Welcome! Round About Akron was created by thirteen students from The University of Akron as an interactive walking tour of downtown. Our mission is to get people strolling through the streets of our vibrant historical city nestled alongside the Ohio and Erie Canal.

During this fall 2019 semester, our project-based arts and culture class researched and discussed the history of our city and created a website and physical displays dedicated to illuminating Akron’s hidden gems. Each page of our website focuses on a different location, all of which demonstrate how Akron’s arts and culture scene has been inextricably linked with the city’s history.

This walking tour allows visitors to engage with a clickable map that pinpoints significant locations downtown, and it features QR codes and a temporary display in the windows at the Polsky Building. Perhaps its best feature, though, is the way in which the tour aspires to connect the University with the greater Akron community.

This project has brought not only students and faculty together, but also organizations such as Downtown Akron Partnership, the Summit County Historical Society, Curated Storefront.org, and The University of Akron Archives, without whom we could not have completed this project. Our class, Digital Projects in the Archives, was sponsored by UA’s EXL Center for Experiential Learning and offered through the Department of English. Round About Akron has helped us probe the history of the city we live in, and in doing so, we hope we have brought it to life for you. So come join us, and we’ll stroll through history together. 

Have questions or comments? Please send them to Dr. Hillary Nunn at nunn@uakron.edu.

To see another historical walking tour of Akron previously made by University of Akron students, check out Rubber City Revisited.