Oberlin has a lot to be proud of. There's Oberlin College, the first institution of higher learning to admit women and among the first to enroll African-Americans. Today the liberal arts college and music conservatory has an enrollment of around 3,000 students.

There's the Allen Memorial Art Museum, one of the finest college or university collections in the United States, and the Weltzheimer/Johnson House - a late example of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses completed in 1950.

Oberlin Heritage Center

Oberlin was dedicated, from the beginning, to equality. A major stop on the Underground Railroad, the town is described as The Town That Started the Civil War in Nat Brandt's book of the same name.

The best place to begin a visit here is the Monroe House — home of the Oberlin Heritage Center. Tour guides weave facts about Oberlin's history with the residents of the house.

The Monroe House, built in 1866 was originally the home of Civil War General Giles W. Shurtleff, the leader of the first African-American regiment from Ohio to serve in the Civil War. The house was later the home of James Monroe and his wife, Julia Finney Monroe.

Monroe was an important abolitionist, a friend of Frederick Douglass and advocated voting rights for African Americans. Monroe taught at Oberlin College, served as the U.S. Consul to Brazil and was a five-term US congressman.

Oberlin's Beginnings

Oberlin was founded in 1833 by two Presbyterian ministers - John Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart. The men were dissatisfied with what they saw as the lack of strong Christian morals among the settlers of the American West. So they decided to establish a religious community and school for training American frontier missionaries.