Why you should visit Oberlin, Ohio—one of America’s most charming college towns

In downtown Oberlin, Ohio, a sturdy black steel bench on a corner of Main and Lorain Streets commemorates one of the town’s most important legacies. Installed at the suggestion of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, it’s one of 36 memorials in the Bench by the Road Project.

The initiative was launched by the Toni Morrison Society and inspired by the author’s 1989 observation that the nation lacked physical markers to remember the lives of enslaved Africans: “There’s no 300-foot tower, there’s no small bench by the road.”

Born and raised in the nearby city of Lorain, Morrison personally suggested Oberlin as the site for only the second bench in the project, due to the town’s key role on the Underground Railroad and its anti-slavery activism.

“Oberlin was in fact a source of inspiration for her as a child. It represented an important gateway to freedom,” says Meredith Gadsby, professor of Africana studies at Oberlin College.

This year, literary travelers will find even more reason to visit as Ohio celebrates Morrison’s life and works in conjunction with the nation’s 250th anniversary. The yearlong program of state-wide events includes a community read-in at Oberlin’s Bench by the Road. “This year, it’s not about just celebrating her. It’s about doing what she wanted us to do: read,” says project manager Britt Lovett.

Founded in 1833 by a Presbyterian minister and a missionary, the town and college of Oberlin quickly emerged as a proving ground for ideas that were radical for their time. In 1835, Oberlin became the first college in the United States to adopt a policy admitting Black students, and in 1841 it was the first co-ed institution to award bachelor’s degrees to women.

(Literary travel ideas for every kind of book lover)

Of course, as Gadsby points out, “this doesn’t mean that racism didn’t exist. Black students could attend Oberlin College, but they could not live on campus, they had to sit in the back of the classroom, they were often not called on. And so the peculiarity [of Oberlin] lies in the contradictions. It was a battleground where there was a willingness to have certain types of conversations.”

Today, Oberlin College & Conservatory remains associated with causes like LGBTQ+ rights and environmental sustainability. The town (pop. 8,600) has blossomed into one of Ohio’s best-kept secrets, with a gem of an art museum, a Frank Lloyd Wright house, and top-notch concerts year-round.

At its heart, the tree-shaded lawn of Tappan Square unites town and gown, creating a shared space for the kind of conversations about America’s promises and paradoxes that Toni Morrison explored in her work.

Oberlin’s abolitionist history

The founders of Oberlin envisioned a utopian, faith-based community amid the farmlands of northeast Ohio, where they could train teachers and leaders “for the boundless most desolate fields in the West.’’ The college motto was “Learning and Labor,” as students were expected to help build the community.

Two years after the town’s founding in 1833, the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society was formed. In the decades that followed, Oberlinians offered refuge to freedom seekers traveling the Underground Railroad.

The town’s abolitionist convictions were tested in 1858 when a group of locals freed John Price, an enslaved man from Kentucky escaping north to freedom, from the custody of U.S. marshals. What became known as the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue drew national attention and was a defining moment leading up to the Civil War.

(Find secrets to Harriet Tubman’s life along the Underground Railroad)

Top sites in Oberlin

Oberlin College and Conservatory

One of the best ways to experience Oberlin is to attend one of the more than 500 concerts, recitals, theater and dance productions, and operas that are presented each year at a variety of performance spaces on campus, from Romanesque-style Finney Chapel to the 501-seat Hall Auditorium.

Tappan Square

Walkways radiate from the center of Oberlin’s 13-acre public green, leading to historic college buildings, a memorial arch, shops, restaurants, and arts venues. A central bandstand hosts free summer concerts.

A Bench By the Road

“It’s rest for the weary, it’s conversation, it’s reflection,” says Carolyn Denard, founder and board chair of the Toni Morrison Society, which launched the Bench by the Road project in 2008. Oberlin’s Bench was dedicated in 2009. “There is a kind of living, breathing engagement with the bench project that museums can’t offer,” says Denard.

Allen Memorial Art Museum

Admission is free to explore this delightfully eclectic collection spanning ancient antiquities, European masters (Monet, Picasso), Asian art, and contemporary works.

Oberlin Heritage Center

Located in an 1866 brick building that was once the home of a Civil War general, the center offers guided walking tours with themes such as local architecture, women’s history, and small-town life.

Wilson Bruce Evans Home

Evans was a cabinetmaker and abolitionist actively involved on the Underground Railroad. Dating from 1856, his family home is now a National Historic Landmark, one of the only surviving structures built and owned by a free African American family before the Civil War.

Weltzheimer/Johnson House

Frank Lloyd Wright designed this single-story home in warm redwood and red brick. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls connect the interior with the outdoors. The house is open to the public the first Sunday of the month from April to November.

(This U.S. road trip takes travelers to some of the world’s best literary landscapes)

Best things to do

Ben Franklin, a variety store since 1935, sells everything from toothpaste to Oberlin merch. It’s now also home to indie bookshop Mindfair Books, a popular community gathering spot with a piano for impromptu recitals.

Lorenzo’s Pizza, with its welcoming outdoor patio, has been serving wood-fired pizzas and heaping plates of lasagna for more than 40 years. Meanwhile, The Feve packs the house for brunch, with locals ordering heaping plates of tater tots, plain or souped-up with toppings like barbecued pulled pork.

The Apollo Theatre is a historic movie house with a vintage neon matinee sign, showing new and classic films. “My office is actually right next to the Apollo, so I can smell the popcorn the whole time,” says Abbie Fox, executive director of Oberlin Business Partnership. “They’re open all year long. It’s a great nostalgic theater.”

Newer fixtures include coffee shops Slow Train and The Local (which share an owner) and Blue Rooster Bakeshop, which posts its menu of desserts weekly on Facebook. Hanson Records focuses on pre-owned vinyl and has its own indie record label.

Bikers and joggers head to northern Ohio’s scenic North Coast Inland Trail, which cuts through Oberlin (access it via the Butternut Ridge Trailhead). Common Ground offers zipline canopy tours above its 30 wooded acres in the Vermillion River Valley, just west of Oberlin.

(Here are 17 of the most charming small towns in America)

How to visit

Nearest airport: Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) is a 30-minute/25-mile drive to Oberlin. There isn’t regular public transportation from the airport to Oberlin.

Stay: The Hotel at Oberlin, across Main Street from Tappan Square, is LEED Platinum-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. Menus at the onsite 1833 Restaurant change seasonally and may feature dishes, such as morel mushroom carbonara and walleye piccata.

Best time to visit: Fall and spring are the liveliest times to visit, when students are on campus and the calendar is filled with events. In summer, the pace slows, with less crowded cafés and restaurants, and Oberlin’s lush greenery at its peak.

Homecoming Weekend, typically in early October, sees Oberlin face off against historic rival Kenyon. The weekend brims with reunion events, concerts, and tours. Commencement Weekend, in late spring, brings the Oberlin tradition of Illumination to Tappan Square, with lanterns lighting up the public green and live music filling the air.