Author: tconte
Allen Theatre WADC Broadcasting Station
WADC broadcasting studios located in the Towell Cadillac Building. WADC first broadcast as a temporary station for a 1925 car show at the Central Garage. The call letters were derived from the show’s sponsor, the Automobile Dealers’ Company. After the show ended, Allen Simmons, owner of the Allen Theater, bought the equipment and obtained a…
Central Garage
A testament to just how fast automobiles has grown in popularity, this massive parking garage was constructed in 1919.During the Cold War, the Central Garage was designated as one of 32 downtown air-raid shelters.
Kaase’s Restaurant
Kaase’s Restaraunt was located at 53 E. Mill Street.
City Hospital
It began as a dream by Boniface DeRoo, a Dutch immigrant whose will provided approximately $10,000 for the establishment of Akron’s first hospital. More than nine years elapsed after DeRoo’s death in 1883 before a group of 12 men organized the City Hospital Association. The association purchased the Bartges Homestead in 1892 and opened the…
B. F. Goodrich Company
On December 31, 1870, Goodrich formed the partnership of Goodrich, Tew & Company with his brother-in-law Harvey W. Tew and a group of Akron investors. After completing the construction of a two-story factory on the banks of the Ohio Canal, Goodrich was in business as the first rubber company west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Airdock – Goodyear blimps
At 1,175 feet long, 325 feet wide, and 211 feet high it is no understatement to say the airdock is massive! There is 364,000 square feet of unobstructed floor space, or an area larger than 8 football fields side-by-side. The Airdock has a volume of 55 million cubic feet.
Main Street Looking South
Postcard view of Akron’s Main Street from Market Street looking south. Founded along the Little Cuyahoga River in 1825 by Simon Perkins and Paul Williams, the location of Akron carefully and strategically planned at the summit of the developing Ohio and Erie Canal.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. – Aeroplane View
“The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is one of the largest rubber factories in the United States. Good year produced more than 110,000,000 tires since 1898. It employs thousands of people. The annual Payroll is over $43,000,000. Goodyear is the largest producer of auto tires and rubber heels in the world. 110,000,000 tires linked together would…
Robinson’s Clay Products Company
The Robinson Clay Product Company was a major producer of sewer pipe. Including its operations in Akron, the company had eight plants in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Robinson’s was one of many clay product companies with operations in Akron. Others included: American Vitrified Products Company, United States Stoneware Company, Summit China Company, M. A. Knight Company, Camp Brothers…
City Hospital
Opened in 1892, City Hospital provided a place where the sick and injured could be treated with the best principles of medical practice.
Grace Park
Grace Park wasn’t always a “shady” place. Back in the day, the park was one of Akron’s most popular retreats.It played host to picnics, leisurely strolls, community gatherings and fiery political speeches. Famous names like Hayes, McKinley, and Rosevelt stood in Grace Park to deliver their words to the people of Akron.
East Mill Street
Akron’s boom came from the rubber industry, but before that, it was an important canal town, a regional center for milling and a notable mass-producer of clay products.
Akron High School
The original Central building on Forge Street opened in 1886 and was initially named Akron High School. It was renamed Central High School in 1911 when the city opened the new South High School.
Perkins Square Play Ground
In this postcard view of old Akron, children of all ages can be seen playing together on teeter-totters (seesaws) at the Perkins Square play ground.
South High School
Built in 1911 at 30 West Thornton Street at Coburn, South was the city’s second high school. In 1956, after the construction of a new South High School, the original building became Thornton Junior High School and housed grades seven through nine until its closure in 1979.
