The Preparatory Department of Oberlin College, a private
secondary school, was established in 1832 or 1833, 27 years before the city of
Oberlin, Ohio, established
their public high school. The Preparatory Department faced opposition from conservative Whites in Ohio who opposed its admittance of African Americans. The Preparatory Department was the only primary education in Oberlin until the community organized a school district and eventually launched public schools. Sarah Watson, the first African American woman to attend Oberlin, enrolled in the Preparatory Department in 1842. Between 1833 and 1865, at least 140 black women studied at Oberlin, most of them in the Preparatory Department. In 1887, the school moved into French Hall and part of Society Hall. John Fisher Peck also served as the school's principal. His daughter, Emily Peck, tutored Latin and Greek at the preparatory department and was an artist who depicted fellow Oberlin alums in sculpture.
Booker T. Washington, who had close ties to Oberlin College and hired teachers from the school at
Tuskegee Institute, sent his son Ernst to Oberlin Academy in 1904 and 1905. By 1905, the school's enrollment was declining. One of the factors for the decline was that public high schools were becoming widely available by that time. In 1912 a new building opened for the academy and the Oberlin Academy Alumni Association was organized. The school was removed from campus from 1912 to 1916 and occupied the Johnson mansion (now known as Johnson House) on South Professor Street in Oberlin. The Johnson House is now the Hebrew Heritage House, a college residence for Jewish students. In that same year, the academy was listed in
A Handbook of the Best Private Schools of the United States and Canada, which stated: ==Alumni==