Browse Items (207 total)
Administration Building (Temporary)
After the College Chapel burned down in 1903, the administrative offices were moved to a frame residence at 122 West College Street. The building contained a two-story brick vault, that would supposedly protect the contents from fire. However,…
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…
Allen Memorial Art Building
A gift from the estate of Oberlin physician Dudley Peter Allen (OC 1875) in 1915 provided the College with an opportunity to create an art building to showcase its art collections and support the art curriculum. Dr. Allen admired Cass Gilbert's…
Allen Memorial Hospital/Mercy Allen Hospital
The Allen Memorial Hospital was opened for the care of patients October 13, 1925. The hospital is a joint memorial to Dr. Dudley P. Allen, of the class of 1875, for many years the leading surgeon of Cleveland, Ohio, and to his father, Dr. Dudley…
Allencroft
Built in 1861 by Ralph Plumb, a hero of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, Allencroft was occupied beginning in 1865 by Dr. Dudley Allen. In 1899 the property was given to the College by Allen’s son, Dudley Peter Allen and his sister Emily Allen…
Anchorage
This house was used as a private residence, the last occupant being Professor Guy C. Throner. The College opened it as The Anchorage, a residence for men, in the fall of 1937. It was last used as a college dormitory in 1944-45. It was transferred to…
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,…
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is one of several businesses in the Hobbs Block on East College Street. Built by William Hobbs in 1913, this building housed Oberlin’s first 300 seat theater. For years, the eastern storefront was the well-appointed Hobbs…
Bacon Arbor
The late Carl Bacon attended Oberlin in 1921-22, and lived at the Oberlin College Inn in the 1980s. He donated the funds for the entire landscape which surrounded Hall Auditorium and the Oberlin Inn (prior to the construction of the Lewis Gateway…
Baldwin Cottage
The construction of Baldwin Cottage, a small-dorm complement to stately Talcott which rose more or less simultaneously next door, began soon after the 1886 fire which destroyed the Second Ladies Hall. It was named for Elbert Baldwin, a Cleveland dry…
Bandstand (1st)
Early photographs of the Oberlin campus indicate a raised platform that appears to be a bandstand, but prior to the 1870s these were typically temporary structures that could be moved to different locations, and covered with canvas. The first…
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…
Barrows Hall
Barrows Hall, named in honor of Oberlin's fifth president, John Henry Barrows, was opened in spring of 1956 and provides dormitory accommodations for approximately 130 incoming First Years. Previously on this site stood the Botany Department gardens…
Barrows House
The former residence of President John Henry Barrows, erected in 1901, was purchased by the College in 1916 and remodelled for the purpose of a house of residence for Conservatory women. It provided accommodations for fourteen students and table…
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…
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…
Botany Laboratory (2nd & 3rd)
From 1891 to 1904 the house built for the Finney family, on the present site of Finney Chapel, had been used for laboratory purposes for the Department of Botany. In 1904 the College remodelled the property at 64 North Professor Street to meet the…
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…
Burton Hall
Burton Hall was named in honor of trustee and Republican U.S. congressman Theodore Elijah Burton of the Class of 1872. His sister, Mary, married Civil War hero Giles Waldo Shurtleff, a professor, secretary and treasurer, and member of the Board of…
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…
Carnegie Building (Carnegie Library)
The Carnegie Building, originally Carnegie Library, gift of Andrew Carnegie, is located at the northeast corner of Professor and Lorain Streets. The building is constructed of Amherst sandstone; its dimensions were originally 135 by 110 feet. Patton…
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…
Central Heating Plant (1st)
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…
Central Heating Plant (2nd)
The second heating plant to be built on campus, located next to the Service Building on Lorain Street, stands 90 feet high at its top. Like the old plant it was designed to supply steam heat on campus using coal-fired boilers. An addition was built…
Charles Martin Hall House
Originally a beautiful mansion, this house is presently used by the College as Village Housing for students. It is historically significant for its association with an important American industrialist, Charles Martin Hall, and the process he…
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…
Cincinnati Hall
This rough log structure, also known as “Rebel Hall,” and “Slab Hall,” was built by the early settlers in 1835, to accommodate the students who came to Oberlin from Lane Seminary, Cincinnati. It was located approximately on…
Clark Bandstand
The project to build a modern bandstand was begun by President Starr and was carried initially by his enthusiasm for placing a bandstand on Tappan Square for the first time since 1907. Arthur H. "Kenny" Clark, president of Clark Brothers, Inc.,…
