Daub House

Date

1862-present

Location

145 West Lorain Street, next to Wilder Hall

Architects/Collaborators

Builder unknown

Style

Vernacular with later Eastlake details

History

This plain brick house, built during the Civil War, was updated later in the 19th century with the decorative wooden porch and bargeboard. It was called the Bailey-Gager Place, named for the Massachusetts shoemaker, William Bailey, who built it in 1862, and the Gager family of Norwalk, who lived there until the end of World War II.

Dorothy Daub, the librarian who served Oberlin's College and public libraries from 1931 until she retired in 1966, lived in this house beginning in 1948. The old house and the quirky librarian were a perfect match: Unpretentious, the house nonetheless stands out among the town's many historic buildings just as Oberlin's most beloved librarian stood out among its residents. After her death at age 86 in 1985, the house had been her home for so many years that the College officially dubbed it Daub House. Gutted and renovated after Daub's death, the house became home to Campus Dining Services, College Relations, and the Oberlin Alumni Magazine. Those offices cleared out in 2009, and today the house is the home of the Bonner Center for Service and Learning.

Source

Michelle Lesie, "House Unusual," Oberlin Alumni Magazine, vol. 96, No. 2, Fall 2000.