Seminary who urged his students to serve abroad. Sarah Cowles Little (1838-1912, A.B. 1859), was a teacher and then…
Village Housing: 45 N. Cedar Street
Like the Oakes House at 35 N. Cedar, this is an American Foursquare house, but with Queen Anne elements. Benjamin Talmadge Strong and his wife Mary (nee Camp) were listed here from 1890 to 1904. According to their grandson, Jarvis Strong, Benjamin…
Village Housing: 29 N. Cedar Street
Built sometime during the late 1870s, the first known occupant of this house w as Mrs. Mary J. Hall (1820-?), who resided in the house in 1883. Mrs. Hall was the widow of James Hall, and had two grown children at the time, one of whom (Sophronia) was…
Village Housing: E.A.R.R.T.H. House
This duplex started as a single house, built before 1877. Then, around 1908, the second house was added on, and lived in by a local jeweler, A.F. Meseke, and dentist, James Dexter, and their families. The house was known as the Dexter House for many…
Village Housing: 140 Elm Street
This house was built in 1873 for William B. Durand, an insurance agent with a long career as town clerk. The Durand family lived here for 70 years. The grandson of the original owner, also named William B. Durand, an architect, divided the 28 rooms…
Lewis House
This architect-designed house was built for James R. Severance in 1894. Mr. Severance, an Oberlin graduate, professor and treasurer, lived in the house with his family until his death in 1916. After his death his wife, Mrs. R. G., and daughter,…
Soldiers Monument
The Soldiers Monument was built in 1870 at a cost of $5,000. Professor Charles H. Churchill, who taught mathematics and natural philosophy at Oberlin, was the architect. It was located on the southeast corner of College and Professor Streets. On it…
Thompson Cottage
The property at 160 North Main Street, privately owned, was purchased by the College in 1913 and equipped as a house of residence for women. From 1913 to 1934 it was known as Keep Annex, furnishing rooming accommodations for sixteen women, who…
Warner Hall
In June, 1883, the announcement was made that Dr. and Mrs. Lucien C. Warner, of New York, proposed to erect a building for the Conservatory. Ground was broken in November, 1883, and the cornerstone was laid in January, 1884. The building was…
Westervelt Building
This Gothic Revival building, designed by Walter Blythe of Cleveland, was erected in 1873-74 as a school by the Village of Oberlin. In September 1926, Edmund C. Westervelt of South Bend, Indiana, presented to Oberlin College the property on South…
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…
Spear Library-Laboratory
Spear Library was the gift of Charles C. Spear, of Pittsfield, Mass. The cornerstone was laid October 6, 1884; it was dedicated November 2, 1885. The building was made of stone and measured 70 by 70 feet. It was named in honor of the donor, who also…
Wright Zoological Laboratory
Wright Zoological Laboratory was named in honor of Albert A. Wright, for thirty-one years Professor of Geology and Natural History in Oberlin College. The building was erected by the Second Congregational Church during the years from 1867 to 1870,…
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…
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.…
Men's Gymnasium (2nd)
The second Men’s Gymnasium was located on the site now occupied by Warner Center. It was a one-story frame building about 75 by 25 feet, built in the spring of 1873 at a cost of $1,000, the money for this purpose being raised by student effort.…
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…
Root House
The former residence of Professor Azariah S. Root, Oberlin's first professional librarian, at 150 North Professor Street was purchased by the College in 1929 and was remodelled in 1930 to serve as a house of residence for College men. It accommodated…
The Manor
The Persons House, renamed "The Manor," was purchased by the College in January 1929 and rented to College men. By 1941 it was rented to a private family. In the fall of 1945 it was made into an apartment house for married veterans enrolled at the…
McClelland Block
The brick business block formerly at 21-23 North Main Street was purchased by the College from J.S. McClelland in 1936. In 1937 it was renovated for the Photostat and Photograph Departments (relocated 1954), the Superintendent of Construction, and…
Peters Hall
Ground was broken for Peters Hall in the spring of 1885 and it was dedicated on January 26, 1887. The building was made possible by gifts from Captain Alva Bradley, of Cleveland, Ohio, and from Hon. Richard G. Peters of Manistee, Michigan. Peters…
