Oberlin Heritage Center Blog

by Eli Goldberg (Oberlin College Class of 2012) 

Over the last month I’ve been working with Claire and Daniella to restore the Heritage Center’s 1930s doll house.  As an archaeology major, I’m used to working with old things – but this doll house is about 2,000 years out of my league!  Nevertheless, it’s been an amazing month. 
I read through dozens of old issues of the Ladies’ Home Journal, and drew up furniture plans for all the rooms in the dollhouse: living room with a grand piano, dining room, grown-up bedroom, and a twee little nursery that has its own toybox with tiny dolls. I vacuumed the dust out of miniature armchairs. I pored through countless wallpaper catalogs and daydreamed about floor coverings. (Hardwood floors? Handmade rugs? Yes we can!) 

Testing out a furnishings plan in the living room.

We went on two delightful field trips – one to a local art conservation facility (picture displaced sculptures lined up in the snow outside an Ohio barn, awaiting treatment); the other to meet with Steve McQuillin, an Oberlin alum who is a historic preservation consultant (working out of a breathtaking brick farmhouse that he restored himself). 

But halfway through the month – just when I thought I knew what I was doing – came the coolest surprise. 

My mission: take apart the dollhouse. This was a daunting assignment, as I’m excellent at deconstructing things, but not so great at putting them back together. Nevertheless, it will make it much, much easier to put in wallpaper and flooring. I prowled around the house with a camera, snapping photos of every nut, bolt, and screw. Then, tools in hand, I set about dismantling the beast, methodically laying out each piece on a card table. 

I unscrewed the fireplaces, pulled off the chimneys. Then I delicately lifted the roof, and very nearly died. 

Still carrying the roof, I wandered in a daze into the next room, where I found my supervisor. “Hey, uh, Prue? We’ve got an attic full of furniture.” 

“…oh, my goodness. You have got to be kidding me.” 

The sight that awaited us when we opened up the attic.

Oh, yes, there was furniture – some (sadly mildewy) couches, a complete bathroom set, a cast-iron kitchen range, a painted metal parlor set with manufacturer’s stamps. But there was so much more: a working mechanical music box. A toy cash register with coupons and newspaper scraps in the drawer. A pencil case with “March 1925” written on the back. An ancient Mickey Mouse figurine. A tiny tea set. It’s unbelievable that all of this was sitting under our noses the entire time – probably the person who donated the dollhouse didn’t even know it was there. 

I stayed well after my shift was over, exploring our new finds. After working with this house for two weeks, I thought I knew everything about it. But just pull off the roof, and suddenly the shape of my project has completely changed…

By Chloe Drummond (Oberlin College class of 2012)

This Winter Term, I wanted to stay in Oberlin and work locally. I hadn’t had an internship position for Winter Term before and I thought that working for the Oberlin Heritage Center would be a great opportunity to learn a lot about Oberlin, conduct in-depth history research—something I hadn’t really done before—and give my time to an organization that does a lot for the Oberlin community that I have grown fond of. And let me tell you, I think my Winter Term has been incredibly fulfilling. Not only have I met wonderful people who are truly passionate about their work, but I have learned to use resources I hadn’t previously known about.

I have been working on research about women physicians who practiced in Oberlin in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. I have found interesting information ranging from specific details such as a person’s physical features and notes about communication preferences, to broader context, such as the environment in which women practiced medicine at this time in U.S. history. Because of the centuries I was dealing with, it was tricky to find a lot of specific information that wasn’t recorded by Oberlin College. For example, I was unable to track down day-to-day practice information of the physicians who had private offices. I was, however, able to find a lot of information on the physicians who worked for the college. I believe that my work, as tough as it was to find information, has only scratched the surface. With more time, and by looking at different school records, city directories and hopefully other good pockets of sources, more information on these women will be revealed. It has been an interesting project because I have learned a lot about Oberlin College’s early physical education programs and in general, the kinds of work that women physicians were confined to in the early stages of allowing women to practice medicine in the United States. Personally, I have developed research skills that I know will be useful later on. I am hoping that the Oberlin Heritage Center can make good use of my project.

By Claire Baytas (Oberlin College class of 2012)

When I first saw the advertisement on the Oberlin College Career Services page for an intern to work on restoring an old dollhouse, I knew I wanted to apply. I had been lost as to what to do for winter term, especially since my future career options and even my major still remain undetermined. I knew that because I am a swimmer and needed to train for the month of January I was restricted to Oberlin and the nearby community for choosing a project. This internship allowed me to research areas I had never imagined I would, in addition to using my arts and crafts skills to help rebuild a little piece of Oberlin history. It was the nature of the work I would be doing at the Heritage Center, but also memories of my personal love of dollhouses as a little girl, that led me to apply for the position.

