Westervelt Building

Date

1874-1926 (Oberlin Village/private); 1926-1976 (college); 1976-1979 (City of Oberlin); 1979-1995 (private); 1995-present (Nord Family Foundation)

Location

39 South Main Street

Architects/Collaborators

Walter Blythe (1826-84), Cleveland (architect)

Style

Gothic Revival

History

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 Main Street that had been used for many years for the Oberlin High School, together with two business properties, all as an unrestricted gift for any use that the College might wish to make of it. In the winter of 1926-27 the building was renovated for use as a college recitation hall and given the name “Westervelt Building.” It contained recitation rooms mainly used by the departments of English and Modern Languages, laboratories for the work in Accounting and Mechanical Drawing, a study room, and offices for members of the faculty. In 1940 the bell tower was no longer sound and was removed. Westervelt Hall was used for classes until the King building opened in 1961. It remained vacant most of the time but was used by the Co-Op Bookstore after their original building was demolished until the new structure was available. In 1974 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites, and in 1976 the College deeded it to the city. A.H. Kenney purchased it in 1979. The Nord Family Foundation purchased the building from Kenny and Ada Clark in 1995. In 1996 it opened as the New Union Center for the Arts, which restored the bell tower in 1997.

See also Council Hall, another building by Walter Blythe.

Sources

Oberlin College Archives, Office of the Secretary Records.

Ohio Historic Inventory for New Union Center for the Arts by M. Fedelchak-Harley and L. Previll, Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, September 30, 2000, accessed from the Oberlin Heritage Center website, May 27, 2015.