City of Oberlin Historic Landmarks

Tappan Square 1833

Thirteen-acre square originally known as the Campus contained early college buildings until the 1940s. Olmsted Brothers of Boston introduced professional landscaping in 1914. Following instructions in the will of Charles Martin Hall, who admired open space and left funds to maintain it, all buildings on square razed by 1927. Clark bandstand in northeast quadrant built 1987. National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark.

Kennedy House c. 1890
91 South Cedar

Home of H.P. Kennedy, carpenter and town councilman.  The many people who have lived here include Professor Francis D. Kelsey, who formed Oberlin College’s first botany department.  Under his direction the college herbarium became a national resource for botanists. In 2003 Oberlin College art curator Stephen Borys and his wife Hazel bought the house and restored it following architect Susan Henderson's plan. Vernacular with elements of folk Victorian gable-ell planand Craftsman styles, leaded glass windows, turned porch posts.

Hall House 1853
64 East College

Boyhood home of Charles Martin Hall, who, working in a woodshed formerly attached to the house, discovered electrolytic process for producing aluminum. Later founder of Alcoa and philanthropist who gave generously to Oberlin and other colleges.Early Italianate style with central cupola, ornate milled brackets, stone lintels. National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Chemical Landmark.

Squire House c. 1900
82 East College

Home of Merton M. Squire, president of State Savings Bank.  Later owned by Lois R. Cummings, kindergarten teacher who rented to boarders.  Social activist Shirley R. Johnson and architect Douglas Johnson lived in a first-floor apartment in the 1940s.  Good example of Queen Anne style, with wrap-around porch, octagonal two-story tower, and bay windows.

Metcalf-Leonard House late 1850s
174 East College

Home of Charles Metcalf, mayor of Oberlin in the 1880s, and later of the Reverend D.L. Leonard—author of a one-volume history of Oberlin College—and his son Dr. Fred Leonard, professor of physical education at the college. Purchased in 1968 by Oberlin College mathematics professor George Andrews and his wife Marlene, who lived here for 41 years. The house is Oberlin’s most unusual survivor of the Greek Revival style, with corner pilasters, dentil cornice.

Langston House 1856
207 East College

Home of Oberlin College graduate John Mercer Langston, Ohio’s first African-American lawyer, a prominent abolitionist, civil rights leader, minister to Haiti, and Republican Congressman from Virginia. Gable-roofed, early Italianate style with elongated windows and double-leaf doors. National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark.

Stevens-Wood House 1862
228 East College

Home of George Stevens, an early Oberlin postmaster. H. Delos Wood bought the house in 1881, and it remained in his family for more than 90 years. Brick Italianate with low-pitched hip roof and wide, bracketed eaves; porches replaced in 1913.

Houghton House 1906
257 East College

Home of Oberlin Postmaster Morton Houghton and his wife Grace. Morton served as postmaster from 1913 to 1923 and again from 1933 to 1949. Earlier he had attended the Oberlin Academy and College and had purchased (with James Wood) the Oberlin Concrete and Coal Co. Morton's twin daughters Margaret and Martha both graduated from Oberlin College. The house remained in the Houghton family for nearly fifty years, before becoming the home of George Hunter, a restaurant owner, and his wife Gayle, director of the Oberlin City Schools' cafeterias. An American foursquare home with Queen Anne elements: broad front porch with fluted columns, second story projecting bay with roof coming to a point for a tower effect.

Richards House 1911
270 East College

Home of Mary and Erwin Richards, missionaries to Africa. Designed to be large enough so that Mary could rent rooms to students to supplement her income in later years. Erwin Richards died in 1929 and she took in students until 1964. It was then purchased by Richard and Dina Schoonmaker, who were, respectively, chemistry professor and special collections preservation librarian at Oberlin College. They lived here for 45 years. Two-and-one-half story clapboard house with spacious indented front porch, large three-window bay on west side, and raised sandstone foundation. Vernacular gable-ell plan.

Burrell-King House 1852
315 East College

Home of Jabez Lyman Burrell, Oberlin College trustee, abolitionist, and philanthropist. Later home of Henry Churchill King, Oberlin College president from 1902 to 1927. Other residents include Oberlin College Conservatory piano professor Axel Skjerne and his wife Ebba, who lived in the house for about 30 years. In 1954 he was knighted by the Danish king for his promotion of Danish music in the United States. The house is now owned by Oberlin College and houses the Community Music School. Greek Revival style with neo-Georgian porches added by King. Sandstone lintels, wide cornice returns, and multi-paned windows are part of the original house. National Register of Historic Places.

