Village Housing: 137 Elm Street

Date

1871-1935 (private); 1935-present (college)

Location

137 Elm Street

Architects/Collaborators

Builder unknown

Style

Italianate with Colonial Revival elements

History

This house, known for many years as Gulde House, was leased by the College in 1935 for a house of residence for women. It had previously been operated for many years as a rooming and dining hall under private auspices. It had rooming accommodations for thirty-four women, who took their meals elsewhere. The house was built in 1871 by Professor Hiram Mead, and rebuilt in 1893 after a disastrous fire. In 1883 Professor James K. Newton moved into the large house so that he could board students who could live together and converse in French and German. From 1891 to 1910 Mrs. E.I. Morrison resided there. Then in 1927 Mrs. Eva J. Gulde resided there with 30 college women and 137 Elm Street was known as Gulde House until the 1940s. In the 1970s it was converted into college-owned rental apartments whose residents, many of them divorced, renamed it Alimony Arms. The college still uses this property as apartments (currently 10) in the Village Housing program for students, without an official name.

Sources

Oberlin College Archives, Office of the Secretary Records.

Oberlin College, Resed Housing website, accessed May 26, 2015.

Ohio Historic Inventory for Mead House, Gulde House, Alimony Arms by Petersen, T. Reeves, M. Surovy, Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, August 5, 2003, accessed from the Oberlin Heritage Center website, May 26, 2015.