April 26, 1999

Bicycling and Oberlin: A Historical Sketch

Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli

 

 Bicycle Friendly Community Release

 

The Oberlin Bike Co-op is but the latest incarnation of similar biking groups that date back to 1883, when Oberlin's passion for the sport resulted in the formation of the Oberlin College Bicycle Club (OCBC). Its members favored unicycles--precarious contraptions of iron and wood, (also the reported vehicle of choice for 20th-century counterpart John Peck '71, according to the Oberlin Alumni Magazine).

The OCBC declared its existence in the January-1883 Oberlin Review with a tongue-in-cheek announcement: "The Oberlin College Bicycle Club . . . begins its headlong career with a nucleus of five members . . . We desire to have it distinctly understood that the object of the club is to scare the required number of horses, run over the usual number of people, patiently answer all questions and willingly follow every idea presented."

The first two-wheeler apparently was purchased in Oberlin in 1891 by Classical Studies Prof. C.B. Martin. Cycling was a man's sport until Aug. 28, 1899, when the local press referred to a "safety" (i.e. without the center bar) bike, as "the only lady's bicycle in town."

In 1892, the Oberlin Review also announced that the recently organized Oberlin College Cycle Club intended to build a cinder path between Oberlin and Elyria "thus securing a continuous path to Cleveland," but the project was delayed. The path, or at least one leg of it, was not completed, until 1899, when Charles Parsons Doolittle organized a team to build a stretch from Oberlin to Amherst.

In May of 1893 enthusiasts announced that "The Fourth Annual Bicycle Tournament of the Oberlin Bicycle Club will take place at the Athletic Park" and "it is in the interest of every wheelmen to practice and enter for some of the races"; the events also included trick riding and a one-mile consolation race.

So prevalent were bicycles in 1895 that a writer for the Oberlin Review observed, "It is almost worth while to cut prayers just once for the sake of seeing the host of bicycles stacked about the chapel at that hour."

In May 1899, with typical enterprise, Oberlin formed a town/gown organization, the Oberlin Cinder Path Association, for the repair and construction of paths. Members assured Review readers: "We can more successively and economically build our local paths through this organization, than by petitioning the county commissioners and having every wheel taxed a dollar a year, as the state law allows.

"We thus avoid paying half of our receipts to salaried officers, and furthermore, we secure the paths at once, and where we want them . . .

"The ladies are joining in large numbers," trumpeted the writers--who graciously noted, "they will each have a vote in our semiannual meeting"--then signed off brusquely with: "Don't wait until you are asked personally to join. Repairs are already being made." The Cinder Path Association continued up to World War II.

Supervising the repairs was Prof. Doolittle, who had built a cinder path to Amherst a few years before. Among the most legendary cycle enthusiasts in Oberlin's history, Prof. Doolittle instructed and lectured in the Conservatory from 1885-1911 and was superintendent of buildings and grounds from 1900 to 1918.

Known as "Cinder Path" Doolittle for his eager willingness to level muddy bicycle paths with rain-resistant cinders, he was responsible in the late 1890s for organizing work teams to construct other paths leading to Elyria and north to Lake Erie.

The next bicycle revival came in 1936, when track coach Dan Kinsey '35 and students formed another bicycle club. Oberlin Archivist Roland Baumman says that an Oberlin College bicycle group existed, off-and-on, between February of that year up through the first four or five decades of the 20th century.

Also in 1936, the Lorain Journal reported that Oberlin cyclists were sighted pedaling down village streets, "their wheels equipped with kerosene lamps . . . the result of a town ordinance . . . which decreed that all bicycles must be equipped with proper lights for night riding." A 1939 ordinance, which is still in effect, required the licensing of all Oberlin bicycles. One early bike shop proprietor was named Harry Cook, whose shop closed in 1956.

In the mid and late 1960s, motorcycles and scooters briefly replaced bicycles on the campus but the two-wheelers, particularly ten-speeds, reasserted themselves early in the 70's when the Oberlin 20th Century Bike Club affiliated with the League of American Wheelmen, Inc., and organized at least one group excursion weekly. The weekend trips drew riders from nearby localities, and other town clubs joined their ranks along the way as they made their 100-mile circuits.

In 1971 Prof. Doolittle's memory was honored with the First Annual "Cinder Path" Doolittle Memorial Cycle Race, organized by Charles Hedler '72. Proceeds were donated to the Oberlin Day Care Center. The person presenting the check was Steve Anderson, the son of Molly Anderson and the late Physics Prof. David L. Anderson.

Oberlin's current bicycle phase probably began in 1989 with the founding of the Oberlin Bike Co-op, followed, five years later by the annual Bike Experience under the auspices of the Oberlin Area Wide Chamber of Commerce. An inspiration for this year's Bike Festival, the weekend-long fall event, which included a midnight ride, bike rodeo and 100-mile tour, has been coordinated since 1995 by the Chamber and the City Recreation Department.

Sparking even more interest in bicycling was the completion, in 1995, of the city's long-awaited 3.2 mile asphalt bike path. The Lorain County Metro Park System eventually incorporated it into the 14-mile stretch from Kipton to Elyria as part of the North Coast Inland Trail bike path.

Plans are in the works to make the Kipton-Elyria trail part of a 69-mile link from Elyria to Toledo, says Lorain County Metro Parks Director Dan Martin, and to make the longer path a link in a 185 mile trail that will extend west to the Indiana border. Access east to the Cuyahoga Valley also is under consideration, he said.

Cinders Doolittle would be delighted.

     

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