Tank Hall

Tank's sign after being captured by Harkness (Winter Term '04-'05). See: co-op wars.

(This is about the living co-op; for the dining co-op, see Tank Co-op.)

Located at 110 East College Street, just west of Park Street and next to Big Five, Tank is a housing and dining co-op. It holds 42 students in singles and open doubles.

It's home to a dining co-op.

Well known aspects of Tank include the immense beer-bottle collection that rings the dining room, the tire swing out front, and a semi-annual pig roast. Its sign is often on Harkness.

In the late 80s, Tank was struck by lightning and sustained some fire damage to the roof. All the residents had to be relocated for at least a semester.

The building has a bad history with fire: originally built as a home for children of missionaries travelling overseas, the original kitchen caught fire sometime in the early part of the 20th century, and the resulting blaze killed a number of children.

[edit] Opinions

Some of the comments about Tank being a frat house are pretty old. The community changes year to year, and it is by no means a frat house right now. Tank has the best rooms on campus as far as size goes, but arguably the worst kitchen. Tank, while quite a ways from the science center and the gym, is one of the closest dorms to the downtown area, and is well worth the walk. You feel like you live in a great big house, you know all of your housemates, and you basically rock all the time. Tank is great. --132.162.250.21 (20 Feb 2007)

Living in Tank gives you the nice illusion that you've got off-campus status, since isn't contained within the three blocks of regular campus. It's nice and quiet, the people are friendly, and the porch swing is excellent. Also, there are still cats that lurk around and will climb into your lap if you sit in the grass. Rooms are gorgeous and huge. --132.162.245.62 (4 Oct 2005)

That cat bit me once. --Jake

[edit] From LiveJournal

“for me, living in a co-op (tank) as a first year was a bad choice because i felt pretty much cut off from the entire campus and whenever i would go to wilder bowl or decafe i felt like i was entering an alternate universe. i was also one of only nine pretty awkward first years. it was kind of an alienatingly anti-social group in general, although that definitely varies from year to year.” --insipidity, June 2008 [1]

“I do agree that Tank can be a bit more distant for first years, since it is two blocks from any other dorm (minus firelands, which doesn't count, as its an apartment building for juniors/seniors). However, its rooms are HUGE.” --0hme0hmy, June 2008 [2]

"Big among upperclassmen in terms of food, and featuring good-sized singles & doubles as well as elegant oak trim, some stained glass and a turret, Tank seems pretty cool. But in my experience it ends up being the closest thing to a frat house Oberlin has. The social life there tends to revolve around drinking, and it's easy to turn into a hermit living there, a bit off campus and in a house where people tend to only come out when there's a keg." --pseudoyoink [3]

"Rediculously Far From campus (but supposedly gorgeous)" --anonymous [4]

"I've only eaten in Tank, not lived there, but it's a really gorgeous building (and I don't know how long they'll be there, but there's also the occasional neighborhood cat that will wander into the yard and make nice with the co-opers). The rooms seem to be fairly decent-sized and since it's a co-op, the community's a little tighter than you might otherwise find (shared labor, I think, contributes to this). Tank is about a 5 minute walk from town and a 10 minute walk from the block where the library and some of the humanities buildings are, but the walk is usually pretty and as much as people gripe about the 10 minute walk, it took me 15 to get from South to the Science building (southern north campus) so maybe that'll put things in a bit of perspective. Also of note: the dining co-op here is as meat-friendly as any of OSCA gets, meaning that while there is the possibility of meat here you're still not getting it very often. If you want regular meat, go eat in CDS." --anonymous [5]

As a Harkie, I find the community in Tank to be somewhat lacking this year. On the other hand, the food is possibly the best in OSCA. --Bogazog