Hart House 1875
525 East College

Home of Flavius Hart, Oberlin furniture maker and businessman, who ran a feed and cider mill next to his house and later owned a small furniture factory and store downtown. One of Oberlin's few Democrats, he became postmaster in 1894. Second Empire style, molded cornice with brackets, elongated windows, one of two surviving brick Mansard homes in Oberlin.

Carpenter Block begun 1886
5 West College (sw corner of Main St.)

Built gradually over several years following a downtown fire; three tones of brick along College Street façade show building stages; second-story offices, double bay windows looks toward Tappan Square, sandstone string courses, stained glass windows. Architect: Frank Weary of Akron. Within Downtown Oberlin National Register Historic District.

Kinney House 1911
265 West College

Home of Carl W. Kinney, editor of Tribune newspaper (later merged into News‑Tribune). After 1956 home of German professor Joseph Reichard and his wife Anita Reichard, Oberlin College dean of women in the late 1960s. Architect: Joseph Lyman Silsbee (Silsbee was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first professional mentor; hip roof, broad eaves, and open floor plan suggest influence of Prairie School).

Rice-Moore House 1871
155 Elm

Oberlin College president James Fairchild had the house built by craftsman J.S. Wright, who lived here until 1874, when it was sold to Fenelon B.Rice, early director of Oberlin College Conservatory. Later the home of David R. Moore, history professor. Frame Italianate style, hip roof with brackets, decorative cornice, wrapping porch.

Wattles House 1884
166 Elm

In 1885 this house was the home of Esther Wattles, a widow, and her three young daughters. Esther and her husband John(died 1859) were abolitionists of Quaker background who worked in Kansas and Ohio, assisting John Brown, educating former slaves, and advocating for women's rights. One daughter, Lucretia, became a student at the Oberlin College Consevatory and then, for 44 years, professor of pianoforte. Another daughter, Harmonia, was the first dean of women in the Oberlin College Conservatory(1900-1914). Daughter Theona was an Oberlin College graduate. George and Ada Hastings, both pianoforte teachers in the conservatory, moved in about 1916, and their family and descendants occupied the house for 90 years. Queen Anne style with Stick Style posts and diagonal beams on the wraparound porch.

Wright-Carter House 1880
171 Elm

Home of J.N. Wright, prosperous timber merchant from Upper Michigan, whose daughter married H.H. Carter, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music piano professor. Purchased in 1967 by Oberlin College English professor Dewey Ganzel and editor Carol Ganzel, who lived here for almost 40years. Handsome brickwork and Swiss chalet-style details in broad eaves and bold timberwork about the porch.

William Evans House 1877
172 Elm

Home of William Evans, a Welsh mason who emigrated with his bride to the United States in 1865 and made money designing railroad bridges. Numerous owners and boarders lived in this house, including Oberlin College education professor Floyd Gove, government professor Thomas Flinn, and professors of creative writing Diane Vreuls and Stuart Friebert. Brick house with gently arched stone caps over the windows and decorative porthole in the gable. Vernacular Italianate with square bracketed columns, cornice returns.

Thompson House 1874
221 Elm

Home of the Thompson family. In the 1880s, Francis Thompson helped create a coal and lumber business on the south Main Street called Cole and Thompson's, which ultimately became Watson's Hardware, which still operates today. Helen Cox, a daughter of Charles Finney, and First Lady of Ohio from 1866-1868 lived in the house after her husband, Governor Jacob Dolson Cox, died. Later, this house was home to Frank W. Tobin, board member of the Oberlin Bank, college prudential committee member and Tumleson family: Carl S., the President of the Oberlin School of Commerce. His wife Emily, and his son and daughter-in-law Robert and Ruth Tumbleson, also associated with the school. Italianate style with carved brackets on the cornice and double front doors.

