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30-47 Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921) and First Church in Oberlin
First Church was built by the Oberlin Community in 1842-44 for the great evangelist Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875). He was its pastor, headed Oberlin College’s Theology Department, and later became College president. In the mid-19th century this Congregational church had one of the largest congregations and auditoriums west of the Alleghenies. Eminent speakers such as […]
29-47 Tragedy at 5th Street and Middle Avenue
On Memorial Day in 1907, interurban car 123 crashed into the rear of interurban car 129 at the intersection of 5th Street and Middle Avenue. Eight passengers died including Homer Allen, son of Elyria businessman Edgar F. Allen. Inadequate hospital facilities are believed to have contributed to some of the deaths. After the accident, Allen […]
28-47 Peter J. Miller House / Adam Miller & Family
The Peter J. Miller House was constructed around 1830 and is one of the last remaining pre-Civil War lakefront houses in Lorain County. The architecture is Greek Revival. Peter Miller married Ruth Houseworth in 1828. They had five children. In 1851 Peter Miller died and it’s believed that his family continued to reside on the […]
27-47 Willard Van Orman Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine was one of the greatest philosophers and logicians of the 20th century. Born in Akron on June 25, 1908, Quine studied philosophy and logic at Oberlin College (B.A. 1930). He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University in 1932 and spent his entire career on the Harvard faculty, from 1956 […]
26-47 Downtown Oberlin Historic District
The intersection of Main and College streets has been the center of Oberlin since the town and college were founded in 1833. The first downtown buildings were made of wood and were destroyed by a series of spectacular fires. The first college building, Oberlin Hall, stood on the southwest corner of College and Main and […]
25-47 Lorain Station 100
Prior to the Civil War, Ohio was a leading state for enslaved Americans of African decent traveling the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada. For these fugitives, their final stop in Ohio was a Lake Erie port community in the north. One such port was at the mouth of the Black River in Lorain that […]
24-47 Great Kipton Train Wreck
On April 19, 1891, a head-on collision between two trains of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company occurred at the Kipton depot. Eight people lost their lives, and the depot was heavily damaged. The crash occurred when a fast mail train heading east near Kipton and a passenger train going west from Elyria […]
23-47 Westwood Cemetery
Shortly after Oberlin Colony was established in 1833, a two-acre burying ground was set aside south of Plum Creek in the area bounded by Main, Morgan, and Professor streets. By 1861, however, with the town and Oberlin College growing and the Civil War escalating, the need for a larger cemetery became clear. After an extensive […]
22-47 Admiral Ernest J. King
Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King was born in Lorain, Ohio, on November 23, 1878. He graduated from Lorain High School in 1897 and later attended the United States Naval Academy. King lived by his motto, “Do all that we can with what we have.” Having the full confidence of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, King was […]
21-47 Charles M. Hall and Frank F. Jewett
Aluminum pioneer Charles Martin Hall was born in 1863 in Thompson, Ohio (Geauga County), and moved with his family to Oberlin in 1873. Hall graduated from Oberlin College in 1885, studying chemistry under Professor Frank Fanning Jewett (1844-1926). Jewett, who lived in this house from 1884 to 1923, encouraged Hall’s interest in chemistry and aluminum, […]