My work at the Heritage Center involved anything from researching how to install a hardwood floor to sewing miniature curtains. Just looking at the photographs of masterpiece dollhouses while researching was astounding—it’s hard to believe that there are dollhouses that are fancier than any real house I’ve ever been in. My supervisors and fellow interns were wonderful and extremely enthusiastic about our project, which made coming into work all the better. This internship allowed me to become more involved in the Oberlin community outside the college, which I have wanted to do since coming to this school. Furthermore, especially since my future is so unclear, it is helpful for me to explore new careers and work environments that seem interesting to me. I loved the variety of skills I used during this past month and enjoyed myself greatly, and it is definitely possible that I could one day have a job that relates to this experience.

Work on the dollhouse is not finished, but I think the plans our group has laid out will lead to a remarkable finished product. I can’t wait for the day when I can go to see it on public display in Oberlin.

By Rachel Luczkowski (Oberlin College class of 2012)

Choosing a winter term project is always difficult. There is usually a good deal of flexibility with what you choose and practically anything can be justified and signed off on. For example, I have a friend who has been making balloon animals for the entire month of January. I decided to go the more conventional route and find an internship, preferably something in the museum world. Luckily, I already knew a museum that would serve my interests well. Having worked with the Oberlin Heritage Center through the Bonner Scholars Program I was easily able to set up an internship and have been volunteering with them regularly.

Although my role at first was not clearly defined, we finally settled on the title of Preservation Intern as my responsibility to the Oberlin Heritage Center. As a Preservation Intern, one is able to get their hands and minds into everything involved with the museum’s daily workings. The past month I have become an expert encapsulator of documents, an awesome archival box builder, familiarized myself with the collections management policies of the group, learned a great deal about historical tax credits and LEED certification, and carefully cleaned pieces from a dollhouse from the 1930’s.  What I learned was not restricted to just the Monroe House either. With the Heritage Center I visited the Mckay Lodge Conservation Laboratory and Steve McQuillin’s, a building preservation consultant, historic home. I was even fortunate enough to be sent on behalf of the Heritage Center to a symposium about Green Historic Preservation in Indianapolis and discussed with preservationists from all over the Midwest about how to address this new movement in preservation. All in all the Heritage Center provided me with an amazing well rounded experience and I hope that with my new skills I can continue to help them as long as I am at Oberlin, as well as apply myself in the museum world later.

What are the places in and around Oberlin that you think are most deserving of preservation?   Why? 

Send a comment or try our online survey. 

The City of Oberlin recently erected a sign on route 511 at the city limits that announces Oberlin’s important designation as a “Preserve America Community.”  Preserve America is a federal program that encourages and supports community efforts to preserve and enjoy our priceless cultural and natural heritage.   The program seeks to foster a greater shared knowledge about the nation’s past, strengthen regional identities and local pride, and increase local participation in preserving heritage assets and supporting the economic vitality of communities. 

Oberlin became a Preserve America Community in 2004 after a lengthy application was submitted that was prepared by the Historic Preservation Commission and City Planning Commission with assistance from the Oberlin Heritage Center.  The application provided extensive documentation to demonstrate that Oberlin protects and celebrates its heritage, uses its historic assets for economic development and community revitalization, and encourages people to experience and appreciate local historic resources through education and heritage tourism programs. 

Oberlin is one of very few communities in the United States that is not only a Preserve America Community but also the home of a non-profit organization that has been designated a “Preserve America Steward.”  The Oberlin Heritage Center earned the Preserve America Steward designation earlier this year for its excellent volunteer programs to preserve heritage and culture. 

Oberlin is featured in a color photograph on the cover of a new brochure about Preserve America which was distributed at the National Trust for Historic Preservation conference in Nashville, Tennessee in October 2009.

 As of October, 2009, there are 795 communities, neighborhoods, counties, and tribal communities in the United States that have been designated as Preserve America Communities.  There are 13 Preserve America Stewards.  For more information, visit the website:  www.preserveamerica.gov. 

So back to our opening question for you: What are the places in and around Oberlin that you think are most deserving of preservation?   Why?  We want to know!

 Online Survey