{"id":282,"date":"2014-01-16T22:21:49","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T22:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/?p=282"},"modified":"2014-03-03T15:40:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T15:40:36","slug":"first-merit-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/2014\/01\/16\/first-merit-tower\/","title":{"rendered":"First Merit Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-282 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/2014\/01\/16\/first-merit-tower\/rc_central_trust4a\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/914\/2014\/01\/RC_Central_Trust4a.jpg?w=150&amp;h=150&amp;crop=1\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-286\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-286'>\n\t\t\t\tFirst Merit Tower Postcard, 1930s\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/2014\/01\/16\/first-merit-tower\/first-merit-tower-2\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/914\/2014\/01\/First-Merit-Tower.jpg?w=150&amp;h=150&amp;crop=1\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-290\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-290'>\n\t\t\t\tFirst Merit Tower, 2013\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>By James Caprio<\/p>\n<p>During the 1920s and 1930s, Akron was one of the fastest growing cities in America.\u00a0At the turn of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, Akron\u2019s population was just under 70,000 people.\u00a0By 1930, the population was over 255,000 people.\u00a0Even 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\u2019s banks became very profitable. In 1929, the Central Savings and Trust Company, formerly the Central Depositors Bank, started a project to signify Akron\u2019s booming population and industry. They created the Central Trust Tower, Akron\u2019s first skyscraper.\u00a0The skyscraper was designed by the Cleveland architectural firm Walker and Weeks.\u00a0They designed the\u00a0building\u00a0Art-Deco style, a style that represents wealth, power, and security. It was also fashioned after the skyscrapers that dominated New York City\u2019s skyline.\u00a0When 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.\u00a0The skyscraper stood at 308 feet tall, more than twice the height of any building in Akron at the time.\u00a0The Central Trust bank moved into the entire first floor of the building and created innovations in banking with its new, much larger lobby.\u00a0They eliminated the bank teller cages of old and created more personalized banking screens, giving their clients a better face to face experience.\u00a0The building also housed an arcade of shops in the basement level and a restaurant at the street level.\u00a0The skyscraper officially became known as the First National Bank Tower in 1931 and is now the First Merit Tower.\u00a0To this day, it is still the greatest architectural achievement in the history of Akron, both structurally and symbolically.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By James Caprio During the 1920s and 1930s, Akron was one of the fastest growing cities in America.\u00a0At the turn of the 20th century, Akron\u2019s population was just under 70,000 people.\u00a0By 1930, the population was over 255,000 people.\u00a0Even in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/2014\/01\/16\/first-merit-tower\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1758,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36282],"tags":[7160,36294,36334,36302],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-downtown","tag-akron","tag-downtown-2","tag-first-merit-tower","tag-walking-tour"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":890,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}