Village Housing: E.A.R.R.T.H. House

Date

ca. 1870-present

Location

20 East Lorain Street

Architects/Collaborators

Builder unknown

Style

Vernacular

History

This duplex started as a single house, built before 1877. Then, around 1908, the second house was added on, and lived in by a local jeweler, A.F. Meseke, and dentist, James Dexter, and their families. The house was known as the Dexter House for many years. Around 1929, the entire duplex was inhabited by the Hakes family--Miss Mabel Hakes and her brother’s family. They lived there as a family until the mid-1950s. Miss Mabel Hakes was the assistant in the Oberlin College Secretary’s Office. From 1916 to 1919, Fred M. Maddock, later to become a well-known Oberlin historian, resided there. Today it is one of many houses in Oberlin's Village Housing program for students. It is designated as Environmentally Active in Reducing use of Resources Themed Housing, where Oberlin students who seek to practice an environmentally conscious lifestyle live in community.

Source

Ohio Historic Inventory by D.G. Henry, G. Baudoin, and M. Franck, Ohio Historic Preservation Office, January 26, 2002. Accessed from the Oberlin Heritage Centere website, June 23, 2015.