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…
Sturges Hall
The erection of Sturges Hall was begun in the fall of 1883, and completed in 1884, on the site across from Talcott Hall and next to the Soldier's Monument (1870, demolished/moved). For a number of years after the completion of Sturges Hall it was…
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…
Faculty Club
The house at 105 Elm Street was used by the College as a faculty club from 1919 to 1939. It was later made into apartments for faculty and staff, known as "Currier Apartments." The building was razed in the summer of 1963. Source Oberlin College…
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…
Anchorage
This house was used as a private residence, the last occupant being Professor Guy C. Throner. The College opened it as The Anchorage, a residence for men, in the fall of 1937. It was last used as a college dormitory in 1944-45. It was transferred to…
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…
Village Housing: 137 Elm Street
This house, known for many years as Gulde House, was leased by the College in 1935 for a house of residence for women. It had previously been operated for many years as a rooming and dining hall under private auspices. It had rooming accommodations…
Goodrich House
Goodrich House came into possession of the College in 1932 from the Kindergarten Association. It continued to serve the Kindergarten-Primary Training School through the year 1932-33. The building was remodelled in the summer of 1933 for use as a…
Geology Laboratory (2nd)
The house located at 120 North Professor Street, formerly a private residence belonging to Professor William B. Chamberlain, was remodelled in 1915 as a laboratory for the department of Geology. The Geology museum on the second floor contained…
Geology Laboratory (1st)
During the years between 1907 and 1915 the Geology Laboratory and Museum occupied quarters in a house on North Main Street on the site of the Allen Memorial Art Building. The building occupied, known as the “Squire House,” had been moved…
Dickinson House (1st & 2nd)
Prior to the purchase in 1908 of the private residence property at 166 West College Street, the College had acquired the back ends of lots fronting on West College Street, North Cedar Avenue, and West Lorain Street, and had developed in the area a…
Elmwood Cottage
Built by Professor Giles W. Shurtleff (1831-1904) in 1870, this house passed into the hands of the Kindergarten Association, probably in 1892 when Shurtleff moved to his new house (see Shurtleff Cottage). The Association dubbed it Burroughs Cottage.…
Dascomb Cottage
Dascomb Cottage, formerly a private residence, was named in honor of Marianne P. Dascomb, the first Principal of what was then the Women’s Department, and her husband, Dr. James Dascomb, the first doctor in Oberlin and one of the signers of 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…
Bandstand (1st)
Early photographs of the Oberlin campus indicate a raised platform that appears to be a bandstand, but prior to the 1870s these were typically temporary structures that could be moved to different locations, and covered with canvas. The first…
Churchill Cottage
This brick house with a frame porch was built in about 1884, and was purchased by the College in 1913. It was named in honor of Charles Henry Churchill, a professor at Oberlin College for 48 years who owned the house. It was remodelled in the summer…
Botany Laboratory (2nd & 3rd)
From 1891 to 1904 the house built for the Finney family, on the present site of Finney Chapel, had been used for laboratory purposes for the Department of Botany. In 1904 the College remodelled the property at 64 North Professor Street to meet the…
Beacon (1st)
The house that stood at 204 North Professor Street was purchased by the College in 1932. Prior to that date it was called "Parson's House," and had served as a men’s residence house operated by Mrs. A.B. Parsons. It was officially named…
Barr House
The property at 180 West College Street was purchased by the College in 1928, the house having been used for many years as a private residence. It was remodelled for use as a house of residence for Freshman men and was opened by the College in the…
Baldwin Cottage
The construction of Baldwin Cottage, a small-dorm complement to stately Talcott which rose more or less simultaneously next door, began soon after the 1886 fire which destroyed the Second Ladies Hall. It was named for Elbert Baldwin, a Cleveland dry…
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,…