Alive for Over a Century

Located at 43 East Market Street in what a 1972 Akron Beacon Journal article refers to as “the very hub of an ever-changing city,” the Hermes Building has a lively past. Built in 1870 and owned, at the time, by a man named Jacob Good, it has been part of Akron’s Commerce Block for decades upon decades. Perhaps surprisingly, the building sits on what, at the time it was built, was Akron’s own Millionaire’s Row, and in the late nineteenth and a great deal of the twentieth centuries, it was an active participant in Akron’s bustling commerce scene.

It is not exactly known how the building got its name, but one theory is that it was named after the mythological Greek god Hermes, who is the god of commerce and merchants. This speculation about its roots in Greek myth does not seem too far fetched, especially when considering that, for some time, according to Tony Troppe, the building had a relief of the Greek goddess Persephone on display.

It All Started with Chickens

Until 1924, the Hermes Building was home to a chicken house known as Dettling Bros. At this business, according to the Akron Beacon Journal, the family sold “live chickens, killed and dressed while you ate.” The Dettlings did not only sell chickens, though. In 1924, they transformed the chicken house into a flower and seed shop, still under the name of Dettling Bros. Here, grain, flowers, and other such goods were transported from the historic Botzum Farmstead to Akron’s downtown area, where they could then be sold to the general public. This shop survived until 1999, when Troppe, who was actually a childhood friend of the Dettlings, purchased the property, along with other buildings in the area.

When Troppe first bought the building, he opened Reflections Art Gallery, which proudly displayed the artwork of his wife, Jill, and John Dettling’s wife, Margerie. Over the course of its existence, the building has been noted to have mixed uses, ranging from mercantile to residential and more, and in the past housed a dance studio known as the Holliday Studio, Good’s Commercial Block Sample Room, and the B&O Divisional Offices. Today, the Hermes building houses Blu Jazz, which brings to the present day the richness of Akron’s jazz history. See much more about Akron’s rich history of jazz here.

Researched and written by Anthony Greenaway & Sonia Potter

Sources:

1. “Trip Downtown is Trip in Time.” Akron Beacon Journal. June 4, 2005.
2. Tony Troppe, interview, October 23, 2019
3. Berton, Lee. “Kids, Football and Potatoes Are His Meat.” Akron Beacon Journal. November 29, 1959.
4. Akron Topics, vol. 8, June–May 1930, p. 26.
5. Giffels, David. “New Gallery Downtown.” Akron Beacon Journal. July 30, 2000.
6. The Birch Directory Company. Akron Official City Directory 1891 – 1892. Akron, Ohio. Retrieved from https://www.akronlibrary.org/images/Divisions/SpecCol/images/cityDirectories/akroncitydir1891-1892.pdf.
7. The Birch Directory Company. Akron Official City Directory 1924. Akron, Ohio. Retrieved from https://www.akronlibrary.org/images/Divisions/SpecCol/images/cityDirectories/akroncitydir1924.pdf.