Village Housing: 142 Woodland Street

Date

ca. 1880-2018

Location

142 Woodland Street

Architects/Collaborators

Builder unknown

Style

Vernacular

History

This home was built in the 1880s, and in 1914 was the home of Mary Breckenridge, mother of Conservatory professor William Breckenridge. She took in boarders, one of whom was a freshman named Edward Willkie. Edward’s older brother Wendell, a recent graduate of Indiana State University, came to live with him for at least one semester. Twenty-six years later, Wendell Willkie ran against Franklin Roosevelt for the presidency. While he lost the election, he swept Oberlin, taking 68 percent of the town vote and 64 percent of the college student straw poll.  This house was one of many in the College's Village Housing program for students until it was demolished in 2018.

Source

Geoffrey Blodgett, Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to Its Social History (Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 1985), 139-140.