Co-education Centennial Memorial Gateway
The Co-education Centennial Memorial Gateway was erected in 1937 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Oberlin College's breaking of the gender barrier in higher education and its subsequent impact on the emancipation of women. On September 6,…
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…
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…
Conservatory Library Addition
In 1988, the Conservatory Library opened a new addition designed by architect Gunnar Birkerts that stands to the south of Warner Concert Hall. This addition nearly tripled the Library's space, although only one of the addition's two floors was fully…
Conservatory of Music
Oberlin's Warner Hall, the Conservatory's building from 1884, was no longer adequate at the beginning of the 1960s. The college chose Minoru Yamasaki to design a new complex, including a library, for the music school. The resulting building in…
Council Hall
The construction of Council Hall was begun in 1871, and the cornerstone was laid at the meeting of the National Council of Congregational Churches, held in Oberlin in November of that year. It was dedicated at the Commencement exercises in 1874, and…
Cox Administration Building
Construction of the sandstone Cox Administration Building began in 1913 and was completed in 1915. It was named in memory of Jacob Dolson Cox, an Oberlin graduate, Union army general, and Ohio politician, by one of Cox’s sons, J.D. Cox. The…
Crane Swimming Pool for Women
The Crane Swimming Pool for Women, the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop Murray Crane, Jr., and their daughter, Barbara, of Dalton, Mass., stands at the entrance to Galpin Field. The architect was the firm of Walker and Weeks of Cleveland. Ground was…
Cranford
Cranford was purchased by the College for use as a women's dormitory and dining hall for men and women in 1946 from Mrs. Bertha Pope Cairns. At the time of purchase Cranford housed 43 women and provided board for 82 men and women. The farm estate,…
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…
Dascomb Hall
Dascomb Hall was one of two (the other being Barrows Hall) of the first modern residence halls constucted at Oberlin, in the wake of high enrollment after the Second World War. Oberlin had previously housed its students in a number of older…
Daub House
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…
Dickinson House (1st & 2nd)
Prior to the purchase in 1908 of the private residence property at 166 West College Street, the College had acquired the back ends of lots fronting on West College Street, North Cedar Avenue, and West Lorain Street, and had developed in the area a…
Domes, Art Building Addition
In 1953, R. Buckminster Fuller visited the campus as the speaker for the Art Department's Baldwin Seminar Series, during which time he directed students in the erection of a temporary, geodesic dome frame. Fuller spent his life working across…
East Hall
This three-story dormitory comprises three wings connected at the east to form an "E" shape. The building is faced with brick, except for the ends of the main facade, which are capped at the corners with large three-story bays of patterned ashlar…
Ellis Cottage
The former home of Professor John Millott Ellis was purchased by the College in 1906. In the summer of 1914 it was remodelled for college purposes and used as a house of residence for women. It accommodated fifteen women, who took their meals…
Elmwood Cottage
Built by Professor Giles W. Shurtleff (1831-1904) in 1870, this house passed into the hands of the Kindergarten Association, probably in 1892 when Shurtleff moved to his new house (see Shurtleff Cottage). The Association dubbed it Burroughs Cottage.…
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…
Eric Baker Nord Performing Arts Annex
The 45,000-square foot performing arts annex is part of a multi-phased renovation and addition project that includes the newly completed Irene & Alan Wurtzel Theater, a highly adaptable space that accommodates between 200 and 300 seats. Nestled…
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…
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…
Fairchild House (residence hall)
The grand-niece of President James Harris Fairchild (1817-1902), Mrs. Amy Frances Fairchild Williams, together with her husband, contributed a substantial sum for a new women's dormitory for 80 women, Fairchild House. The residence hall stands on the…
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…
Finney House
In 1835 the College built, on the present site of Finney Chapel on Professor Street, a two-story brick building, “spacious and comely.” This building was erected as a home for Professor Charles Grandison Finney. Sometime during the year…
Finney Memorial Chapel
In 1903 College president Henry Churchill King approached Frederick Norton Finney, former President Charles Grandison Finney’s son, about construction of a new chapel to honor the former, illustrious president. F.N. Finney responded favorably…
Finney's Tent
The tent was a gift to Professor Charles Grandison Finney from friends in New York City, for holding revivalist meetings throughout the region, in places where no suitable houses for such meetings could be found. It was one hundred feet in diameter,…
