Oberlin Transportation Tips by grandmaR Top 5 Page for this destination

No Airport in Oberlin

Oberlin is a bit hard to get to. Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport which is the closest airport is 25 minutes from the college. Public transportation is available from the airport to campus by bus (Lorain county route 33) or what they call low cost limo. At vacation time, you could buy tickets on a charter bus to the major east coast cities. You can also get the train to Cleveland and then take a cab to Oberlin. And you can drive.

I do not know anything about the pictured bus (photo 5) which appears to belong to the college. It is in front of Talcott which is at 2 South Professor Street (on the corner opposite the old Conservatory building)

Talcott Hall dates from 1886 and it was named in honor of Mr. James Talcott, of New York City, who gave $20,000 for its construction. The rest of the money came from the insurance received after the second Ladies Hall burned down. It was constructed on the same site as the building that burned down of Ohio sandstone, and the total cost including furniture, was $65,000. Weary and Kramer, of Akron, were the architects.

When I was there, Talcott Hall was a dormitory for 70 women who ate in the dining hall with seventy or eighty men. Common living areas and a dining hall were on the first floor, while student rooms were on the upper floors.

Talcott is now the home to 78 co-ed students from all four class years and it was one of the dorms used for the reunion.

Mode: TO

Phone: 216-267-8282

Type: Bus

Website: http://www.loraincountytransit.com/routes/route33.shtml

Bikes

Women were not allowed to own a motor vehicle when I was at Oberlin. We walked or we rode bikes. Men could have motor scooters or motor cycles.

I rode my mom's old bike from the 30s most of the time when there wasn't snow and ice on the roads. It was a thin tire bike but with a coaster brake instead of hand brakes, and it didn't have any gears. Most bikes of that era were either balloon tires with coaster brakes or thin tires with hand brakes.

It also had an oogh horn that one of the guys took and put on his motorcycle, and I never got it back. I am still mad about that.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Bicycle

Freshman Come and Seniors Leave by Car

Given the lack of air or rail transport to Oberlin, 45 years ago our parents usually drove us to school when we came as freshman and picked up all our stuff when we graduated. My mom gave me her old steamer trunk to take all my stuff to college in. It was packed and stored in the Grey Gables attic during the summers.

Bob didn't/doesn't like to have his picture taken, and he's making a face at me.

Mode: TO

Type: Car/Motor Home

Snow and Ice

There's very little parking to be had in Oberlin, and everything is very close together so there's very little use for a car. You'd have to park farther away than you started.

If it is good weather you can ride a bike, but in weather like this - you walk.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Other