Orchard Kindergarten Art Faculty Studio

Date

ca. 1909-1932 (private); 1932-present (college)

Location

128 Forest St.

Architects/Collaborators

unknown builder

Style

Craftsman with Tudor details

History

Maynard M. Metcalf, graduate of the class of 1889, had this humble structure built in an apple orchard as a zoology and botany lab in about 1909, as well as a large house on the property as his residence. Metcalf was a professor of zoology at the college and also the lead expert witness for the defense at the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' in 1925 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law). In 1926 the lab and nearby properties were purchased by the Oberlin Kindergarten-primary Training School (OKTS), then sold to the college in 1932. The college leased the structures to the Oberlin Public Schools for use as a kindergarten until closing in 1980. The Metcalf lab building is the last remaining OKTS structure. It is currently used as a studio for Art Department faculty. The building is listed at 128 Forest St., the address of the demolished Metcalf house, but is set back between Forest and Elm streets, accessible only by a service drive that runs next to South Hall.

Sources

Ohio State Historic Preservation Office Inventory for Orchard Laboratory-Oberlin Kindergarten by Elizabeth Schultz, Oberlin Heritage Center, 8/2/2004. Accessed from the Oberlin Heritage Center website, 6/30/2021.

"Art Studios," Oberlin College website, accessed 7/1/2021.

Facilities Planning and Construction Office, Oberlin College, email correspondence, 7/1/2021.