Tag Archives: downtown

Kaiser Hall

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By James Caprio

The Kaiser Building (or Kaiser Hall) was built in 1871, just six years after the end of the Civil War. Built by successful Akron businessman Joseph Kaiser, the building’s design was modeled after the High Victorian Gothic style popular in Europe in the middle 1800s. The features of this style are the running bond red pressed brick, high arching windows with contrasting limestone trim, and gabled roofs (which have since been removed from the building). After the building was completed in 1877, Kaiser Hall and its adjacent buiildings became known as Kaiser’s Block. Joseph Kaiser operated a hardware store on the street level, selling tools, stoves, and copper and sheet iron products. Kaiser lived in the luxury loft above his store. The third level of the building was used as a grand ballroom. Kaiser leased out one half of the building to Charles Myers, who ran the company Holloway and Myers. Holloway and Myers sold hats, boots, and shoes. Myers also resided in the building on the upper level. In 1891, Kaiser’s hardware store was taken over by John Gross, who continued the hardware store at the site until the 1940s. Since then, the building has seen its share of various businesses come and go. In recent history, the building was purchased by JJC Investors in 2005, however they were unable to renovate or sell the building. They even tried to sell the building on E-Bay, yet were unsuccessful. The building was then bought by Tony Troppe and the Kaiser Hall Revival Group and has since been renovated and re-opened as a site for businesses.

 

 

First Merit Tower

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By James Caprio

During the 1920s and 1930s, Akron was one of the fastest growing cities in America. At the turn of the 20th century, Akron’s population was just under 70,000 people. By 1930, the population was over 255,000 people. Even in the midst of the Great Depression, Akron had become one of the major industrial hubs in the Midwest. Along with the rubber industry, Akron’s banks became very profitable. In 1929, the Central Savings and Trust Company, formerly the Central Depositors Bank, started a project to signify Akron’s booming population and industry. They created the Central Trust Tower, Akron’s first skyscraper. The skyscraper was designed by the Cleveland architectural firm Walker and Weeks. They designed the building Art-Deco style, a style that represents wealth, power, and security. It was also fashioned after the skyscrapers that dominated New York City’s skyline. When the tower was completed in 1931, it became a unique symbol of spirit and pride for both the blue-collar and white-collar citizens of Akron. The skyscraper stood at 308 feet tall, more than twice the height of any building in Akron at the time. The Central Trust bank moved into the entire first floor of the building and created innovations in banking with its new, much larger lobby. They eliminated the bank teller cages of old and created more personalized banking screens, giving their clients a better face to face experience. The building also housed an arcade of shops in the basement level and a restaurant at the street level. The skyscraper officially became known as the First National Bank Tower in 1931 and is now the First Merit Tower. To this day, it is still the greatest architectural achievement in the history of Akron, both structurally and symbolically.

 

The AC&Y Building

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By James Caprio

Located near the corner of Main and Exchange streets, across from the Evans Building, the AC&Y Building has been a dominant feature of Akron’s skyline since 1919. The building was originally known as the Herberich Building, as it was built by prominent Akron businessman Charles Herberich. Herberich was the treasurer and later vice president of the Depositors Savings Bank. He was also a big time investor in the rubber, construction, real-estate, and land development industries. Due to the rubber industry’s role in World War I, Akron’s overall landscape was booming. One of the biggest players in the rubber industry was F.A. Seiberling, founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. In order to move his products, he created the Akron Canton and Youngstown (AC&Y) Railroad Company in 1912. By 1920, the AC&Y Railroad line stretched over 170 miles and became the main rail line moving rubber products out of Akron. The AC&Y line was also a major transporter of chemicals, non-metallic minerals, coal, plastics, and lumber. It became the most profitable railroad line in America during the 1920s. In 1924, Seiberling rented the 6th floor and some units on the 7th floor to serve as the AC&Y headquarters, and by 1926, they leased the entire building. It was this year that the Herberich Building became known as the AC&Y Building. In 1964, AC&Y was sold to the Norfolk & Western Railway, but the building continued to serve as their headquarters until 1982 when the company ultimately dissolved.