A.G. Comings House c. 1879
249 Elm

The Comings family lived in this house for 40 years, Andrew and Emilie Comings from 1897-1927 and their son Charles and his wife Elizabeth until 1938. The A.G. Comings & Son bookstore was at 37 West College Street until 1959. Both Andrew and Charles served as school board and town council members and as mayor. Later owners included Oberlin College professors and administrators, among them Professor of Music History Richard Murphy, whose family owned the house for 37 years. Queen Anne style with wrapping porch, bay windows.

Home of Charles P. Doolittle, teacher of violoncello and harmony at the Oberlin Conservatory from 1885 to 1911 and college superintendent of buildings and grounds for 18 years. He developed bicycle paths around Tappan Square and north out of Oberlin during the summer of 1895. Professor of History Robert S. Fletcher, who wrote a definitive history of early Oberlin, bought the house in 1931. The Colonial Revival/Shingle-style house displays symmetry of line and fenestration, a well-defined cornice, and a broad-hipped roof.

Edward Johnson House 1876
111 Forest

Home of clothing merchant Edward P. Johnson, brother of Albert H. Johnson who later built the house at 216 South Professor. In the 1920s it served as a boarding house for Oberlin College men. Italian-villa style with bracketed tower rising to a flat octagonal crown, tall French windows, and front door of intricate symmetrical design.

A.A. Wright House 1880
123 Forest

Home of two prominent Oberlin academic families: A.A. Wright, professor of botany and geology, built the front of the house on property formerly part of the 1840s college farm that his father managed. In the 1920s Lloyd W. Taylor, professor of physics, and his wife Esther B. Taylor, a forceful temperance activist, bought the house; she lived in it until 1975. Vernacular style with angular flaring roofline, decorative chimney, and interior chestnut and walnut woodwork.

Oberlin College President's House 1920
154 Forest

Built for Oberlin College physics professor Samuel R. Williams, bought by Oberlin College in 1927 for president’s home. Symmetrical 18th-century New England Georgian style; warm red brick, hip roof, central pavilion with broad white pilasters. Architect: Clarence Ward, Oberlin College art professor. National Register of Historic Places.

Burklew-Barnard House c.1908
174 Forest

Dentist John E. Barnard and his wife Clara lived here with F.E. Burklew, owner of Oberlin Tire Shop. Later owners include Oberlin College professor of French W. Hayden Boyers, who founded the college's Gilbert & Sullivan Players in 1949; professor of mathematics E.P. Vance; and the college's assistant director of development in the 1960s, Walter Reeves. Craftsman style with full front porch and exposed rafters below broad eaves.

Arnold House 1880
181 Forest

Home of George Arnold, a grain merchant, who, in 1881, helped build Oberlin’s first intercity telephone exchange. For several decades in the early 20th century, home of Simon Fraser MacLennan, Oberlin College professor of psychology, philosophy, and comparative religion. Red brick Italianate style with brackets under the cornice and brick decorative arches over the windows, elegant portico, double-leaf doors

Gardner House 1886
189 Forest

Home of John Gardner, local pharmacist.  He lived here until 1917.  In 1929 the house was purchased by Chester Yeaton, Oberlin College Professor of mathematics, and Ethel Yeaton, Professor of philosophy, who died in 1941.  Chester Yeaton and Marie Johnson, mathematics professor, married in 1943.  She lived here through 1970.  Well preserved Queen Anne style, with large bay window facing street, east-facing stained glass window, front door with sidelights and transom, diagonal clapboard siding below first story windows, hip roof with arched window in gable at center front.

Andrews House 1893
195 Forest

Built for organ and composition professor George Whitfield Andrews, who taught in the Oberlin College Conservatory from 1882 to 1931. His daughter and son-in-law, violin professor Reber Johnson, maintained the home until 1964 when it was sold to the college and divided into apartments. In 1977 James Caldwell and his wife Catharina Meints, conservatory professors, bought and restored the house. Queen Anne Victorian with tower and Eastlake detailing, stained glass windows.

Cahill House c.1886
230 Forest

Home of Civil War veteran Dr. Timothy Cahill and his three sons. The sons invented the Telharmonium, a machine that produced music to be transmitted via telephone lines to multiple listeners. The house was remodeled in 1915 for owner Mrs. H.S. Bennett, giving it the appearance of a Craftsman style bungalow, with elements from an 1886 house. Later residents were G.H. Steele, manager of Ohio Electrical Power in 1935; Mary and Louis D. Hartson, professor of psychology; and professor of philosophy Norman Care and Barbara Care, teacher in Oberlin schools and Lake Ridge Academy. Vernacular style gabled house with ell, craftsman influence in porch and windows.

