Barrows House

Date

1901-1915 (private); 1916-present (college)

Location

207 South Professor Street

Architects/Collaborators

Howard Van Doren Shaw, Chicago (architect)

Style

Neoclassical

History

The former residence of President John Henry Barrows, erected in 1901, was purchased by the College in 1916 and remodelled for the purpose of a house of residence for Conservatory women. It provided accommodations for fourteen students and table board for sixty others. It was the center of the social life for Conservatory students. Old Barrows, as this building is now called, was no longer exclusively a Conservatory house as of 1940-41. The residential hall became a German language program house in 1956-57; German House moved to Webster Hall in 1963-64. The house was threatened with demolition, averted in 1963 when Professor Warren Taylor led a community campaign to prevent the Firelands Retirement Center from rising on the site. The house is one of Oberlin's most striking examples of the Neo-Classical and Georgian revival that followed the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.

Presently, the house, affectionately called "Old Barrows," has the smallest number of live-in members at 15 non-First Years but provides meals for a total of 85 students. Barrows House has a unique way of deciding its live-in membership; the first six spaces are lottery-selected women, they then get together and decide if the house is going to be all-female or all-gender.

For another building by the architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, see the Severance Chemical Laboratory, now Severance Hall.

Sources

Oberlin College Archives, Office of the Secretary Records.

Ohio Historic Inventory for Old Barrows House by H. Peterson, M. Franck, D. Musson, and O.H.I.O. interns, December 16, 2002, accessed from the Oberlin Heritage Center website, May 26, 2015.

"Old Barrows," Resed Housing, Oberlin College website, accessed May 26, 2015.