First Church in Oberlin
First Church in Oberlin, originally First Congregational Church, was built from plans by Richard Bond, a prominent New England architect whom Charles Grandison Finney met while recruiting faculty in Boston. Building the church was a massive community…
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…
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…
Geology Laboratory (1st)
During the years between 1907 and 1915 the Geology Laboratory and Museum occupied quarters in a house on North Main Street on the site of the Allen Memorial Art Building. The building occupied, known as the “Squire House,” had been moved…
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…
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…
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…
Hales Memorial Gymnasium
The funds for Hales Memorial Gymnasium were given by G. Willard Hales (OC 1900) in memory of his mother, Lina Rosa Hales. It was the first modern gymnasium for women at Oberlin, succeeding several makeshift structures that served multiple purposes…
Hall Auditorium
Sophronia Brooks Hall Auditorium was completed in 1953, even though planning for the auditorium began around the First World War, when Charles Martin Hall willed $600,000 for 'a large auditorium' in memory of his mother, to be used by both college…
Harkness House
This three-story, mid-20th century dormitory was designed by Eldredge Snyder, who also designed the Jones Field House (demolished) and the Service Building. The front/east facade features a central entry, which has a rounded, projecting bay, which…
Haskell Fountain
The white Carrera marble, red porphyry and bronze fountain in front of the Allen Memorial Art Museum is a memorial to Katharine Wright Haskell by her husband, Henry "Harry" J. Haskell. Both Katharine and Harry were students at Oberlin; Katharine…
Heisman Club Field House
Dedicated on October 10, 1992, this facility was named in honor of the College athletics support group, the Heisman Club. The club takes its name from Oberlin's first football coach, the famed John Heisman who inspired college football's most…
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…
Historic Elm
In 1833, the year that Oberlin's founders John J. Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart picked the site for Oberlin College, this American Elm tree was a five-inch sapling in a dense forest. The tree was located on what is now Tappan Square. Legend has it…
International House
The dominating feature of this distinctive, Neo-Classical house is a gabled pediment projecting from the top half-story with a semicircular window, which is supported by two very large Ionic columns. The College renovated and restored the house in…
John Frederick Oberlin Monument
Oberlin College did not erect a monument to its namesake until 1995, about a decade after Robert Sherwood Hunt, Class of 1939, began raising funds for it. After Hunt's sudden death in 1990 several of his friends saw the project to completion. Oberlin…
Johnson House
Formerly the home of Mr. And Mrs. Albert H. Johnson, the Johnson House, built in 1885, and approximately twenty-five acres of land surrounding it were purchased by Charles Martin Hall in 1911 and presented to the College. During the years from 1912…
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…
Kahn (Robert Lewis) Hall
Robert Lewis Kahn Hall was dedicated September 25, 2010. It is a 52,000 square foot, 150-bed residence hall, with three floors plus basement. Kahn Hall is part of the First Year Residential Experience Cluster and is focused on sustainable living. The…
Keep Cottage
The cottage was opened for use in January, 1913, with dormitory accommodations for fifty-two women. It was named in honor of Rev. John Keep and Mrs. Theodore J. Keep. Mr. George M. Clark and his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Keep Clark, contributed funds…
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…
Kettering Hall of Science
Designed and built by the Austin Company of Cleveland, Ohio, the Kettering Hall of Science was completed in 1961 to house the Oberlin College departments of Biology and Chemistry. It was named for the late Charles F. "Boss" Kettering, renowned…
King Memorial Building
The King Memorial Building, named in honor of Oberlin's President Henry Churchill King, was built in several stages. The old Warner Hall, the Conservatory's home previous to Yamasaki's 1964 Conservatory building diagonally across College Street, was…
Knowlton (Austin E.) Athletics Complex
The new Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex and Dick Bailey Field, funded by an $8 million donation from the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation and private donors and dedicated in September 2014, replaced the outdated 90-year old Savage Football Stadium.…
Kohl (Bertram and Judith) Building
The Bertram and Judith Kohl Building serves as the innovative new home of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music's acclaimed Department of Jazz Studies and its academic programs in music history and music theory. The new 37,000 SF facility…
Koppes-Norris House
