{"id":982,"date":"2014-03-12T01:59:17","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T01:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/?p=982"},"modified":"2014-03-12T01:59:17","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T01:59:17","slug":"oneils-department-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/2014\/03\/12\/oneils-department-store\/","title":{"rendered":"O&#8217;Neil&#8217;s Department Store"},"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-982 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/oneills\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/914\/2014\/03\/ONeills.jpg?w=150&amp;h=150&amp;crop=1\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1018\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1018'>\n\t\t\t\tO&#8217;Neil&#8217;s Department Store, 1930s\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/oneils\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/914\/2014\/03\/ONeils.jpeg?w=150&amp;h=150&amp;crop=1\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1022\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1022'>\n\t\t\t\tFormer O&#8217;Neil&#8217;s Building, 2013\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>By Christopher Sector<\/p>\n<p>This site on the corner of South Main and State Streets has been the home of the O\u2019Neil\u2019s department store building since 1927. Prior to this current structure, this corner was the home to Merrill Pottery Works. East Akron used to be a hotbed for clay deposits, and in the late 19<sup>th<\/sup> and early 20<sup>th<\/sup> centuries, Summit County was considered the sewer pipe capital of America. The Merrill family was one of the first throughout the country to master vitrification. In 1927, the Merrill Pottery Works building was bulldozed and the current building was built by the O\u2019Neil family. The department store is known for holiday seasons in which O\u2019Neil\u2019s and its rival store, Polsky\u2019s \u2013 across the street, would light up downtown with Christmas festivities and window advertisements. The building was originally an\u00a0800,000 square foot structure. It has undergone reconstruction, as it has been greatly downsized. Currently, the building has approximately 185,000\u00a0square feet. Improvements\u00a0included demolition of the old parking deck and\u00a0construction of a new 550 car parking deck, an\u00a0atrium extending from the roof to the lowest\u00a0level, and a Main Street public lobby. O\u2019Neil\u2019s department store saw its end in the late 1980s. Roetzel &amp; Andress, Akron&#8217;s oldest law firm, now\u00a0occupies 60,000 square feet on floors four, five, and six\u00a0of the building. Ernst &amp; Young\u00a0occupies the third floor and McDonald\u2019s Investments\u00a0occupies the second floor. The first floor was sold\u00a0to The George Group in 2001. They\u00a0operate the Barley House, a restaurant and\u00a0bar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Christopher Sector This site on the corner of South Main and State Streets has been the home of the O\u2019Neil\u2019s department store building since 1927. Prior to this current structure, this corner was the home to Merrill Pottery Works. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/2014\/03\/12\/oneils-department-store\/\">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":[7160,36294,45992,36302],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-downtown","tag-akron","tag-downtown-2","tag-oneils","tag-walking-tour"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","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=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1054,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/1054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/rubbercityrevisited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}