Oberlin Things to Do Tips by grandmaR Top 5 Page for this destination

King Building

King Hall is the main building for social sciences, humanities, math, and computer science classes. This function used to be filled by Peters and Westervelt. Classrooms in King range from small seminar rooms to larger lecture spaces. Several of the classrooms now feature permanently installed data/video projectors with touch screen controls and network access. King also contains a number of open lounge areas, where students may frequently be seen reading before class or resting. Amidst King's many classrooms are the offices of the Anthropology, Classics, Computer Science, East Asian Studies, Expository Writing, Mathematics, Philosophy, and Sociology departments.

The man in the lower right of photo 2 started walking with us and talking to us as we walked to Dascomb for lunch. I assumed he was part of the college crew.

Address: 10 North Professor Street

Bibbins Hall

The Oberlin College Conservatory of Music is housed in a complex of soundproof and air-conditioned buildings designed by Minoru Yamasaki. It is constructed on the former locations of Sturges Hall and Wright Zoo Lab. There are small concert halls in some of the Conservatory buildings

Bibbins Hall, the teaching unit, contains 40 studios, 10 classrooms, 16 offices and seven studios of TIMARA (Technology in Music and the Related Arts).

Either King Hall or Bibbins Hall or both had been built in 1969. At the time I thought they did not fit in with the other campus architecture.

Address: 77 West College Street

Most Important - The Library

Mudd Center houses the majority of the 2 million items in Oberlin's library collection (separate science, art, and music libraries are scattered across campus). It was built in between Wilder (Men's Building) and Dascomb in what used to be a big open space.

The size, breadth and quality of the library collection rank Mudd among the best undergraduate library systems in the nation. Oberlin has always been a college with a top flight library. Equally important from a student's perspective, Mudd is a wonderful place to study. From large couches and tables to private carrels and spherical "womb chairs," students can always choose somewhere comfortable to work. Probably this is more comfortable than the straight chairs and small tables that we used to have in the stacks.

Many students are also fond of Mudd's bright, multi-color decor. The basement -- widely known as "A-Level" -- is a popular place for students to meet for study groups, to chat, and to unwind. A-Level also houses the library's reserve room and the Houck Center for Information Technology.

Address: 148 West College Street

Science Updated

The Science Center was just completed in the last few years. There was a tour scheduled for the alumni, and my roommate had expressed an intention to take this tour. When she didn't turn up (I found out later, she toured the Lewis Center for Environmental Studies which occupies the space where May Cottage used to be), I went instead to a seminar where I saw several folks who had been at school with me. In addition to the Botany building the Geography buildings were sacrificed to the Science Building.

A second home to many science majors, the Science Center contains multiple labs, a greenhouse, classrooms of all sizes, and faculty offices for the biology, chemistry, and neuroscience departments. Also located in the Science Center is Oberlin's Science Library, with periodicals, books, and software geared toward the natural sciences. One of the building's large auditoriums moonlights as a movie theater, offering evening screenings of movies from several student-run film groups

Address: 119 Woodland Street

Carnegie (was Carnegie Library)

Carnegie Library was the main campus library. Everyone had to come here at some point.

The first floor contained rooms for special classes of readers [one was the reserve room where books that a whole class had to read were on reserve (could not be taken out of the library); another was the local town library with general fiction], and a cloak room.

A large reading room, 132 by 48 feet, extended across the entire second floor front of the building, which, with the adjoining alcove, accommodated two hundred and eighty-four readers. Also on the second floor were offices, a biographical library room, the cataloguing room. This was where you went to look up stuff in the card catalog or on microfiche.

The third and fourth floor housed 15 seminar rooms. Adjoining all floors were the stacks, six stories in height. This was where you did your research or went to study especially if the main reading room was too noisy for you.

Carnegie Library was the gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, of New York. The total cost in 1907-1908 was $155,600 of which amount Mr. Carnegie furnished $150,00. The building is 135 by 110 feet and it is made of Amherst sandstone. (Amherst is a nearby community up by Lake Erie.) Messers, Patton and Miller, of Chicago, were the architects, and the building was constructed by Mr. George Feick, of Sandusky, Ohio. The building was dedicated June 23, 1908, in connection with the celebration of the Seventy-fifty Anniversary of the College.

It is a Must-See for students who are thinking of coming to Oberlin because it is now home to a number of administrative offices, including Admissions, Financial Aid, the Registrar, Student Accounts, Student Employment, and Office of Equity Concerns.

It is also the home to the labs, offices, and classrooms of the geology department.

Parking is behind the Stevenson Building which is on Lorain.

NOTE: In the 1959 picture on the left, there is no stop light at the intersection.

Address: 52 Lorain Street (NE corner Professor & Lorain)

Directions: I-80 W to exit 152 (N. Olmstead/Cleveland interchange). W. on OH Route 10. Rt. 10 becomes Rt. 20. The Oberlin exit (OH Rt. 511 W) takes you into town. At the fifth traffic light, turn right on to North Professor St. The Carnegie Building is on your right.

Phone: 1-800-622-OBIE

Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/campusmap/North.htm