From about 1927 to 1942, this architect-designed house with a wrap-around porch was owned by Karl Wilson Gehrkens, head of the Conservatory's school music education program for 35 years. It had several more owners before it was purchased in 1987 by…
La Maison Française (French House)
La Maison Française (French House), was built in 1907 by Dr. Lauderdale, a dentist. He and his wife Mabel, an aspiring artist, ran the house as a student boarding house into the 1920s. Beginning September 1, 1930, the Lauderdale residence was…
Ladies Hall (1st)
The first College building for women's lodging, called Ladies Hall, was completed in 1835. It stood on the south side of West College Street between Professor and Main Streets. It was a frame building of three stories, with two wings extending toward…
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…
Langston Hall (North Hall)
Langston Hall, constructed as North Hall, was renamed in honor of John Mercer Langston in 1994. It is the College's largest dormitory complex housing over 200 students. At the time of its construction it signaled a move to modern dormitory…
Lewis (Adam Joseph) Center for Environmental Studies
This solar-powered building for Environmental Studies has earned national acclaim as a showcase for green building technologies and operating systems. Inspired by Professor David Orr's vision and direction and Oberlin's dedication to the project,…
Lewis (Edmonia) Center for Women and Transgender People
The Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People is named after Mary Edmonia Lewis, an Oberlin student from 1859-1862 and famed sculptor. It is a collective of students, staff, and administrators who strive to transform existing systems of…
Lewis House
This architect-designed house was built for James R. Severance in 1894. Mr. Severance, an Oberlin graduate, professor and treasurer, lived in the house with his family until his death in 1916. After his death his wife, Mrs. R. G., and daughter,…
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…
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…
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…
May Cottage
Under an agreement between the Trustees of the Ohio Kindergarten-Primary Training School and the Trustees of Oberlin College, four cottages belonging to the Kindergarten Training School, May Cottage, Burroughs Cottage, Goodrich House, and Webster…
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…
Memorial Arch
The Memorial Arch was erected as a memorial to the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions who lost their lives in the Boxer uprising in China in 1900. The cornerstone of the Arch was laid October 16, 1902, and it was…
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.…
Metcalf House
Metcalf House was built in 1908 by Maynard Metcalf, 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 about 1909 he built…
Mudd Learning Center
The Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center, named to memorialize the distinguished physician and philanthropist, was completed in 1974. Designed by Warner, Burns, Toan and Lunde of New York, the Center is a five-story, 200,000 square-foot limestone structure…
Music Hall
Music Hall was built in 1842. It was a one-story frame building, 30 by 50 feet, located on the site where Baldwin Cottage now stands. Music Hall was built through the efforts of Professor George N. Allen, the choir of the first Congregational Church,…
Nichols Memorial Gateway
This gateway marks the entrance to the Oberlin College athletic fields as a memorial to John Herbert Nichols on the occasion of his retirement from the Athletics Department in 1955. Nichols, an Oberlin graduate from the Class of 1911, served as…
Noah Hall
Noah Hall was named in honor of Andrew Hale Noah of Akron, Ohio, for seven years a member of the Board of Trustees, who contributed significant funds towards its construction. Ground was broken for its construction February 16, 1932, and the hall was…
Oberlin Campus 1836
Oberlin College Campus and Vicinity, 1833-36, hand-drawn map by R.H. Chaney, ca. 1908
(© Oberlin College Archives, RG 53 Map Collection)
(© Oberlin College Archives, RG 53 Map Collection)
Oberlin Campus 1858
Oberlin College Campus and Vicinity, 1858, hand-drawn map by R.H. Chaney, ca. 1908
(© Oberlin College Archives, RG 53 Map Collection)
(© Oberlin College Archives, RG 53 Map Collection)
Oberlin Campus 1883
Oberlin College Campus and Vicinity, 1883, hand-drawn map by R.H. Chaney, ca. 1908
(© Oberlin College Archives, RG 53 Map Collection)
(© Oberlin College Archives, RG 53 Map Collection)
Oberlin Campus 1908
Oberlin College Campus and Vicinity, 1908, hand-drawn map by R.H. Chaney, 1908
(© Oberlin College Archives, RG 53 Map Collection)
(© Oberlin College Archives, RG 53 Map Collection)
Oberlin Campus 2017
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(from the Oberlin College website at https://www.oberlin.edu/admissions-and-aid/visit)
(from the Oberlin College website at https://www.oberlin.edu/admissions-and-aid/visit)
Oberlin College Bookstore
In 1991, the Oberlin Consumers Co-operative demolished the three 19th-century structures comprising the Royce Block on this site to house their book, supply and gift business. The new postmodern, steel-frame commercial structure, built in 1993, has a…
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…
Oberlin Inn (2nd)
