Browse Items (52 total)
Village Housing: 190 Woodland Street
This house has an association with the Oberlin College Library through two members of the Metcalf family. Issac Metcalf, who died in 1898, had 18 children with two successive wives, both of whom died before Issac's death. Several of the daughters and…
Village Housing: 184 Woodland Street
The Cowdery family made this house their home for nearly 60 years, beginning in about 1902. City directories list Mrs. Dryer L. Cowdery as well as Kirke L. and Mary T. Cowdery. Kirke and Mary had two sons: Lawrence T. and Karl M. Kirke Cowdery,…
Village Housing: 170 Woodland Street
This house had many owners and residents before the College purchased it and offered it to students in its Village Housing program. The College demolished it in 2018. The Hosford family lived in this house from 1902 through 1940. Mrs. Mary E. Hosford…
Village Housing: 166 Woodland Street
Much of the ornamentation typically found on an Italianate house of this kind were removed, except for the turned wood spindles supporting the porch, the shaped wooden lintels above the windows, and the ornate brackets over the side door. The flat…
Village Housing: 136 Woodland Street
This is a typical cross-gabled house built around 1890. The front porch is supported by pairs of Tuscan columns, and wraps around the façade back to the cross-gable on both sides. A very small porch covers the side door on the southwest corner…
Carpenter Apartments
In the 1920s this house, located west of Rice Hall, was owned and operated by Florence Jenny as Jenny's House, a dormitory for women. In 1939 the College purchased it for use as apartments for faculty. In the early 1960s Rice Hall was converted to a…
Women's Gymnasium (2nd)
This brick structure, two stories in height, was built in 1881 located south of the Ladies Hall (Second). It was ready for use in September, 1881. The lower floor was used for gymnasium purposes, while the upper furnished dormitory accommodations for…
Thompson Cottage
The property at 160 North Main Street, privately owned, was purchased by the College in 1913 and equipped as a house of residence for women. From 1913 to 1934 it was known as Keep Annex, furnishing rooming accommodations for sixteen women, who…
Thurston House
Thurston House was a three-story home, known for some time as the Knowlton House. The college purchased the home in 1971 from Eloise Thurston Landis Knowlton, daughter of Hiram Thurston. Hiram Thurston was the Treasurer of Oberlin College from…
Spear Library-Laboratory
Spear Library was the gift of Charles C. Spear, of Pittsfield, Mass. The cornerstone was laid October 6, 1884; it was dedicated November 2, 1885. The building was made of stone and measured 70 by 70 feet. It was named in honor of the donor, who also…
Society Hall
The construction of Society Hall was begun in 1867 and completed in 1868. It was a two-story brick building built at the same time and in the same style as French Hall, located on the west side of the Campus near the north end. As originally…
Pyle Inn
For many years a private dormitory for women, owned by Mrs. Lettie H. Pyle, the property at 158 West College Street was purchased by the College in 1931 and from that time on was operated as a house of residence for women. It furnished rooms for…
Squire Cottage
Nancy Squire Cottage was owned by the Kindergarten Training School as part of a complex comprising Squire and May Cottages, both built in 1870, and a brick connecting structure built by the School in 1922. Squire Cottage had been renovated in 1908.…
Men's Gymnasium (2nd)
The second Men’s Gymnasium was located on the site now occupied by Warner Center. It was a one-story frame building about 75 by 25 feet, built in the spring of 1873 at a cost of $1,000, the money for this purpose being raised by student effort.…
Sherman House
Sherman House was purchased by the College from Professor P.D. Sherman in 1946 or 1947. It was used as a rental property except 1948-49, when it was used as a women's residence as an emergency measure because of the removal of Churchill and Fairchild…
Root House
The former residence of Professor Azariah S. Root, Oberlin's first professional librarian, at 150 North Professor Street was purchased by the College in 1929 and was remodelled in 1930 to serve as a house of residence for College men. It accommodated…
The Manor
The Persons House, renamed "The Manor," was purchased by the College in January 1929 and rented to College men. By 1941 it was rented to a private family. In the fall of 1945 it was made into an apartment house for married veterans enrolled at the…
McClelland Block
The brick business block formerly at 21-23 North Main Street was purchased by the College from J.S. McClelland in 1936. In 1937 it was renovated for the Photostat and Photograph Departments (relocated 1954), the Superintendent of Construction, and…
Martin Block
The Martin Block, erected in 1908 by H.J. Martin at 32-34 East College Street, was purchased by the College in 1916. The use for College purposes of a part of the block began in 1919 when the office of the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds was…
Grey Gables
This house was purchased by the College in 1946 from Mr. and Mrs. Carl H. Dudley for use as a women's dormitory. It had been operated by the Dudleys as a private women's dormitory and dining hall for men and women prior to purchase by the College. At…
Heusner House
This late 19th century house was a private residence operated as an apartment house by Mrs. William Heusner when the College negotiated for its purchase in 1948. Mrs. Heusner continued to live in the first floor apartment, and the rest of the house…
Sturges Hall
The erection of Sturges Hall was begun in the fall of 1883, and completed in 1884, on the site across from Talcott Hall and next to the Soldier's Monument (1870, demolished/moved). For a number of years after the completion of Sturges Hall it was…
Federal Hall
At the close of the Second World War, the G.I. Bill enabled scores of discharged servicemen to attend college, swelling the ranks of students across the country. Federal Hall was a temporary housing solution for such students at Oberlin. The building…
Lord Cottage
Lord Cottage, named for its principal donor Elizabeth W.R. Lord, originally provided dormitory accommodations for forty women. The dining room offered table board for and additional thirty-five others. The builder, Adam Feick and Brothers of…
Keep Home
