This circa 1960 aerial photograph shows us an important part of Oberlin’s business history, one that experienced extensive demolition, Carpenter Court. As you can see here, Carpenter Court was a busy commercial district with Hi-O-Hi Tea Room, Wooster Dairy, Ruggles Ice Cream, two brick apartment buildings and a dairy barn.
The only Carpenter Court buildings that are still with us are this 1920s Art Deco, pink stucco, two-story with one-story wings. Esqueleto Gallery recently vacated the retail portion of this building, the apartments remain occupied.
The other remaining building was then the plumbing shop for Watson’s Hardware, today’s Lorenzo’s.