Andrus House 1908
251 Forest

Home of the Reverend Jonathan Andrus, later of the Yocom family, local merchants. From 1966 to 1978 home of Evan and Cindy Nord, who worked for historic preservation and other philanthropic causes, including the Oberlin Early Childhood Center. Prairie style influence with horizontal lines, wide overhang hip roof with clay tiles. Architect: Daniel Reamer, son of Reamer Place developer.

Hollingsworth House c. 1873
37 Groveland

Home of Richard Hollingsworth, a carpenter who lived here for 30 years beginning about 1895. The gable end of the house features a first-floor bay window and second-floor double window, both supported by brackets. Gingerbread under the cornice has fleur-de-lis and clover patterns. Doorway on east-side porch has arched sidelights. Vernacular Gothic style.

Rust United Methodist Church 1915-1916
128 Groveland

Oldest predominately black congregation in Oberlin moved to frame building on this site in 1875 as Second Methodist Episcopal Church.  Present building has two remnants of the earlier church:  bell and large stained-glass rose window on the east wall. Mission style influence with square tower, arched belfry, low roofline with broad eaves.

Von Blum-Broadwell House 1939
39 King

John Von Blum, Oberlin College graduate and lawyer, built the house. Hartley and Dorothy Broadwell bought it in 1948; he was city clerk in the 1930s and she worked at a bookstore; later Hartley co-owned Janby Oil Company, Oberlin's first modern gas station, at 90 South Main. Their son Howard and his wife Jean were the next owners. Jean taught at Eastwood School and Howard founded Broadwell Painting with his son Scott. Colonial Revival with door to the extreme left of main facade, filled fanlights above door and first floor windows. Architect: Leonard L. Broida of Cleveland.

Mount Zion Church 1904
47 Locust

Baptist church founded by a predominantly African American congregation in 1866. After a split from First Baptist Church due to a lack of freedom of worship, early church meetings started in the homes of the Martin, Dickerson, and McGee families. When these families, along with Reverend Brown had saved enough money, groundbreaking for a new building began on July 4, 1893. Many of the masons working on the construction were also members of the church. The cornerstone was then laid December 4, 1904. The sanctuary was later remodeled in 1952 and an educational wing was added in 1962. It has been home to many great pastors such as Dr. Fred Steen, Dr. Gardner Taylor, and Dr. Howard Thurman. It was built in the Romanesque Revival style complete with a small tower and rectangular stained glass windows. 

Smith-Baumann House c. 1890
64 East Lorain

Home of Henry F. Smith, who opened Gem pharmacy in 1893, became vice-president of People’s Bank in 1906, served on city council, and in 1922 was elected mayor. Smith sold the property to Albert and Zaidee Baumann in 1948. Queen Anne style with tower, wrap-around porch, and foyer chimney that encircles a stained-glass window.

West House 1881
461 West Lorain

Home of Amasa West, who farmed the land from West Lorain to Morgan and delivered coal in town until 1919. House often opened to tourists during the Depression, then a duplex; land subdivided in the 1950s for the Robin Park development. Now a combined professional office and residence. Red brick Italianate style.

First Church 1842
106 North Main (nw corner of Lorain St.)

First church in Oberlin, often called the meetinghouse, early center of community life. Charles G. Finney, evangelist and later Oberlin College president, served as pastor for 37 years. For many decades the largest religious structure in the Western Reserve. Site of addresses by nationally prominent speakers from Frederick Douglass to Woodrow Wilson. Built from plans by Richard Bond, prominent New England architect; tower from design of Asher Benjamin pattern book. Greek Revival style. National Register of Historic Places.

Goodrich Block 1882
5-11 South Main (se corner of College St.)

Built after a great downtown fire, shows new trends in commercial architecture of the time: iron skeleton of supporting columns and crossbeams, smooth pressed brick (“Chicago brick”) exterior facing, and big plate-glass windows in the store fronts, ornate cornice. Corner occupied by bookstore, later by bank. Architect: Walter Blythe of Cleveland. Within Downtown Oberlin National Register Historic District.

