Lewis House

Date

1894-ca. mid-1980s (private); ca. mid-1980s-present (college)

Location

68 South Professor Street

Architects/Collaborators

Joseph Lyman Silsbee (1848-1913), Chicago, IL (architect)

Style

Dutch Colonial/Shingle Style

History

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, Julia, remained in the house; with the exception of 1931-1933 Julia Severance was listed in the house until 1942. Julia Severance was a local artist. She had a glassed-in studio attached to the rear barn and she designed the new college seal in 1911. In 1942 a James Nelson was listed as occupant. The house was sold later to Ben and Gertrude Lewis; Mr. Lewis taught at the College from 1925 to 1967 as a nationally recognized economist. The Lewis family left the house in 1984. The City of Oberlin listed this as an Oberlin Historic Landmark in January of 1999 under the name Severance House.

The house is now known as the Lewis House, and holds the College's Ombudsperson Office and Religious Life Center. Julia Severance's former glass studio new serves as a faculty art studio.

Sources

Geoffrey Blodgett, Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to Its Social History (Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 1985), 155-156.

Ohio Historic Inventory for Severance-Lewis House by M. Fedelchak-Harley, J. Heaton, and L. Previll, Ohio Historic Preservation Office, January 20, 1999, accessed from the Oberlin Heritage Center website, May 27, 2015.