Oberlin College history

First Church is founded in Oberlin. (Congregational and later United Church of Christ) 1834: The Oberlin School District is organized for public education.

1836: The first public school in Oberlin is opened.

1837: Oberlin establishes two volunteer fire companies.

1839: The last signer of the Oberlin Covenant commits himself to Oberlin's founding ideals.

1841: The first three women in the nation to earn their B.A.s do so from Oberlin College.

1846: According to legend, by this time, Tappan Square, then the center of campus, has been so heavily deforested that there are only two trees standing.

She first attends classes at the "Little Red Schoolhouse" in Oberlin, and then, in 1848, in the Ladies' Course of Oberlin College.

Mahan, who was often in conflict with faculty, resigned his position as president in 1850.

1852: Christ Episcopal Church is founded in Oberlin.

1855: John Mercer Langston, Oberlin College alumnus, is elected clerk of Brownhelm Township (OH), making him one of the first African-Americans in the nation elected to public office. (And this ten years before he could even vote for himself!)

1858: Samuel Plum's gas factory opens, powering gas lights for the streets of Oberlin.

1860: First Church of Oberlin has the largest congregation in the nation.

1861: When the Civil War begins, many Oberlin College students join together to form a company called the "Monroe’s Rifles," named after Oberlin professor and state legislator James Monroe.

1863: John Mercer Langston organizes the first African American infantry from the state of Ohio, the 127th Ohio Volunteer infantry.

Oberlin's founders wrote voluminously and featured prominently in the press, especially the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, in which the name Oberlin occurred 352 times by 1865.

1866: A steam fire engine is purchased for the community.

The conservatory became part of the college in 1867, two years after its founding as a private school.

1870: The fire engines are moved to the basement of City Hall from the basement of First Church.

1872: Finney retires from his position of pastor at First Church.

1874: The Union High School, later Westervelt High and now the New Union Center for the Arts, is built.

1875: Charles Finney, long a central figure in Oberlin’s religious life, dies.

1876: Former Oberlin College student Elisha Gray applies for a patent for his invention of the telephone.

In 1881, students at Oberlin formed the Oberlin Band to journey as a group to remote Shanxi province in China.

His process cuts the cost of aluminum production by 90%. He founds what becomes the Aluminum Company of America, or ALCOA. 1886: The "Gibson Hose Company" wins a national hose team competition for firefighters.

Their younger brother John Mercer Langston, in 1888 the first black elected to the United States Congress from Virginia, also graduated from Oberlin.

1893: The Oberlin Gas and Electric Company begins operating, providing gas and electrical power to the residents of Oberlin.

1895: The Oberlin Telephone Company is incorporated.

1897: A second boulder appears in Tappan Square.

1902: A second traction line, leading to Norwalk, is opened in Oberlin.

1903: Oberlin builds a water-softening plant, the first of its kind in the United States.

1907: A movie theatre, showing silent films, is opened on the second floor of the Gibson block building.

1914: The Apollo Theatre, a local movie theatre still operating today, opens.

Lists of Oberlin participants in World War I. 1917: Oberlin gets its first motorized fire engine.

1927: The last buildings in Tappan Square are removed, making it a "proper" town green as stipulated in inventor Charles Martin Hall's will.

1930: Janby Gas and Oil, now Midas Muffler, is built.

1950: Oberlin's Weltzheimer-Johnson House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is completed.

1955: Adlai Stevenson gives the Oberlin College Commencement Address and receives an honorary degree.

1957: The Assembly of God / Crossroads Church forms near this time.

1965: Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. visits Oberlin and gives the College commencement address.

1970: Racial divisions in the community are highlighted following the "May 8" incident, a clash between youth and the local police.

1979: Oberlin College graduate Frances Walker-Slocum becomes the first African American woman to have tenure teaching at Oberlin College / the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

In 1983, following a nationwide search, Oberlin hired S. Frederick Starr, an expert on Russian and Eurasian affairs and skilled musician, as its 12th president.

1987: Archbishop Desmond Tutu gives the Oberlin College Commencement Address and receives an honorary degree.

1997: True Praise and Deliverance Ministries forms near this time.

1998: Oberlin House of the Lord Fellowship forms.

Oberlin's first and only hired trade union expert, Chris Howell, argued that the college engaged in "illegal" tactics to attempt to decertify its service workers' July 1999 vote to become members of United Automobile Workers union.

2009: The Steel family sells the Apollo Theatre to Oberlin College.

2010: Oberlin is one of 18 cities worldwide to begin participation in the Clinton Climate Initiative.

2014: Demolition and construction of the new Oberlin Inn begins.

United States News & World Report recognized Oberlin faculty for their commitment to undergraduate teaching in Best Colleges 2019 guide; Oberlin ranked 16th in the nation among liberal arts colleges.