Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Oberlin, OH

Oberlin is a city in Lorain County about 31 miles southwest of Cleveland, founded in 1833 by two Presbyterian ministers, John Jay Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart, who wanted to build a Christian perfectionist community in the West.

The town was named for Jean-Frédéric Oberlin (1740–1826), an Alsatian pastor and philanthropist the founders admired.

Oberlin is home to Oberlin College, founded alongside the town in 1833 and enrolling roughly 3,000 students, including those at its renowned Conservatory of Music.

Oberlin College was the first college in the United States to adopt coeducation, admitting women alongside men, and in 1835 it became a pioneer in admitting Black students, decades before most American colleges.

The town was an active station on the Underground Railroad, and its abolitionist residents famously defied slave-catchers — a reputation that led to Oberlin being called 'the town that started the Civil War.'

Oberlin is the birthplace of the Anti-Saloon League, the organization that drove the national Prohibition movement, founded by Howard Hyde Russell in 1893.

Oberlin is also where Charles Martin Hall developed the Hall–Héroult electrolytic process for producing aluminum cheaply, the discovery that made industrial aluminum production possible; Hall's story is told at the Jewett House museum in town.

Oberlin had a population of 8,555 at the 2020 census, and the census counted 2,654 households in the city.

According to Census Bureau QuickFacts, about 54% of Oberlin residents age 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree or higher — roughly double Ohio's statewide share — reflecting the college's influence on the town.

The college keeps Oberlin young: the city's median age at the 2020 census was just 28.0 years.