The four-story, brick-and-stone structure was designed by local architectural firm Harpster & Bliss. Construction of West High School cost $225,000. For its first seven years, West served as both a high school and an elementary school.
Category: Schools
University of Akron
The University’s founding can be traced all the back to an 1867 convention of the Universalist Church of the state of Ohio. At the convention interest in founding a college compatible with Universalist religious principles was announced. John R. Buchtel, a prominent Akron businessman and Universalist, contributed significantly to the endowment and building funds. Buchtel College, named after…
University of Akron
Today, the University of Akron offers about 200 undergraduate and more than 100 graduate majors. It has an enrollment of approximately 25,000 students.
North High School
Established in 1915, North High School was Akron’s fourth high school, after Central, South, and West. The school was located at the northwest corner of Dayton Street and East Tallmadge Avenue. It later became Jennings Middle School. The building was destroyed in 2012.
Portage Path School
The school building was built in 1908 and lasted 100 years before being demolished in 2009.
Findley School
Built in 1906, this beautiful structure was designed by architects Harpster & Bliss. Evident throughout the exterior and interior of Findley School were elements of the Beaux Arts style with additional Classical Revival details. The school was located in the triangular lot created by W. Tallmadge Ave, W. Cuyahoga Falls Ave., and Wall Street.
Grace School
With a history dating back to 1890, Grace School served the community for nearly 90 years. The school was named for Grace Perkins. The elementary school was located at West Exchange Street and South Maple Street in Akron. The school closed in 1977 and was demolished in 2002.
Firestone Park School
Harvey Firestone wanted to create a community near his factories where families of different income levels would live together. He wanted churches, schools, stores and his factories to all be within walking distance. Firestone hired his estate landscape architect, Alling S. DeForest, to design the layout for Firestone Park. Among the many projects was the…
University of Akron
Chemical Laboratory and Buchtel Hall on the campus of the University of Akron.
Akron Gerber Beauty School
The school that put Ohio on the beauty map. Akron, Canton, Dover 166-170 S. Main St. Phone: 535-5156
St. Mary’s School
The first class to graduate from St. Mary High School was in 1901. The school’s first football team was formed in 1922, and the St. M’s basketball team won the State Class B championship in 1929. In 75 years of operation, St. Mary High School graduated 4,351 students.
Akron High School
The high school was located on Forge Street, between College and Union Streets, facing Union Park. The school was established in 1857, but the pictured building was erected in 1885 at a cost of $135,000. The school was renamed Central High after the 1911 construction of South High.
South High School
The school was built in 1911 and was the second of 14 high schools to be built over the course of Akron Public School district’s existence. In 1956 the South High School building became Thornton Junior High School and housed grades seven through nine until its closure at the end of the 1978-1979 school year.…
Our Lady of the Elms
In1923 The Sisters of St. Dominican purchased what would become their campus from Arthur Hudson Marks, an industrialist and former B.F. Goodrich vice president. The “Elm Court” mansion, built in 1911, was renamed Our Lady of the Elms. It became the sisters’ living quarters.
West High School
The spacious West High included a 1,200-seat two-level assembly room, a walled rooftop garden, and a modern gymnasium with running track. West graduated its largest class in 1931 — 125 students in January and 221 in June. Its final graduating class in June 1953 had only 136 members. Eventually, West became a junior high school…
Mary Day Nursery
Organized in 1880, the organization was first called the Akron Day School and occupied rooms in the Union Charity Association Building on S. High Street. In 1891, ‘Colonel’ Perkins, impressed by the work of the daycare center, presented it with a house and lot on South High Street near Buchtel Avenue. The name “Mary Day Nussary” was taken…