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History of the Oberlin Heritage Center

The Federation's last recorded minutes were in 1918. After the decline of the Federation, the former OVIS made a resurgence in February 1923.  From this time until the O.H.I.O. merger in 1964, the OVIS focused its efforts on purchasing property along the Plum Creek south of the downtown area, cleaning it up, and then turning the land over to the town.  This was financed through numerous investments and through the "Community Chest Association".  The clean-up ultimately aimed toward creating a park and public walkway along the creek.  Attempts were made to stop oil pollution and littering in the creek, along with efforts for tree and shrub planting along the bed to counter the pollution. A proposal for a dam project was also suggested, but never fully carried out.

Around the same time that the OVIS was focusing on the Plum Creek project, another group was organizing to preserve the historical buildings and artifacts within Oberlin and Lorain County.  The objective of this group, the Oberlin Historical Society (OHS), as stated in its constitution, was to "...collect suitable [and] available historical materials connected with... the history of Oberlin and Lorain County... and carefully preserve same.  This shall include...historical relics, museum materials, copies of local county records, old church records, private papers, monographs, letters and genealogical information of Lorain County.  The society also proposes to cooperate with the libraries of the county... [and] with other historical societies...". On June 30, 1960 an organizational meeting of the OHS was held at the home of Clifford Barden.  Barden was a prominent Oberlin citizen who had discovered the frame of the first school house built in Oberlin, and had subsequently mounted a campaign to save it from demolition as it was in the path where the proposed new city hall was to be built.  The preservation campaign was a success and the Schoolhouse was moved and restored.  The effort won the OHS a preservation award in 1962 from the Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

In October of 1960, a meeting of the OHS was held at which the idea of moving the historic Monroe House was brought up, because of its presence on the site of the College's proposed new Conservatory of Music.  It was decided that the project was worthwhile and necessary, but that $10,500 would have to be raised in order to accomplish this.  A massive community fund-raising scheme was carried out, and by May 1962 the house had been moved to its present site, in cooperation with Oberlin College.  Following the death of Barden in 1961, after which Donald Love assumed the position of president, another campaign was set forth to preserve the Monroe House, which was in need of heating, plumbing, interior decorating, and various other repairs.  In order to carry out this enormous project, funds again were solicited from many individuals and organizations, including the Village Improvement Society.

The connection between the OHS and the OVIS had begun in May of 1958, when Clifford Barden, a member of the Board of Trustees of the OVIS, proposed that the OVIS provide a site on OVIS property for the preservation of the Little Red Schoolhouse that he and the Oberlin Historical Society were aiming to preserve.  Over the next three years, the OVIS contributed $700 to the OHS to aid in acquiring and moving the Monroe House to serve as a historical museum.  This close relation between the groups ultimately led to the proposal of May 27th, 1963 that suggested a merger of the groups.  The new organization would be declared voluntary and tax exempt, and capable of holding real-estate.  The group would also work toward the creation of a replica of the "immortal woodshed" of the Hall aluminum discovery, and of a community/civic center to be possibly located at the "Locker Plant" on South Main Street.  On May 25th, 1964 the final merger took place as the OVIS changed its name to the Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization (O.H.I.O.) and incorporated the former OHS.

While the similarity of the groups' interests was probably the main reason for the merger, there were at least three other motives that contributed in some way.  First, the merger was seen as beneficial to both groups in that a combined effort would provide better planning and management for the proposed Monroe House and "Immortal Woodshed" museums, the Schoolhouse, and the civic center.  Furthermore, a merger would create a better basis for the solicitation of gifts and funds.  Finally, there were four key figures who were serving on both the OHS and the OVIS Board of Directors:  Ira L. Porter, William P. Davis, Donald Love, and T.O. Murphy.  The organization remains an unusual hybrid; there are not many towns that have an organization which still addresses both the historic and improvement aspects of a community. Beginning around 2002, the organization gradually began to adopt the name "Oberlin Heritage Center," with O.H.I.O. still used for legal purposes.

Today, the Oberlin Heritage Center is a membership-based organization offering public programs on community history, civic improvement and community concerns.  Today, the Oberlin Heritage Center has about 720 individual, family, and business memberships (growing from just 12 memberships in 1993) and approximately 200 volunteers working on a variety of projects.