Tank Hall

Date

1896-1922 (American Board of Comissioners for Foreign Missions); 1922-present (college)

Location

110 East College Street

Architects/Collaborators

Forrest A. Coburn (1848-97) of Coburn, Barnum, Benes & Hubbell, Cleveland (architects)
Glenn and Copeland, Oberlin (contractors)

Style

Victorian: Queen Anne

History

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 construction cost in memory of her husband Nils Otto Tank, a missionary in Dutch Guiana in the 1840s and the founder of a Moravian religious commune in Wisconsin. For ten years, 1922 to 1932, it was used as a hall of residence for women, with accommodations for forty-four persons. This use was resumed in 1935. Today Tank houses approximately 40 students, chosen by random lottery each year. The Tank dining co-op feeds residents, plus forty more dining-only members.

Sources

Oberlin College Archives, Office of the Secretary Records.

Tank, Oberlin College Resed Housing website, accessed May 27, 2015.