By Jaime Palinchak

The Quaker Square annex is located at the intersection of Broadway and Mill Streets and occupies approximately one city block. Originally the Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, the center of the contemporary annex is composed of 36 90-feet tall grain silos that were constructed in 1936 by the Quaker Oats Company. These silos could store 1.5 million bushels of grain. The complex consists of eight major components: the Cereal Mill, the Corn Puffs, the Cleaning House, the Loading Shed, brick warehouse buildings, the 1900 Railway Express Agency depot building, the Elevator Building, the Dry House, and the 36 grain storage silos. The Quaker Oats Company was the largest industry and employer in Akron for many years before the turn of the 20^th century. The only remaining element of the company is the complex itself, a visual reminder of the significant economic factor it once played in Akron’s history. When the Quaker Oats Company relocated to Chicago in 1970, the complex was redeveloped by private investors and transformed into the Quaker Square Crowne Plaza Hotel and shopping center. In 1979, it was entered in the national Register of Historic Places by the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Services. The University of Akron purchased the hotel in 2007 for $22.7 million, keeping 65 rooms available for public use. The other 196 rooms were converted into dormitories. These hotel/dormitory rooms are located within the grain silos themselves, each room 24 feet in diameter and in the round. As such, the structure is most notable for its unique architectural form and its continued use in very different contexts.