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Old City Hall 1919-1920
69 South Main
When new the Oberlin Town Hall accommodated the fire department (north side of first floor), the city clerk, the clerk of Russia Township, the mayor’s and other offices, the waterworks laboratory, and the council chamber. A brown brick building of prairie-style design with stone trim. Architect: “Mr. Walters” of Cleveland – probably George Charles Walters. |
Christ Church 1859
162 South Main
The second of Oberlin’s churches, designed in Romanesque variant of Gothic Revival. Twentieth-century stained-glass windows by artists Kenyon Cox and Margaret Kennedy. Architect: Frank Wills (English born, from New York City, helped spread the Gothic Revival in America). |
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Penfield-Grills House c. 1895
221 South Main
Home of local carpenter L.H. Penfield and his family, later purchased by Charles Bilhart, a telegrapher for the B&O Railroad. Bilhart’s son-in-law Elver Grills, who worked for Republic Steel, and daughter Eva moved into the house in 1935; Eva lived there until 1992. The gable end has vertical wooden decorations under the cornice and a semicircular design under the peak. Above the doorway a high gabled hood is decorated with scrollwork and wood lattice; the window above it has a triangular pediment. Stick style. |
Railroad Depot 1866
S.W. of South Main and South
Served as Oberlin’s passenger depot from 1866 to 1949. A well proportioned building with broad bracketed eaves and board-and-batten siding. Renovated by the Nord Family Foundation for use by the community. |
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Oberlin Gas Lighting Company Gasholder Building 1889
291 South Main
Built by Albert H. Johnson, president of the Oberlin Gas Lighting Company, to store coal gas that was manufactured in an adjacent retort with a brick smokestack now demolished. This gas was first used for lighting (Oberlin was the first town in the area to enjoy gas-lit streets) and beating and later for cook stoves. The company provided gas for heating until 1918, when natural gas became available, and since then the building has had various uses, primarily storage. Planning for an Underground Railroad Center in the building began in 2005. A surviving example of nineteenth-century functionalism, round brick with conical slate roof. |
Old Water Tower 1893
Morgan
Part of Oberlin waterworks created in 1886-1893, supplied by Vermilion River. Standpipe atop the stone tower was used for water storage. |
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Westwood Cemetery 1864
429 Morgan
One of Ohio’s early landscaped cemeteries. Created to honor Civil War dead and other local citizens, famous and obscure. Designed by H.B. Allen in curvilinear romantic tradition inspired by A.J. Downing. |
Williams-Stechow House 1913
260 Oak
Home of Samuel R. Williams, Oberlin College physics professor. The House was sold in 1917 to Mary E. Sinclair, mathematics professor, Oberlin College graduate and first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago. In 1944 she sold the house to Oberlin College Professor Wolfgang Stechow, a renowned scholar of Northern Baroque painting. His wife Ursula Hoff Stechow taught French in the Oberlin public schools. The red brick house has elements of the Prairie style in its hip roof and wide overhanging eaves with exposed rafters. |
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Cargill-Blanchard House 1905
273 Oak
Home of Maude and Wade Cargill, Oberlin College Treasurer. Built from plans by the Keith Company Architects. After 46 years Cargills sold in l952 to Gwen and Homer Blanchard, an organ maker. Architectural features include large 1/3 over 2/3 double hung windows, leaded glass sidelights on either side of off-set front door with oval window at one side, Palladian window on second floor, two bay windows, and a broad front porch with four fluted wood columns. American four-square. |
Memorial Arch 1903
West side of Tappan Square
Construction sponsored by American Board of Foreign Missions to commemorate Oberlin missionaries and their children killed in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. Indiana limestone embedded with polished red granite panels and discs, neo-classical design. Architect: Joseph Lyman Silsbee of Chicago. |