When the first modern Oberlin Inn replaced its 87-year-old predecessor in 1955, the town’s main intersection was radically transformed and “motel moderne” – a low budget adaption of the flat-roofed International Style –…
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…
Orchard Kindergarten Art Faculty Studio
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…
Park Hotel/Oberlin Inn (1st)
In 1866 Henry Viets offered to erect a hotel on the site of the former village hotel (built in 1833-34 and destroyed by fire in 1866), provided the College and citizens of the town contributed $5,000 toward its erection. The Trustees of the College…
Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center
Groundbreaking for the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center took place on June 12, 2014, and was dedicated in October 2016. The four-story complex includes the 70-suite Hotel at Oberlin, its restaurant, 1833, the Wiliam and Helen Birenbaum Innovation and…
Peters Hall
Ground was broken for Peters Hall in the spring of 1885 and it was dedicated on January 26, 1887. The building was made possible by gifts from Captain Alva Bradley, of Cleveland, Ohio, and from Hon. Richard G. Peters of Manistee, Michigan. Peters…
Philips (Jesse) Physical Education Center
The Jesse Philips Physical Education Center, a 115,000-square-foot facility, was designed as a modern replacement for the 1901 Warner Gymnasium (now the Warner Center for Performing Arts). Philips gymnasium is used for basketball, volleyball, and…
President's House
Designed by Oberlin College art professor Clarence Ward, this house was built for physics professor Samuel R. Williams. The contractor, J.B. Tucker, completed the house in 1920. Williams left Oberlin College for a position at Amherst College in 1924.…
Program Houses/Dormitories (1968)
In 1968, eight dormitories were built as program houses: Lord and Saunders (now Afrikan Heritage House), Bailey (French House), Barnard (substance-free), Harvey (Spanish House), Kade (German House), Price (now Third World House), and Zechiel…
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…
Rice Memorial Hall
Constructed in the years 1909 and 1910, Rice Hall was named in commemoration of the life services of Professor Fenelon B. Rice and Mrs. Helen M. Rice. Professor Rice was for thirty-one years the Director of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and to…
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…
Science Center
An architectural showpiece, the Science Center--with a budget of $55 million for construction and associated costs, and $10 million for an operations-and-maintenance endowment--is a postmodern structure sheathed in sandstone and designed to blend in…
Service Building
The Service Building is a one and two-story structure next to the 90-foot high Central Heating Plant. Initially the Service Building housed the Department of Buildings and Grounds. Today the building houses administrative offices such as Human…
Severance Hall
Severance Chemical Laboratory, now Severance Hall, was the gift of Louis H. Severance, of Cleveland. The construction was begun in 1899, and the cornerstone was laid May 31, 1900. It was dedicated with appropriate exercises September 26, 1901. Mr.…
Shanks (Patricia and Merrill) Health and Wellness Center
In October 2016 the Oberlin College Board of Trustees voted to approve the renovation and expansion of Philips Gym, to include a new health and wellness center and a complete renovation of Carr Pool. Construction began shortly afterwards on the south…
Shansi House (Mallory House)
The site of one of the oldest dwellings in the Oberlin village, this gracious house, now known as Shansi House, has undergone many remodellings and bears little resemblance to the original. William Ingersoll, a great-grandson of the theologian…
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…
Shurtleff Cottage
Shurtleff Cottage (actually a large house) was built on a large parcel of land along the back of Plum Creek by Giles W. Shurtleff in 1892 for his home with his wife Mary Burton and their children. He hired the architects Weary and Kramer of Akron to…
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…
Soldiers Monument
The Soldiers Monument was built in 1870 at a cost of $5,000. Professor Charles H. Churchill, who taught mathematics and natural philosophy at Oberlin, was the architect. It was located on the southeast corner of College and Professor Streets. On it…
South Hall
South Hall is the second largest hall on campus at around a 230 capacity. It was designed by Potter, Tyler, Martin & Roth, who also designed Dascomb Hall and Barrows Hall in 1956, and East Hall in 1964. The aerial view, taken during construction,…
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…
Sperry Neuroscience Wing, Kettering Hall (Science Center)
The 1990 wing for Kettering Hall, incorporated in the 2002 Science Center complex, was named in honor of Oberlin alumnus Roger W. Sperry, a professor at the California Institute of Technology for more than 30 years. He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in…
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.…
Stevenson Hall
Dedicated in 1990, Stevenson is best known as the home of Oberlin's largest dining hall. To reinforce the intimate scale of the Oberlin campus, Stevenson Hall is organized to support the residential-house model of the college. The site is adjacent to…
