{"id":27,"date":"2019-11-24T00:04:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T00:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/?page_id=27"},"modified":"2019-12-09T15:25:56","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T15:25:56","slug":"hermes-building","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/hermes-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Hermes Building"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alive for Over a Century<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Located at 43 East Market Street in what a 1972 Akron Beacon Journal <\/em>article refers to as \u201cthe very hub of an ever-changing city,\u201d 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\u2019s Commerce Block for decades upon decades. Perhaps surprisingly, the building sits on what, at the time it was built, was Akron\u2019s own Millionaire\u2019s Row, and in the late nineteenth and a great deal of the twentieth centuries, it was an active participant in Akron\u2019s bustling commerce scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Hermes Building today, courtesy of Sonia Potter<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It All Started with Chickens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Until 1924, the Hermes Building was home to a chicken house known as Dettling Bros. At this business, according to the Akron Beacon Journal<\/em>, the family sold \u201clive chickens, killed and dressed while you ate.\u201d 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 <\/a>to Akron\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Troppe first bought the building, he opened Reflections Art Gallery, which proudly displayed the artwork of his wife, Jill, and John Dettling\u2019s 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\u2019s Commercial Block Sample Room, and the B&O<\/a> Divisional Offices. Today, the Hermes building houses Blu Jazz<\/a>, which brings to the present day the richness of Akron\u2019s jazz history. See much more about Akron\u2019s rich history of jazz here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researched and written by Anthony Greenaway & Sonia Potter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. \u201cTrip Downtown is Trip in Time.\u201d Akron Beacon Journal<\/em>. June 4, 2005.<\/li>
  2. Tony Troppe, interview, October 23, 2019<\/li>
  3. Berton, Lee. \u201cKids, Football and Potatoes Are His Meat.\u201d Akron Beacon Journal<\/em>. November 29, 1959.<\/li>
  4. Akron Topics<\/em>, vol. 8, June\u2013May 1930, p. 26.<\/li>
  5. Giffels, David. \u201cNew Gallery Downtown.\u201d Akron Beacon Journal<\/em>. July 30, 2000.<\/li>
  6. The Birch Directory Company. Akron Official City Directory <\/em>1891 – 1892. <\/em>Akron, Ohio. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.akronlibrary.org\/images\/Divisions\/SpecCol\/images\/cityDirectories\/akroncitydir1891-1892.pdf. <\/li>
  7. The Birch Directory Company. Akron Official City Directory 1924<\/em>. Akron, Ohio. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.akronlibrary.org\/images\/Divisions\/SpecCol\/images\/cityDirectories\/akroncitydir1924.pdf. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Alive for Over a Century Located at 43 East Market Street in what a 1972 Akron Beacon Journal article refers to as \u201cthe very hub of an ever-changing city,\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1388,"featured_media":3559,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1388"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4099,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27\/revisions\/4099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/roundaboutakron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}