Central Heating Plant (1st)

Date

1913-1956

Location

West of Warner Gymnasium, near present site of Mudd Learning Center

Architects/Collaborators

Albert M. Allen Company, Cleveland (designer)

Style

Industrial

History

To supply steam heat for college buildings a central Heating Plant was built by the College during the year 1913. This plant included three Babcock and Wilcox water tube boilers of three hundred horsepower capacity each. Nineteen of the largest college buildings were heated from this plant. The height of the stack was one hundred and ninety-five feet. In 1936 new forced draft stokes were installed and also a new feed water heater, to provide better service for the existing buildings and additional service for three future buildings. The smokestack of the heating plant was torn down in April, 1949, and a new heating plant, north of the Service Building was completed in December, 1949. In October, 1952, work began to convert the remaining building into a rifle range. After four years, though, the building was torn down.

Source

Oberlin College Archives, Office of the Secretary Records.