October 4, 2006—A historic landmark that was once home to an Oberlin College President will soon be filled with the sound of children making music.

The Oberlin Heritage Center (OHC) has entered into an agreement with the Oberlin Conservatory of Music to donate the Burrell-King House, located at 315 East College Street, to Oberlin College. The Greek Revival house will become the new home of the Oberlin Community Music School, the Conservatory’s pre-collegiate music instruction program. Since its inception in 2003, the Oberlin Community Music School has operated in rented or borrowed space. A $100,000 grant to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from the Nord Family Foundation will be used to renovate the building for use as a community music school.

“We are extremely grateful to the Nord Foundation and the Oberlin Heritage Center for their support,” says David H. Stull, Dean of the Conservatory. “The gift of the Burrell-King House will significantly enhance the Community Music School and allow its mission to be fully engaged. The additional teaching and storage space will permit growth, and will accommodate recital programs and open houses. The home’s proximity to Eastwood Elementary School should make it easier for parents to schedule convenient lesson times for their children, and thereby facilitate access to the program by a broader population. Furthermore, the rich history and reputation of the Burrell-King House, as well as its location, will affirm the Community Music School as a vital part of the community, and we hope that the house will, over time, become a landmark for the pursuit of artistic excellence and community enrichment.”

“The Community Music School was founded on the principal that quality music education should be made available to everyone,” says Director of the Oberlin Community Music School Andrea McAlister. “By bringing the school and our wonderful faculty into the community, we can continue to pursue these goals and expand our programs to meet the community’s needs.” McAlister is also Assistant Professor of Piano Pedagogy at the Conservatory.

The Nordson Foundation (which later became the Nord Family Foundation) acquired the Burrell-King property in 1974, and gave it to the Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization (now the Oberlin Heritage Center) in 1989.

“Since 1989, our organization has worked to preserve and maintain the Burrell-King House, its barn, and grounds,” says Patricia A. Murphy, executive director of the Oberlin Heritage Center. “This has been a huge responsibility for a small organization with limited resources that also maintains the Oberlin Heritage Center facilities and grounds on South Professor Street. As part of our institutional planning, we have been exploring other options for ownership and use of the house in collaboration with the Nord Family Foundation. Our goal was to find a new use that would assure its preservation and provide community access. Happily, our agreement with the Oberlin Conservatory of Music will do just that.”

John Mullaney, executive director of the Nord Family Foundation, says, “The Nord Family Foundation is proud to support Oberlin Heritage Center’s generous gift of the Burrell-King House to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.  When they developed the adjacent Oberlin Early Childhood Center, the Nord family, especially Evan and Cindy Nord, envisioned a place where the lives of children would be enriched. The Community Music School at the Burrell-King House is a wonderful realization of this vision to enhance the quality of life for Oberlin’s children and their families.  Evan Nord would have been delighted with this news.”

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music’s Community Music School is dedicated to providing students with an exceptional educational and artistic experience while fostering a lifelong appreciation of and commitment to excellence in music. The school offers students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds the opportunity to express their artistic creativity through the study and creation of music; in 2004-05 the school enrolled approximately 75 students, and awarded more than $4,000 in scholarship assistance. The Community Music School offers pre-collegiate instruction in strings, piano, winds, percussion, and voice, as well as theory and composition. In addition to private lessons, dynamic group programs such as Piano Lab, MusicPlay (for children ages 3 to 5), and the String Preparatory Program, are taught by highly qualified musicians and teachers.

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865 and situated amid the intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber and pronounced a “national treasure” by the Washington Post, its alumni have gone on to achieve illustrious careers in all aspects of the serious music world. For more information about the Oberlin Conservtory of Music and Oberlin College, please visit www.oberlin.edu.

The Oberlin Heritage Center is a historical society and historic preservation organization as well as a complex of historic sites that is accredited by the American Association of Museums. The nonprofit membership organization is dedicated to preserving and sharing the city of Oberlin’s unique heritage and making the community a better place to live, learn, work, and visit. Founded in 1903 as the Village Improvement Society, the organization was known until recently as the Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization (OHIO). For more information, please visit www.oberlinheritage.org.

The Burrell-King House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Oberlin Historic Landmark, was built in 1852 for Jabez Lyman Burrell, an ardent abolitionist. According to Geoffrey Blodgett’s book, Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to its Social History, Burrell, who was originally from western Massachusetts, was a disciple of John Jay Shipherd, one of the founders of Oberlin College. Burrell, a charter member of the Oberlin College Board of Trustees, “enjoyed substantial wealth and influence. He was an active anti-slavery man, and in 1868 he gave $10,000 for a freedmen’s school in Selma, Alabama. Later he deeded valuable coalfields in Illinois to the College. In 1882 he added the gift of his house and land on East College Street. The College in turn sold the house four years later to young Henry Churchill King, who became Oberlin’s president in 1902.”

The Nord Family Foundation endeavors to build community through programs that strengthen families and improve public service, and awards grants in the fields of health and social services, education, arts and culture, and civic affairs. The foundation awards grants in several geographic areas, but most are made to organizations within Lorain County, Ohio, or projects that will have an impact in that region.