Village Housing: 41 N. Pleasant Street

Date

ca. 1900-2008 (private); 2008-present (college)

Location

41 N. Pleasant St.

Architects/Collaborators

Builder unknown

Style

Vernacular

History

Until recently this house was known as the Sutfin House, after the family that lived here nearly 50 years, from 1937 through 1988. William Roland Sutfin (b. 1897, NY; d. 1957, Oberlin) was an employee at the T. O. Murphy Company, a plumbing and heating company in Oberlin, and worked as a draftsman, sales engineer, and wholesale manager. In 1935 he married Alma, who worked as a bookkeeper at A. G. Comings and Son and at the Oberlin Consumers Co-Op bookstore. They had two children, Pauline Jacqueline (b. 1923) and William Richard 'Dick' (b. 1935). Jacqueline attended Oberlin High School and Oberlin College and remained here through 1942. She married a Frenchman named Jean Remond who was a member of the Free French movement as a US Merchant Marine; they were married in 1943. Dick remained in this house through 1956. Alma remained in the house after W. Roland's death - through 1988. The family periodically shared the house with other residents.

This vernacular, gabled ell-plan house built in about 1900 has elements of Colonial Revival. At the front/west facade, the full front porch has a hip roof, which extends out to the end of the ell as well. The porch has brick piers that support Tuscan columns. It was purchased by the College in 2008 for its Village Housing program for students.

Source

Ohio Historic Inventory by Liz Schultz, Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, November 20, 2009. Accessed from the Oberlin Heritage Center website, June 26, 2015.