ABSTRACT
In 1957 the situation began to change. Oberlin merchants disbanded the local Chamber of Commerce and replaced it with a new organization called the Oberlin Business and Civic Association. The new OBCA sent each member a questionnaire asking him to check local problems which the committees might study and also on which committees the member would be willing to serve. Membership on a committee was not to be limited but was to include all who professed willingness to serve. Subsequently, a number of committees were established, two of which were those for Business District Modernization, and Parking, Traffic and Highways. In May of 1958 these two groups began to meet jointly because their chairmen, Paul Warner and John Cochrane, respectively, realized that the most pressing problem facing both of them was the provision of off-street parking facilities in the downtown area.1
