The Lormet Community Federal Credit Union is restoring 47 South Main to its original 1950s appearance.

After Oberlin’s AAA closed its doors at 49 South Main Street two years ago, Lormet Credit Union, the largest credit union in Lorain County, bought the property to establish a branch in Oberlin. The property is located within the Downtown Oberlin National Register Historic District. The CEO and President of Lormet Daniel Cwalina and his architect Mark Lesner originally planned to replace the façade with a brand new front. That plan began to change when the Oberlin Heritage Center’s Executive Director Pat Murphy pulled out a photograph of how the building looked originally from the Heritage Center’s photo collection. She stated:    

“I did not find out about the planned renovations for this building until a few days before it was going to be on the agenda for the October 1, 2009 design review commission and the planning commission. A day or so before that meeting I tried to reach the bank owner and his architect but I wasn’t able to get through to them. So when I went to the meetings I brought with me a historic photograph of what the building looked like when it was completed in 1958.”

The building at 49 South Main Street was originally the home of the People’s Banking Company. It opened its doors in 1958. The local newspaper reported the building boasted Oberlin’s first drive-in banking for customers, a large meeting room in the basement for community organizations, snow melting sidewalks and a special front display for exhibits.    

The building is one of Oberlin’s few commercial examples of mid-century Modernism, with overhanging eaves and 1950s style brick and stone work. Oberlin’s other examples of Mid-Century modernism include Hall Auditorium and several other college buildings, and many houses designed by Doug Johnson, Max Ratner and other area architects. Mid-century modern architecture is becoming increasingly popular in communities across the country and there is growing interest in preserving it in places like Los Angeles, Seattle, the New Jersey Shore and elsewhere.    

Pat Murphy is delighted that Mr. Cwalina and his architect were willing to reconsider their original design and to redesign the project to recall the 1950s look of the original building. She stated:    

“The property owner and his architect got very excited about it and rethought their design entirely with the idea of bringing the building back to the ‘50s. I think it’s going to be a very exciting addition to the downtown historic district.”

Oberlin Heritage Center intern Francesca Krihely interviewed Dan Swalina, President and CEO of Lormet Credit Union. He was very excited about the new design and commented that:    

“It was amazing because our architect and many of the people involved with this construction project never would have believed that the original architectural characteristics were still present. I was shocked. And when you see the picture from the 1950s there’s a lot of adjustments and add-ons to the building that really covered the architectural characteristics.  When you took those off and saw the original picture it was amazing to us that they were still there. This building started out as a simple renovation and it morphed into something that is exciting. It’s going to be a jewel. In my opinion it’s going to be very similar to a restored diner. And you don’t see this with financial institutions.  You just don’t see this kind of architecture preserved in any type of building in financial institutions.  It’s going to be amazing, I’m very excited about it.”

Work on the building is underway. The building will be open to the public later this spring. The exterior will closely resemble the original design. Murphy got a sneak preview recently and commented that:

“The sparkling new interior will recall the flavor of the 1950s and 1960s and will feature the original aquamarine brick tiled safe which was partially uncovered as part of the renovation. I cannot wait to see the finished product.”

Meanwhile, the Oberlin Heritage Center hopes to expand its knowledge and its photograph collection of the history of this and other buildings and institutions in our community. Let us know if you can help.

By Timothy Krumreigh (Oberlin College class of 2012)

Week One:

The first week interning at the Heritage Center was devoted to introduction and familiarization. Liz and Prue showed me around the basement and allowed me to familiarize myself with the location of resources. Additionally, Prue pulled out documents and books  (i.e. Collections Goals of OHC and Introduction to Museum work) based on my interested in the museum field so I could begin obtaining some background knowledge.

Week Two:

During the second week of interning at the Heritage Center, I began to utilize the resources to start some projects. Rachel and I did a very basic inventory of 123 (formerly 21) South Professor Street for the owner. We looked through directories,  at online documents, and in college guides in hopes of discovering more information about the residents of 123 S. Professor Street. Additionally, Prue showed Rachel and I two examples of scrap books and explained the problems and solutions for preserving old scrapbooks. After the discussion, Prue showed us a recently donated scrap book and demonstrated the construction of a phase box.

