Park Hotel/Oberlin Inn (1st)

Date

1867-1895 (private); 1895-1955 (college)

Location

Northeast corner of Main and College Streets

Architects/Collaborators

Builder unknown

Style

Commercial Italianate

History

In 1866 Henry Viets offered to erect a hotel on the site of the former village hotel (built in 1833-34 and destroyed by fire in 1866), provided the College and citizens of the town contributed $5,000 toward its erection. The Trustees of the College voted to contribute half that amount, provided the citizens contributed an equal amount. The Park Hotel, a three-story brick building located on E. College Street at N. Main Street, was built and opened in 1867.

The College came into possession of the hotel in 1895 when it was deeded to the College by Marx Straus of Elyria under an annuity arrangement. The hotel was closed temporarily for repairs in 1899. Extensive repairs were also made in 1927, and the name was changed to the Oberlin Inn. It was torn down in 1955 to make way for the new Oberlin Inn, built that year.

Sources

Geoffrey Blodgett, Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to Its Social History (Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 1985), 40-41.

Oberlin College Archives, Office of the Secretary Records.