John Mercer Langston House | |
Location | 207 E. College St., Oberlin, Ohio |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°17′28″N82°12′36″W / 41.29111°N 82.21000°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1855 |
Architectural style | Late Gothic Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 75001464 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | May 15, 1975 [1] |
Designated NHL | May 15, 1975 [2] |
The John Mercer Langston House is a historic house at 207 East College Avenue in Oberlin, Ohio. Built in 1855, it was home to John Mercer Langston (1829-1897), attorney, abolitionist, diplomat, US Congressman and college president, who was one of the first African Americans elected to public office in the United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975. [1]
The John Mercer Langston House is located on Oberlin's east side, on the south side of East College Avenue opposite the Eastwood School. It is a two-story frame structure, with a side gable roof and clapboarded exterior. The house is not particularly architecturally distinguished, although historic photos show it having a Gothic Revival porch, and its current entrance surround includes some Gothic elements. The current porch is a 20th-century alteration, with a hip roof and metalwork supports. [3]
The house was built in 1855, and was from 1856 until 1867 the home of John Mercer Langston. The son of a slave woman and her white owner, Langston was raised in Ohio, attending Oberlin College and then reading law because no law school then accepted African Americans. In 1855, Langston won election to the position of town clerk in Brownhelm Township, the first known electoral victory of its kind by an African American in the United States. He later served as a recruiter of African Americans for military service in the American Civil War, and helped found the Howard University Law School, where he was its first dean. [3]
Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. It is located about 31 miles (50 km) southwest of Cleveland within the Cleveland metropolitan area. The population was 8,555 at the 2020 census. Oberlin is the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students.
John Mercer Langston was an American abolitionist, attorney, educator, activist, diplomat, and politician. He was the founding dean of the law school at Howard University and helped create the department. He was the first president of what is now Virginia State University, a historically black college. He was elected a U.S. Representative from Virginia and wrote From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol; Or, the First and Only Negro Representative in Congress From the Old Dominion.
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The Oberlin–Wellington Rescue of 1858 in was a key event in the history of abolitionism in the United States. A cause celèbre and widely publicized, thanks in part to the new telegraph, it is one of the series of events leading up to Civil War.
Brownhelm Township is one of the eighteen townships of Lorain County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,877.
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Prospect House, known also as just Prospect, is a historic house on the Princeton University campus in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Built in 1851, it is a fine example of the work of architect John Notman who helped popularize Italianate architecture in America. Notable residents include Woodrow Wilson during his tenure as president of the university. The building now serves as a faculty club. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985 for its architecture and historic associations.
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Wilson Bruce Evans House is a historic house at 33 East Vine Street in Oberlin, Ohio. Completed in 1856, it served a major stop on the Underground Railroad, with its builders, Wilson Bruce Evans and Henry Evans, participating the 1858 Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, a celebrated rescue of a slave. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
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This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lorain County, Ohio.
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Charles Henry Langston (1817–1892) was an American abolitionist and political activist who was active in Ohio and later in Kansas, during and after the American Civil War, where he worked for black suffrage and other civil rights. He was a spokesman for blacks of Kansas and "the West".
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