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History of the Oberlin Heritage Center

The Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization, today doing business as the Oberlin Heritage Center, was formed in 1964 through the merger of the Oberlin Village Improvement Society and the Oberlin Historical Society. Today, the mission of the Oberlin Heritage Center is to preserve and share Oberlin’s unique heritage, and to make our community a better place to live, learn, work and visit.

The Oberlin Village Improvement Society was founded in 1903 by Mrs. Adelia Field Johnston (1837-1910) who approached Charles Martin Hall (1863-1914) about improving the town so it would be a place "worthy of the college." The organization was typical of many "City Beautiful" type municipal improvement groups formed during the Progressive Era. The first meeting of the Oberlin Village Improvement Society (OVIS) was held February 16th, 1903 in the Sunday school room of Second Church and was called to order by General Giles Shurtleff. The early projects of the Society included the placing of waste paper receptacles on street corners, stopping people from cutting across privately owned lawns, and promoting home gardening projects among school children. The Society also worked for better city sanitation, by implementing programs of regular garbage pickup, cleaning up properties deemed "untidy" or "unsightly" within the business district, and encouraging people to keep their farm animals from running loose in the streets. On top of all these projects stood the massive clean-up of the Plum Creek area, which if beautified would, according to the Society's minutes, "mark Oberlin the finest town in Northern Ohio."

The Society also sponsored various informative lectures by respected speakers, such as in February of 1907, when an entomologist gave "a very acceptable lecture on the enemies of trees", and in April of 1915 when the state fire marshal spoke on techniques of fire prevention. These lectures were often accompanied by stereopticon views and slides. At the annual meeting of 1907, Frances Jewett, a crusader for sanitation reform, spoke on garbage pickup and disposal in New York City and Oberlin. Later, in May of 1910, she lectured again, this time on "the house fly, the dangers arising from its presence, and how to get rid of it."

The Society also declared war on "immorality" within the town. "Corner loafers" in the business section, and men in general, were asked kindly to improve their moral conduct so that the children of Oberlin might be raised within the best possible environment. "Why should the youth of the village feast their minds on such livid and unwholesome advertising as is daily exhibited in front of the moving picture houses?" asked the 1915 annual report of the Society. The immorality of a particular few also was thought to offend and deter visitors to Oberlin.

On June 5th of 1913, the OVIS merged with the Oberlin Christian Union, the Mutual Benefit Association, and Associated Charities, to form the Oberlin Federation for Village Improvement and Social Betterment. The Federation split into two key departments: village improvement work, and charities & social work. The village improvement department carried on the work of the OVIS (it isn't clear if the merger destroyed the autonomy of the former OVIS), through efforts to improve upon the physical and moral beauty of the town. The charities and social work department worked to give aid to the poor, create recreation clubs, and offer classes in crafts. The Federation worked especially on building and maintaining a playground as well as on gardening projects. Furthermore, an attempt to improve the conditions of jails was made, along with setting tramps/hobos to work to pay for the food and shelter they received from the town. (The minutes of the Federation claim "rock crushing is the best work at which to put tramps".)

In April of 1915, a long battle for beautiful lawns culminated in the "Death to the Dandelion" campaign. A special meeting was called at Sturges Hall, at which 150 townspeople declared war on "the yellow peril" of dandelion infestations. Those people who thought of the dandelion as medicinally useful and beautiful were deemed "old-fashioned" and a campaign of extermination was wrought on the plant, which, as a newspaper of the day put it, "multiplies like post office candidates after a general election."