Stewart Hall
Stewart Hall was a two-story brick building, used for many years as a private residence. It was first rented by the College in 1880, and was purchased March 10, 1881 at a cost of $5,000, which included an additional lot. Stewart Hall was a dormitory…
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…
Talcott Hall
On this site originally stood the Second Ladies Hall, a three-story brick dormitory of Italianate design built during the Civil War. When it burned in January 1886, the College first planned to rebuild it using the bricks of the burnt-out shell. But…
Talcott Tree
The Talcott Tree, so named because it stood on the corner of W. College and Professor Streets in front of Talcott Hall (built 1887), was a Lombardy poplar, planted before 1865 by the father of Professor Albert W. Wright. It was used as a college…
Tank Hall
Tank Hall, formerly known as Tank Home, was erected in 1896 as a home for children of missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It was named for Mrs. Caroline L.A. Tank of Green Bay Wisconsin, who gave a quarter of its…
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…
Tappan Square
Tappan Square, Oberlin’s picturesque town green comprising 13 acres, was first cleared of trees in order to create space to build a college. Early settlers began removing trees between 1833 and 1836, adding a worm fence and later one of Osage…
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…
Theological Quadrangle (Bosworth Hall, Asia House, Fairchild Chapel)
The quadrangle complex, designed by Cass Gilbert and his son, and opened in 1931, was built for the College's Graduate School of Theology, closed in 1965. The complex, comprising Bosworth Hall, Shipherd Hall, and Fairchild Chapel, was designed to…
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…
Trailers
Formal application to secure accommodations for 300 additional single veterans and 50 additional married veterans, together with a messing unit, was voted by the Prudential Committee on December 31, 1945. Fifty trailers procured through contract with…
Union Street Housing Complex
This complex of eleven new, historically-influenced "houses" (each with 3 apartment units) form a neighborhood cluster that fits well with surrounding vernacular housing from the late 19th and early 20th centuries typical of Oberlin domestic…
Venturi Addition, Allen Memorial Art Building
Designing additions to the chaste art museums of an earlier era has challenged the ingenuity and reputation of many prominent contemporary architects. "Like drawing a mustache on a Madonna" was Robert Venturi's phrase for it. Venturi and Rauch's 1976…
Village Housing: 108 E. College Street
Owned by Sarah Cowles Little in 1894, the house was named Judson Cottage, after Professor Judson Smith in the Oberlin Theological Seminary who urged his students to serve abroad. Sarah Cowles Little (1838-1912, A.B. 1859), was a teacher and then…
Village Housing: 120 E. College Street
This house is situated far back on its lot, behind Tank Hall, originally Tank Home for Missionary Children. Though it was built around 1908 and can be found in the city directories for that year as 120 East College, on the Sanborn Insurance maps it…
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…
Village Housing: 137 Elm Street
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…
Village Housing: 140 Elm Street
This house was built in 1873 for William B. Durand, an insurance agent with a long career as town clerk. The Durand family lived here for 70 years. The grandson of the original owner, also named William B. Durand, an architect, divided the 28 rooms…
Village Housing: 140 N. Main Street
This modest house has historically been called the Martin, Harlow, and Jenkins House, after some of its owners. A detailed account of the successive residents can be found on the Ohio Historic Inventory for this address, accessible from the Oberlin…
Village Housing: 142 Woodland Street
This home was built in the 1880s, and in 1914 was the home of Mary Breckenridge, mother of Conservatory professor William Breckenridge. She took in boarders, one of whom was a freshman named Edward Willkie. Edward’s older brother Wendell, a…
Village Housing: 143 W. College Street
There has been a building on this site since before 1870, but this house appears to have been built later. The historical names for the house reflect its various owners: Bonstel, Barnard, Burton-Shurtle, and Molyneaux. The earliest known owner, Mrs.…
Village Housing: 158 W. Lorain Street
This house was built some time between 1896 and 1899, and the earliest known residents were Frank Beckwith, a local jeweler and the assistant postmaster, and his wife Minivieve. In 1933 William Durand, architect, is listed as a resident alongside the…
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: 168 N. Main Street
Historically this house was called the Lyman-Child-Winson House, for some of its previous owners. It is a vernacular house which features a combination of Craftsman and transitional Queen Anne and Colonial Revival elements. The front (east) porch,…
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: 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: 186 W. College Street
