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Historic Oberlin Today

The December 21, 2004 issue of the Oberlin News-Tribune launched a series of historic home profiles selected from the 300 buildings included in the City of Oberlin Historic Preservation Commission 's city-wide historic site inventory conducted by the Oberlin Heritage Center in 2003 and 2004; the series continues with buildings from the 2005-2006 inventories. The buildings are chosen based on their historical and architectural interest, geographical distribution, and the varied themes, architectural styles and building types that they represent within the context of Oberlin's history. In order to respect property owners and occupants' privacy, the series does not include information about current owners or occupants of the properties.

Property owners or others with questions or with additional information they would like to share about the history of the buildings in the series are encouraged to contact Pat Murphy at the Oberlin Heritage Center at 774-1700 or to send an e-mail. Historic Oberlin Today is made possible in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service administered by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historic Preservation, in cooperation with the City of Oberlin Historic Preservation Commission and the Oberlin Heritage Center.

The profiles are also availiable in a two part downloadable file. Keep your eye on the Oberlin News-Tribune for weekly profiles of our historic landmarks!
Download Historic Oberlin Today Part 1
Download Historic Oberlin Today Part 2


Orchard Kindergarten This building is one of Oberlin's finest examples of Craftsman style architecture. It was originally part of the property of Maynard M. Metcalf. Metcalf was a professor of zoology at the college and notably served as the lead expert witness for the defense at the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' in 1925. It is unclear what he used the building for before the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School bought it and made it into a kindergarten in 1926. Founded in 1894, the school trained Kindergarten teachers and provided free education to Oberlin's five-year-olds. It was one of the premier schools of its kind before new state requirements forced it to close and transfer its buildings and students to the college in 1932. The college leased the building to the city school system, which continued to use it for kindergarteners. Lying between Forest and Elm streets and surrounded by trees, the school was so secluded that it was called 'Fairyland' before South and Lord/Saunders dormitories were built around it in the1960s. Concerns from the fire marshal and falling enrollment led the school system to shut it down in 1980. The only one of the Training School's former dormitories, lecture, halls, and classrooms still standing, the building now appears rather forlorn and neglected.	266 N. Professor, Horn House John H Horn, a carpenter and contractor, built this house for his family between 1902 and 1904. They lived here until about 1910. Mrs. Anna B Hughes, an artist, lived here from about 1910 to 1920. The house's most illustrious residents, the Mays, moved in between 1927 and 1929. The patriarch, Alfred E May, fought in the Civil War for Company G of the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry after joining at age 17. In 1915, Ohio's governor appointed him to a commission to select a design for a monument to commemorate a battle at Lookout Mountain. Also an inventor, he claimed to have been the first to find a practical use for fuel oil when he built his own oil-burning boiler in the 19th century. Alfred was the last member of his Civil War company to die when he passed away in 1929. His daughters Mary and Nora ran a county children's boarding home here from the 1930's through the 1950's.

128 Shipherd Circle, Ellis House Oberlin College developed the Shipherd Circle neighborhood after WWII to entice and retain faculty with quality modern housing. Built on the land called Caskey farm after William Caskey, a professor of oratory at Oberlin College at the turn of the 19th century, the first houses were constructed in 1950. Wade and Agatha Ellis and their sons Wade Jr. and William moved into this house after its construction in 1956. Wade was only the tenth African American to earn a PhD in Mathematics in the United States and the first African American professor to teach at OC, where he taught math from 1948 to 1967. Wade also served on the Oberlin City Council. Both of his sons graduated from OC and went on to have distinguished academic career: Wade Jr. became a college math instructor in California and William taught political science at Howard University, at one time heading research in the department. .	73 N. Pleasant, Hovey House The first known residents, Frank Hovey and his wife Mary Etta, moved into this house about 1875 with their children Lena and Harry. Frank was a farmer, ice dealer, painter and paperhanger, and later ran a plumbing business with his son. He also had a career in public service, serving as chief engineer of the fire department, city councilman, and warden. Lena married Frank Foster in 1898 and the couple stayed in this house with Lena's parents. After Frank and Etta died, Harry moved back in with his sister in 1941 and worked as a plumber at the college. Two more Hoveys, Paul and Harold, also lived here in the forties. Paul was a fighter pilot in WWII, serving in China, Burma, and India. After more than seventy-five years, The Hovey family's long residence here ended about 1960.