Week Three:

Week three of interning at the Heritage Center was really exciting. Rachel and I continued to work on the inventory of 123 S. Professor Street. We completed looking through documents and electric resources and will now move on to the final write up for the file. I went on the field trip to McKay-Lodge conservancy and was very impressed. The trip gave me a good idea of some of things that can be done with conservation and allowed me to see some of the awesome processes used in order to conserve a piece of art or historic document.

When we arrived back at the Heritage Center, Rachel and I discussed gaining experience and working with historic objects and documents with Prue. The next day, Prue collected various documents and pictures in need of preservation. She showed us the flat file of Soldiers Monument and taught us how to encapsulate the documents and pictures that were in the flat file. After walking us through the first encapsulation, she allowed Rachel and myself to encapsulate the remaining documents. On Friday, Rachel and I were given a register from the college and asked to build a phase box, with some assistance were were able to complete a box.

Week 4:

I think week four of our winter term internship was probably the most exciting. The Heritage Center sent us to a symposium in Indianapolis, Indiana for two days. The symposium was called “The Green Historic Preservation Symposium,” which was sponsored by the EPA region five. The symposium brought together people from many different fields: preservation, conservation, construction, business, and many more. The idea of the conference was to bring different minds together to figure out what’s working, what’s not working, and what needs to change in terms of green historic preservation. People are now beginning to realize that tearing down historic homes to make way for “new, green construction,” is not actually green. Green historic preservation is a new and developing idea; hopefully as this idea develops, we will see it applied in Oberlin.

Week Five:

During our last week of work at the Heritage Center, we began working more on the doll house and the objects found in the attic. I was shown how to remove the surface dirt from the furniture and toys by using vulcanized rubber. After the toys were cleaned, I recorded the type of objects so they could later be accessioned. Prue showed us how to add an accession number to the Pass Perfect program and Rachel and I printed a new deed for the found doll house items. The last big project we worked on involved writing the accession numbers on the objects themselves. This process involves different chemical and products that allow a museum to write on the object, but also remove the writing if necessary. We painted on chemicals and wrote the tiny accession numbers on the collections.

Working with the Heritage Center has given me a lot of great insight to preservation and museum work. I would like to go into the preservation and/or museum field after Oberlin, so this internship has allowed me to “get my feet wet” and get an idea of what I may be getting myself into. I had a great time working with the heritage center staff and the other winter term volunteers. I hope to continue working with the heritage center in the future.

by Eli Goldberg (Oberlin College Class of 2012) 

Over the last month I’ve been working with Claire and Daniella to restore the Heritage Center’s 1930s doll house.  As an archaeology major, I’m used to working with old things – but this doll house is about 2,000 years out of my league!  Nevertheless, it’s been an amazing month. 
I read through dozens of old issues of the Ladies’ Home Journal, and drew up furniture plans for all the rooms in the dollhouse: living room with a grand piano, dining room, grown-up bedroom, and a twee little nursery that has its own toybox with tiny dolls. I vacuumed the dust out of miniature armchairs. I pored through countless wallpaper catalogs and daydreamed about floor coverings. (Hardwood floors? Handmade rugs? Yes we can!) 

Testing out a furnishings plan in the living room.

We went on two delightful field trips – one to a local art conservation facility (picture displaced sculptures lined up in the snow outside an Ohio barn, awaiting treatment); the other to meet with Steve McQuillin, an Oberlin alum who is a historic preservation consultant (working out of a breathtaking brick farmhouse that he restored himself). 

But halfway through the month – just when I thought I knew what I was doing – came the coolest surprise. 

My mission: take apart the dollhouse. This was a daunting assignment, as I’m excellent at deconstructing things, but not so great at putting them back together. Nevertheless, it will make it much, much easier to put in wallpaper and flooring. I prowled around the house with a camera, snapping photos of every nut, bolt, and screw. Then, tools in hand, I set about dismantling the beast, methodically laying out each piece on a card table. 