Historically this house was called the Falkner-McMillian House or the Shepard House. The occupant who lived there longest was Harold E. Shephard, and his wife, Bernice, the principal of Prospect Elementary. They lived there for at least 35 years…
Village Housing: 190 W. College Street
This modest brick house was built before 1873, and its earliest recorded resident was a Reverend W.O. Hart. It has been through a series of residents since then, perhaps boarders in the community. The house appears to have been a rental home from the…
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: 197 W. Lorain Street
The core of this house was built in 1854; many additions have been made to it since then. In 1862, Sela G. Wright, an ardent missionary to the Chippewa Indians in Red Lake, Minnesota and a contributor to the abolitionist movement, bought the house.…
Village Housing: 200 W. College Street
This modest house has a long history of ownership by private individuals and families before the College acquired it in 2009 for its Village Housing program for students. It was demolished in 2020. It was known for many years as the Drummond House,…
Village Housing: 201 N. Professor Street
This house has been known as the Mitchell-Sage-Young House, after several of its many owners and residents. It is a vernacular house with Greek Revival elements, and retains some of its historical features despite modern alterations. It is now one of…
Village Housing: 270 N. Professor Street
This house was built in 1905 by Fred Glider, a carpenter. In 1907 carpenter Jacob Mason occupied this house. From 1908 through 1963 Fred and Louise Glider were listed in city directories as occupants. The Gliders passed the house to their daughter…
Village Housing: 284 N. Professor Street
This vernacular, gabled ell house has had many residents, including extended family members and occasional boarders. It has been named the Rose, Channon and Drake House after several of its residents. It served as one of many houses for students in…
Village Housing: 29 N. Cedar Street
Built sometime during the late 1870s, the first known occupant of this house w as Mrs. Mary J. Hall (1820-?), who resided in the house in 1883. Mrs. Hall was the widow of James Hall, and had two grown children at the time, one of whom (Sophronia) was…
Village Housing: 35 N. Cedar Street
This house is typical of many turn of the 20th century, American Foursquare houses. The small oval window in the middle of the second floor facade is typical of the Shingle Style, but this house is a vernacular interpretation. Eva May Oakes, a…
Village Housing: 39 N. Cedar Street
This house, until recently known as the Lampson House, was built around 1900 by the same builder for 45 N. Cedar, Benjamin Talmadge Strong. Fine Arts Professor Eva M. Oakes lived here in 1916 before moving next door to 35 N. Cedar. Then Mrs. E. J.…
Village Housing: 40 N. Pleasant Street
A house has been located at this address since at least 1873, although the current house likely dates to circa 1900. This address was 5 N. Pleasant before the conversion of street numbers in 1894 in Oberlin. It is a vernacular, side hallway house…
Village Housing: 41 N. Pleasant Street
Until recently this house was known as the Sutfin House, after the family that lived here nearly 50 years, from 1937 through 1988. William Roland Sutfin (b. 1897, NY; d. 1957, Oberlin) was an employee at the T. O. Murphy Company, a plumbing and…
Village Housing: 45 N. Cedar Street
Like the Oakes House at 35 N. Cedar, this is an American Foursquare house, but with Queen Anne elements. Benjamin Talmadge Strong and his wife Mary (nee Camp) were listed here from 1890 to 1904. According to their grandson, Jarvis Strong, Benjamin…
Village Housing: 51 N. Cedar Street
The Greek Revival farmhouse--two wings flanking a main block with columned portico--was one of America's most popular domestic adaptations of the Greek temple form, and can still be seen gracing the landscape from New England through the South and…
Village Housing: 61 E. Lorain Street
This house was built some time between 1902-1908, and the earliest known resident was Abbot Rawson. His family lived in the house from its building until 1961. He was a custodian at Oberlin College. The house was known as the Rawson House for many…
Village Housing: 61 Willard Court
This simple, vernacular style house was built circa 1907. It first appears in the city directory in 1908, and was inhabited by postal clerk Charles J. Weeks and his wife Maud A. It is named the Spitter House after its most longstanding resident Carl…
Village Housing: 62 N. Pleasant Street
City directories and Sanborn Fire Insurance maps do not indicate this house at 62 N. Pleasant Street prior to 1939. However, the historic style of the house (simple Queen Anne) and building materials (sandstone foundation) indicate that the house may…
Village Housing: 66 N. Pleasant Street
This gabled front, side hallway house is a vernacular or folk house and retains many historic features. City directories and Sanborn Fire Insurance maps do not indicate this house at 66 N. Pleasant Street prior to 1927. However, the older style of…
Village Housing: 69 N. Cedar Street
This house is very plain--a good example of Oberlin’s embrace of austerity. Steps lead up to the front porch, which has a turned-spindle balustrade and a low-pitched roof supported by wooden Doric columns. The front door, at the center of the…