396 Morgan, Paul and Sally Arnold House Designed and partially built by its first owners, Paul and Sally Arnold, this house exemplifies the post-WWII do-it-yourself movement in home construction. Oberlin College's art department hired Paul, a 1940 Oberlin College graduate, in 1941. After returning from service in WWII, Paul and his wife Sally, also an Oberlin grad., began designing their new home. Paul cleared his blueprints with Berea architect Franklin Scott, pulled together his own materials, and began building with the help of local contractor Lee Ross the summer of 1948. The Arnold's moved in to their nearly completed home that Christmas. The modern split-level house featured a high-ceiling living room with an overlooking bedroom balcony. As the Arnold's family grew so did the house and they eventually converted the garage into a dining room and the rear porch into a music room among other improvements and additions. Paul also designed two monuments in Oberlin, one to Martin Luther King Jr. and the other to Oberlin's namesake, John Frederick Oberlin..	319 Reamer, Carruthers House This large neo-Georgian house was constructed in 1909 for Claudio Strauss Carruthers and her husband Will. Claudio was the daughter of August Strauss, who, along with his cousin Marx, made himself one of the richest men in 19th century Oberlin. Although they arrived in Oberlin from Germany almost penniless in the 1850's, the cousins used their connections with New York relatives to build a thriving clothing business. Claudio's husband Will Carruthers ran a jewelry store on W. College Street before selling it to work for his father-in-law in 1913. Another illustrious resident was George Simpson, who lived here with his wife Eleanor from 1948 until the 1980's. George was a leader in the field of cultural anthropology and long-time chair of Oberlin's Sociology-Anthropology Department. He studied cultural minorities in the U.S. and abroad as well as Caribbean and West African religions.

Pagoda Houses In 1960, seven children died when their family's sub-standard home on Lincoln Street caught fire. The fire was a wake-up call for the town, finally making people think about the woefully inadequate conditions that Oberlin's poor residents were living under, particularly in its southeast quarter. The city strengthened its enforcement of housing codes and enacted a fair housing law, but it was soon apparent that Oberlin residents needed new homes. With funding from the federal Public Housing Authority, 54 pagoda-style houses were built in 1965-66. Two unique features set Oberlin's public housing apart. First, public housing in the rest of the country usually took the form of huge apartment buildings that concentrated residents in the poorest part of town and separated them from the neighborhoods they lived in. Oberlin decided to build single-family homes scattered throughout the town so that their residents would not be stigmatized or ghettoized. Although they were not ultimately spread throughout the city, the units were interspersed with pre-existing homes throughout the southeast section of Oberlin. The second unique feature of the houses is their Asian-inspired design, which led residents to call them 'pagoda' houses. Their architecture is, however, a mixed blessing since it makes them stick out from the surrounding houses. While few would agree that low-income housing in Oberlin is perfect, the pagoda houses went a long way towards making Oberlin a better community for all of its residents.	235 N. Main Street, Mitchell House Built in the 1870s, this house’s first known residents were an African American family: William M Mitchell, a North Carolinian, his wife Zurah Ann, a Virginian, and their five children: Walter, Arthur, Minerva, James, and Nellie. William, a house painter and paperhanger, had come to Oberlin about 1866. Later, running as an Independent, he won a seat on the village council in 1884. This was unusual in staunchly Republican Oberlin, where Lincoln’s old party was firmly entrenched. William’s success in 1884 as an independent was thanks largely to the tradition of having at least one African American on the council. Since the Republicans hadn’t nominated any black candidates, William got the job. He ran for various positions several more times as an independent and as a member of the Prohibition Party, but he never again overcame the Republican machine. The Mitchell home was not known just for politics; it was also one of the most popular places for black college students to live in Oberlin. Some families sent multiple generations of their children here before the Mitchells left in 1923.

277 N. Professor, Wade House This house first appeared in the city directories in 1894 (probably built soon before that), and the first residents were Gilbert Wade (known as Bert) and his wife Laura. Bert Wade, born in 1862, was a blacksmith who worked at and later bought, in 1889, the Penfield Blacksmith and Carriage Shop. Bert ran his business until his death from pneumonia in 1916. His death was felt by the community where he was remembered as "one of the most highly respected citizens of the village." After his death, Bert's son, Benjamin, took over the hardware, harness, and blacksmith shop, and continued to live in the house with his mother (Laura, d. 1942), wife Milfred (m. 1917), and sisters Helen and Mabel. Starting in 1961, this house is listed as Tressie's Nursing Home, with Tressie Schmauch as the owner. Little is known about the nursing home other than that it experienced a change of ownership in 1982.	580 W. Lorain, Presti's John and Bess Presti opened 'Presti's,' an Italian restaurant and tavern, here on November 21, 1937. There was an existing house at the location, which they renovated when they added the dining area. Their son, Gene Presti, estimated that this original house might have been close to one hundred years old at the time, based on the woodwork. The family lived in the house while they used the other part of the building for the restaurant and bar. Presti's does not lie within the Oberlin city limits, which explains how it has been able to avoid Oberlin's alcohol prohibitions. By 1956, John had died, but Bess was still living here with her sons, Eugene and John who managed the restaurant. This building went through further renovations in 1955 and 1967.