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.