Village Housing: 51 N. Cedar Street

Date

pre-1859-1965 (private); 1965-present (college)

Location

51 North Cedar Street

Architects/Collaborators

Builder unknown

Style

Greek Revival

History

The Greek Revival farmhouse--two wings flanking a main block with columned portico--was one of America's most popular domestic adaptations of the Greek temple form, and can still be seen gracing the landscape from New England through the South and Middle West. Oberlin's only example of this type is predictably modest in scale and spartan in detail. It was built for grocer David Williams, for which it was named, shortly before the Civil War, and later housed the Lyon family, which lived here from 1887 until the 1940s. In 1965 the house was acquired by the college, which--anticipating westward expansion of the campus--bought up as many houses along North Cedar Street as possible. Today this house is one of many offered to students as Village Housing.

Source

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