Village Housing: 70 N. Pleasant Street
This vernacular house was previously known as the Preston or Luikart House, after two of its owner/residents. By 1927, the Preston family had moved into the house and remained here through 1945. Ray Lambert Preston (b. 1886, Pittsfield, Ohio; d.…
Village Housing: 75 Elmwood Place
This home displays elements of the Craftsman/Arts and Crafts style in the use of its stucco exterior, and south facade porches. It was built behind E. Irene Morrison's lot at 137 Elm ca. 1912. Morrison lived here with Helen & Charles B. Martin,…
Village Housing: 76 N. Pleasant Street
This vernacular, gabled ell-plan house, built in about 1904, was named the Kelly or Hipp House, after two of its owners/residents. By 1908, the Kelly (also spelled Kelley) family took up residence in this house and lived here through 1933. George B.…
Village Housing: 83 Elmwood Place
This dormer front bungalow was built in 1912 for Karl Frederick Geiser, after whom the house was named, who taught political science at Oberlin College. He lived here around 1916 with his second wife Florence Mary Chaney. His daughter was born in…
Village Housing: E.A.R.R.T.H. House
This duplex started as a single house, built before 1877. Then, around 1908, the second house was added on, and lived in by a local jeweler, A.F. Meseke, and dentist, James Dexter, and their families. The house was known as the Dexter House for many…
Ward (Dewy) Alumni Center, Art Gallery and Studio
The multi-use, LEED East College Street Project owned and developed by Sustainable Community Associates broke ground in 2008 and was completed in 2010. Oberlin College purchased 7,000 square feet in the complex for its Alumni Association offices and…
Warner Center for the Performing Arts
Ground was broken for Warner Gymnasium, built of Ohio Sandstone, in August, 1900, and the building was completed in the fall of 1901. It was named in honor of its donors, Dr. and Mrs. Lucien C. Warner, of New York, who provided funds for the building…
Warner Hall
In June, 1883, the announcement was made that Dr. and Mrs. Lucien C. Warner, of New York, proposed to erect a building for the Conservatory. Ground was broken in November, 1883, and the cornerstone was laid in January, 1884. The building was…
Webster Hall
Webster Hall, at 51 South Professor Street, came to the College from the Kindergarten Association in 1932, and was used for the year 1932-33 as a dormitory for women in the Kindergarten Training School. It was remodelled and opened as a college hall…
Weltzheimer/Johnson House
The Weltzheimer/Johnson House stands as another expression of Frank Lloyd Wright's answer to the demand for beautiful and affordable middle-class homes in post-World War II America. Pairing innovation with basic owner-builder construction materials…
West Lodge
From 1927 to 1937, West Lodge at 106 West Lorain Street had been used as an office annex, for the work of the photographic and photostat departments, for the faculty stenographic service, and for three departmental offices. From 1926 to 1929 it was…
Westervelt Building
This Gothic Revival building, designed by Walter Blythe of Cleveland, was erected in 1873-74 as a school by the Village of Oberlin. In September 1926, Edmund C. Westervelt of South Bend, Indiana, presented to Oberlin College the property on South…
White House
The property at 144 North Professor Street, formerly the residence of Mr. A.M. Loveland built in 1902, was purchased by the College in 1931. The house was moved to the site at 160 North Professor Street, was remodelled for use as a house of residence…
Wilder Hall
From the College's founding men had lived in boarding houses scattered throughout the town. The College had built dormitories for women, including Talcott and Baldwin, but not for men. This building, constructed from a design by architect Joseph…
Williams Field House (Williams Ice Rink)
The Beatty B. Williams Field House was originally a simple, open-air structure for an ice rink, with an arched aluminum roof that faces north and south. It was connected on the east with the Jones Field House, demolished in 2009. John D. Rockefeller,…
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…
World War II Memorial Garden
Located on the south side of Finney Chapel, the World War II Memorial Garden commemorates the seventy-five Oberlin College alumni who lost their lives in the Second World War. The idea for creating such a memorial was born at a special alumni reunion…
Wright Laboratory of Physics
The Physics Laboratory, renamed the Wilbur and Orville Wright Laboratory of Physics in 1948, was constructed during the Second World War of concrete with an exterior of Indiana Limestone. The reinforced concrete was a wartime building material in…
Wright Zoological Laboratory
Wright Zoological Laboratory was named in honor of Albert A. Wright, for thirty-one years Professor of Geology and Natural History in Oberlin College. The building was erected by the Second Congregational Church during the years from 1867 to 1870,…
Yellow House
Commonly known as the Yellow House by its color, this modest two-story house with attic dormers is the home of Oberlin's Creative Writing Program. For some years until 2009, it housed the Communications Office, along with the Daub House next door.…