Keep Home was built in 1839. It was the home of Rev. John Keep (1781-1870) and Lydia Keep who owned and occupied the house for many years. In January, 1889, it was donated to the College by Theodore J. Keep and Mrs. Mary A. Keep, "... to be used as a…
Jones Field House
The George M. Jones Field House, a war surplus building adapted for use by the College in 1947-48, was a former World War II-era U.S. Navy drill hall that was moved here from Camp Perry, Virginia. New York architect Eldredge Snyder, who supervised…
Faculty Club
The house at 105 Elm Street was used by the College as a faculty club from 1919 to 1939. It was later made into apartments for faculty and staff, known as "Currier Apartments." The building was razed in the summer of 1963. Source Oberlin College…
Beacon (2nd)
The men's dormitory called Beacon was first located at 204 North Professor Street. In the summer of 1937 the house at 195 Woodland was used as the second location for Beacon. Beginning in 1947, the house was used for apartments and later as rental…
Goodrich House
Goodrich House came into possession of the College in 1932 from the Kindergarten Association. It continued to serve the Kindergarten-Primary Training School through the year 1932-33. The building was remodelled in the summer of 1933 for use as a…
Geology Laboratory (2nd)
The house located at 120 North Professor Street, formerly a private residence belonging to Professor William B. Chamberlain, was remodelled in 1915 as a laboratory for the department of Geology. The Geology museum on the second floor contained…
Geography Building/East Lodge
Beginning in 1929 the house on the property at 86 West Lorain Street was used for the department of Geology and Geography as headquarters for the work in Geography. The house was built in the early 1840s by Professor Henry Cowles and was located on…
French Hall
The construction of French Hall was begun in 1867 and completed in 1868, at the same time and in the same style as Society Hall. It was a two-story brick building, located on the west side of Tappan Square, near the south end, named in honor of…
Embassy
The house and property at 210 North Professor Street came into the possession of the College by purchase from the Pope sisters, who had conducted it for many years as a private boarding house for college women. This use continued until 1932, when the…
Dascomb Cottage
Dascomb Cottage, formerly a private residence, was named in honor of Marianne P. Dascomb, the first Principal of what was then the Women’s Department, and her husband, Dr. James Dascomb, the first doctor in Oberlin and one of the signers of the…
Old Laboratory
The Old Laboratory, located south of Colonial Hall, was built in 1838 according to plans obtained by Dr. James Dascomb, Professor of Chemistry, Botany and Physiology, when a student at Dartmouth and Yale. It was a one-story brick building, 30 by 50…
Tappan Hall
Tappan Hall, completed in 1836, was named in honor of Arthur Tappan of New York City, who provided most of the funds needed for its construction. Tappan was for many years one of the most influential supporters of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute…
Fairchild House
The house of President James Harris Fairchild (1817-1902) stood on Elm Street near South Professor Street. It was built in 1841 by the College Farmer and purchased by Fairchild when he was a professor in 1849. During the famous Oberlin-Wellington…
Oberlin Hall
The construction of Oberlin Hall was begun in the summer of 1833, and it was ready for use the following December. This building was known at first as the Boarding House and later as Preparatory Hall. It was then officially named Oberlin Hall. It was…
Ladies Hall (2nd)
The foundations for the Second Ladies Hall were laid in the spring of 1861, at the breaking out of the Civil War. Work upon the building proceeded slowly. The walls were put up and the building enclosed in 1863. At the Commencement exercises in 1865…
Mahan-Morgan House
In 1835, the Oberlin Collegiate Institute (former name of Oberlin College) erected a house for the use of its first president, Asa Mahan. The street upon which the Mahan and Finney houses were erected was given the name Professor Street for the first…
Colonial Hall
The construction of Colonial Hall was begun in the autumn of 1835 and was completed in the summer of 1836. It was named Colonial Hall because the colonists subscribed nearly half of the cost of the building, and in return were given the privilege of…
College Chapel (Old)
The College Chapel was begun in 1854 and was completed in 1855. It was located on the campus south of Tappan Hall. It was built of brick, two stories in height, with dimensions 56 by 90 feet. As originally planned, the first floor contained offices…
Churchill Cottage
This brick house with a frame porch was built in about 1884, and was purchased by the College in 1913. It was named in honor of Charles Henry Churchill, a professor at Oberlin College for 48 years who owned the house. It was remodelled in the summer…
Cabinet Hall
Cabinet Hall was constructed by the village of Oberlin in 1851 for public school purposes. It was located north of the Mahan-Morgan House, and south of the location now occupied by Peters Hall. It was purchased by the College in 1874. It afforded six…
Browning House
The Browning House, which stood adjacent to the Allen Memorial Hospital, was a twelve-bed infirmary named in honor of Dr. Charles H. Browning, for many years a prominent physician in Oberlin. This building was so arranged that contagious diseases as…
Beacon (1st)
The house that stood at 204 North Professor Street was purchased by the College in 1932. Prior to that date it was called "Parson's House," and had served as a men’s residence house operated by Mrs. A.B. Parsons. It was officially named…
Barr House
The property at 180 West College Street was purchased by the College in 1928, the house having been used for many years as a private residence. It was remodelled for use as a house of residence for Freshman men and was opened by the College in the…
Antlers
The property at 228 North Professor Street, called Antlers, was purchased by the College in 1928 as a part of the proposed Men’s Campus. The house had served previously for many years as a house of residence for men under private management,…
Allen House
The George N. Allen House (left), situated directly south of Baldwin Cottage (right), was purchased from I.A. Webster by the College in 1886. Upon purchase, it was named after Professor George Nelson Allen, who had built the house in 1870. Allen…