Union School (New Union Center for the Arts) 1874
39 South Main

Built in 1873-74 for all grades. Two new schools for lower grades were built in 1887, and in 1903 the Union School was granted a high school state charter. The last class graduated in 1923. From then until 1961 it was an Oberlin College classroom building, Westervelt Hall. The Nord Family Foundation purchased the building for conversion into an arts center in 1995. Tower reconstructed in 1997. Gothic Revival with Italianate influence in symmetry, cornice embellishments, and oculus window. Architect: Walter Blythe of Cleveland. National Register of Historic Places.

Post Office 1934
68 South Main

Built here through influence of Oberlin College trustee Grove Patterson, editor of Toledo newspaper and friend of U.S. Postmaster, this building’s quasi-classical exterior was first in Oberlin to follow federal government guidelines for public buildings. Tan brick trimmed with Kipton sandstone; fluted Doric columns frame the entry, sculptural urns flanking portico. Architect: Alfred Hahn of Toledo. Within Downtown Oberlin National Register Historic District.

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 and Art Deco 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, buttresses, round arches. 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). National Register of Historic Places.

Penfield-Grills House c. 1895
221 South Main

Home of local carpenter L. H. Penfield and his family, later purchased by Charles A. Brillhart, a telegrapher for the B&O Railroad. Brillhart’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. Vernacular interpretation of Stick and Gothic Revival styles.

Railroad Depot 1866
240 South Main

Served as Oberlin’s passenger depot from 1866 to 1949. The first railroad line in Lorain County went through Wellington in 1849; a spur reached Oberlin in 1852. About ten years later the rail line was altered to connect Oberlin to the county seat, Elyria, cutting travel time from two hours to 20 minutes. The depot had telegraph, ticket and baggage offices and separate waiting rooms for men and women. The site is significant for its history of Oberlin's first era of rapid transportation to the world beyond the town and the state; it changed the way students and families got to Oberlin. A well proportioned building with broad bracketed eaves and board-and-batten siding. Renovated by the Nord Family Foundation for use by the community. National Register of Historic Places.

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. National Register of Historic Places.

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. Quarried sandstone laid in regular courses, with tool marks from quarrying still visible.

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. Six Oberlin College presidents are buried here, as are several escaped slaves. Designed by H.B. Allen, an engineer experienced in forming rural cemeteries, with curving lanes in the romantic English landscape tradition inspired by Andrew Jackson 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.

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. In 1964 the  Blanchards sold the house to the Blodgett family, who lived here for 44 years. Geoffrey Blodgett was an Oberlin College professor of American history whose published works included books and articles on Oberlin history. Jane Blodgett taught in the Oberlin public schools. 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-squar Colonial Revival. Built from plans by Keith Company. Architects of Minneapoils.

Manning House 1906
279 Oak

Home of Oberlin College Conservatory violin professor Edward Manning, who had been a pupil of the American composer Edward MacDowell. Subsequent residents include Charles R. and Elizabeth L. Comings and their sons, associated with Comings Book Store on West College Street; professor of geology George Hubbard and his wife; their long-term boarder Herert Rugg, editor of Current Religious Thought; and William and Mary Bigglestone. He was the first archivist at Oberlin College and she taught at Prospect School. Vernacular style, wood shingles on second floor, clapboard siding on first, with full front porch with Tuscan columns.

Hartman-Ransom House 1847(?)
284 Oak

Probably built by Frank W. Hartman, home to Mrs. Mary C., Anna, and Bertha Ransom. Later, his home housed several professors including George Ross Wells, a professor of psychology in the 1910s, and later Professor Richard Archibald Jelliffe, head of the Oberlin College English department starting in the late 1930s. Later Russell and Hariett Renyolds moved in. Russell founded the National Association of College Stores and brought the headquarters to Oberlin, while Harriet was an active churchgoer and volunteer minister at Allen Hospital. This house was among the first, if not the first, to have manufactured siding applied over its clapboard siding, in an effort to modernize it. It was also probably the first Oberlin home to have the inappropriate manufactured siding removed as part of a 1993 major rehabilitation that returned it to closer to its original simple vernacular style appearance. Vernacular style with Colonial Revival elements, a full front porch, front door to the left.

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. National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark.