Oberlin, Ohio, and the Promise of Place: A Love Letter
What is it about a place that engages one so fully that years after moving away, a return trip feels as if you’ve never left? As if you never want to leave? It’s the elusive immersive environment we urban design types are always aiming to achieve.
Beware. A personal reverie is heading your way, to help answer that question.

Oberlin, Ohio: Main Street in bloom.
But the reasons are also layered and nuanced. Oberlin’s sense of freedom and inclusion run deep. The town was the last stop on the underground railway, and Oberlin College was the first to grant bachelors degrees to women in a co-ed setting, and to admit people of color.
The subsequent level of creativity is extraordinary. Oberlin College Conservatory is world renown and puts on 500 concerts per year. Most of them are free and walkable or bikable to the majority of local housing stock. The Allen Memorial Art Museum is one of the top five college art museums in the US. The liberal arts college itself needs no introductions.