I unscrewed the fireplaces, pulled off the chimneys. Then I delicately lifted the roof, and very nearly died. 

Still carrying the roof, I wandered in a daze into the next room, where I found my supervisor. “Hey, uh, Prue? We’ve got an attic full of furniture.” 

“…oh, my goodness. You have got to be kidding me.” 

The sight that awaited us when we opened up the attic.

Oh, yes, there was furniture – some (sadly mildewy) couches, a complete bathroom set, a cast-iron kitchen range, a painted metal parlor set with manufacturer’s stamps. But there was so much more: a working mechanical music box. A toy cash register with coupons and newspaper scraps in the drawer. A pencil case with “March 1925″ written on the back. An ancient Mickey Mouse figurine. A tiny tea set. It’s unbelievable that all of this was sitting under our noses the entire time – probably the person who donated the dollhouse didn’t even know it was there. 

I stayed well after my shift was over, exploring our new finds. After working with this house for two weeks, I thought I knew everything about it. But just pull off the roof, and suddenly the shape of my project has completely changed…

By Claire Baytas (Oberlin College class of 2012)

When I first saw the advertisement on the Oberlin College Career Services page for an intern to work on restoring an old dollhouse, I knew I wanted to apply. I had been lost as to what to do for winter term, especially since my future career options and even my major still remain undetermined. I knew that because I am a swimmer and needed to train for the month of January I was restricted to Oberlin and the nearby community for choosing a project. This internship allowed me to research areas I had never imagined I would, in addition to using my arts and crafts skills to help rebuild a little piece of Oberlin history. It was the nature of the work I would be doing at the Heritage Center, but also memories of my personal love of dollhouses as a little girl, that led me to apply for the position.

My work at the Heritage Center involved anything from researching how to install a hardwood floor to sewing miniature curtains. Just looking at the photographs of masterpiece dollhouses while researching was astounding—it’s hard to believe that there are dollhouses that are fancier than any real house I’ve ever been in. My supervisors and fellow interns were wonderful and extremely enthusiastic about our project, which made coming into work all the better. This internship allowed me to become more involved in the Oberlin community outside the college, which I have wanted to do since coming to this school. Furthermore, especially since my future is so unclear, it is helpful for me to explore new careers and work environments that seem interesting to me. I loved the variety of skills I used during this past month and enjoyed myself greatly, and it is definitely possible that I could one day have a job that relates to this experience.

Work on the dollhouse is not finished, but I think the plans our group has laid out will lead to a remarkable finished product. I can’t wait for the day when I can go to see it on public display in Oberlin.

By Rachel Luczkowski (Oberlin College class of 2012)

Choosing a winter term project is always difficult. There is usually a good deal of flexibility with what you choose and practically anything can be justified and signed off on. For example, I have a friend who has been making balloon animals for the entire month of January. I decided to go the more conventional route and find an internship, preferably something in the museum world. Luckily, I already knew a museum that would serve my interests well. Having worked with the Oberlin Heritage Center through the Bonner Scholars Program I was easily able to set up an internship and have been volunteering with them regularly.

Although my role at first was not clearly defined, we finally settled on the title of Preservation Intern as my responsibility to the Oberlin Heritage Center. As a Preservation Intern, one is able to get their hands and minds into everything involved with the museum’s daily workings. The past month I have become an expert encapsulator of documents, an awesome archival box builder, familiarized myself with the collections management policies of the group, learned a great deal about historical tax credits and LEED certification, and carefully cleaned pieces from a dollhouse from the 1930’s.  What I learned was not restricted to just the Monroe House either. With the Heritage Center I visited the Mckay Lodge Conservation Laboratory and Steve McQuillin’s, a building preservation consultant, historic home. I was even fortunate enough to be sent on behalf of the Heritage Center to a symposium about Green Historic Preservation in Indianapolis and discussed with preservationists from all over the Midwest about how to address this new movement in preservation. All in all the Heritage Center provided me with an amazing well rounded experience and I hope that with my new skills I can continue to help them as long as I am at Oberlin, as well as apply myself in the museum world later.