An African-American village founded in 1866 by James H. Harris, who had attended Ohio’s Oberlin College. Residents first built pioneer homes here, then vernacular and more fashionable houses by the turn of the century, dozens of which remain. Oberlin had its own public graded school, which predated Raleigh’s graded schools by seven years, as well as Wilson Temple United Methodist Church (ca. 1870) and Oberlin Baptist Church (ca. 1880). The village was also home to Latta University until 1920.