 

 

 

 

 

The Gothic Building

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By James Caprio

At the turn of the 20th century, Akron had grown into a bustling city. The Ohio & Erie Canal had brought an unprecedented amount of business to the city, including more manufacturing and financial institutions.The growth of these businesses brought more wealth to the city and, in turn, created a demand for upscale residential buildings. One of the gems that this demand created was the Gothic Building. The Gothic Building was designed by the well-known Akron architect Frank O. Weary. Weary was also responsible for the design of other buildings in Akron, including Buchtel Hall, the Carnegie Library, and the Glendale Cemetery Civil War Memorial Building. The Gothic Building was modeled after the Georgian Gothic Revival style, which was popular during the late 1700s and early 1800s. This design style features multi-color brick work, arched windows with contrasting trim colors, and asymmetrical designs. The Gothic Building was attached to the old Colonial Theatre, which was built in 1902 and razed in 1970. The Gothic not only served as a residence building, but it also housed numerous companies over the year. In the 1920s, the Gothic Building became the offices of the editorial “Akron Topics”, a popular publication discussing the current trends in Akron. The site later became home to Edfred’s Record Store in 1941 and All-Ohio Athletic Equipment in 1962. The Gothic has also housed a variety of other businesses since. In 2007, the Gothic Building was purchased by Tony Troppe and a group of private investors called the Gothic City Revival Group LLC. The Gothic in recent years has hosted numerous musicians as a venue and serves as the headquarters for Leadership Akron. The Gothic Building remains one of the finest buildings in downtown Akron today.

 

 

Summit County Courthouse

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By Jaime Palinchak

The Summit County Courthouse and Annex is located at 209 South High Street. It was constructed after the original courthouse, built in 1843, was torn down in 1905. It was built in order to meet the demands of the population increase that occurred in Akron due to the expansion of the city’s rubber industry. The building was designed by J. Milton Dyer, an architect who was a significant in many urban planning projects in Cleveland in the early 20th century. Dyer also designed Cleveland City Hall, the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Coast Guard Station, and the U.S. Subtreasury Building in San Francisco. The main building of the courthouse faces west and was constructed in 1908. The annex building, built in 1922, faces east and is identical in style. The two buildings are connected by two bridges on the second and third stories. According to the National Register report, the architectural features are “characteristic of the simpler interpretations of the Renaissance Revival style” and “the interiors of both buildings have the dignity characteristic of the public buildings of the period.” One clear example of this style is the heavy and dark walnut and oak interior woodwork. Two seated male statues flank the entrance; one holds a scroll and the other a sword, representing law and justice, respectively. Two lions also stand guard at the entrance. The Summit County Courthouse and Annex were entered into the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service in 1974. Today, the buildings are home to the Divisions of the Court of Common Pleas of Summit County. It thus is still in use for court functions while simultaneously serving as a visual example of the city’s legal and architectural history.

 

Quaker Square

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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 20th 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.

 

Old Stone School

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By Jaime Palinchak

The Old Stone School is located at the corner of Broadway and Buchtel Avenues.  Built in the early 1830s, it was the first schoolhouse built in Akron. The school was originally called the schoolhouse of Portage Township School District No. 2. General Simon Perkins gave the property as a gift in 1837 after the original deed was lost by school directors. The school’s sturdy construction out of sawn lumber would have been rather unique since during the first half of the 19th century, the Ohio School Law limited the amount that could be acquired by taxation to fund school construction to $200; private donations must have been collected. The State School fund given by the State of Ohio was not enough to cover the school teacher’s full salary. As a result, parents were required to pay as much as two dollars per child to attend winter sessions as well as to provide firewood for the school, house and feed the teacher in the winter. School was taught in the winter months because other jobs were not available; teachers worked elsewhere during the warmer months. The one-room schoolhouse model was used through the Civil War because of tax issues and difficulty obtaining loans. The Akron Board of Education did not receive a loan until 1867 after the local bank had changed management. This led to a “schoolhouse building boom” in Akron, and Schoolhouse #2 was among those that were refurbished in stone. The school was closed and sold to the railroad within ten years of its renovation because it was too small. Today, the building is owned by the Summit County Historical Society and remains a popular educational venue for local school field trips.

 

 

Howe House

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By Jaime Palinchak

The Richard Howe House was known as the “Howe Mansion” by those traveling along the Ohio & Erie Canal. Built in 1836, it was the home of Richard Howe, its Resident Engineer, and is located at 47 West Exchange Street, overlooking the canal. Richard Howe headed the completion of the canal from Cleveland to Massillon between 1825 and 1832. He also designed Summit Lake and engineered the canal’s port over the Continental Divide. His supervision of the connection of the Ohio & Erie Canal to the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal boosted Akron’s standing as a major transportation hub.
The building is one of two Federal Style homes in Akron today and serves as an architectural relic of the canal era. The restoration of the Howe House to its original condition and its subsequent transition into a meeting space and visitor’s information center for the Ohio & Erie National Heritage Canalway was the project of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition. Restoration cost $150,000 in state funds.
The house was moved from its original site to its current location adjacent to the Ohio & Erie Canal and Towpath Trail on June 30, 2008. It was transported on rollers down the street with crowds present to see its relocation. Today, it can be accessed by towpath visitors by crossing a $75,000 walkway that leads across the water to the house.