Hi, there, Mr. Ed,

Thank you for all the work you've done collecting photos and creating a timeline for Akron. It's been quite a trip down memory lane. It was interesting to realize all the crisp, fresh memories that are still in my head.

I was born and raised in Akron. I remember when they ripped the trolleys up. It made me so sad that I cried. It still makes me sad, especially now that I know the history of that time, that the oil barons bought them up and tore up the tracks so that people would be forced to buy cars to get around. How nice those trolleys were! So convenient, so friendly.

I remember Polsky's (and O'Neil's, too -- are they still there?) and lots of smaller stores that my grandmother took me to, like Darago's, where she could indulge her love of hot pepper and fiery chili. Or was that the butcher shop/deli that my grandfather carried me to on his shoulders, and where he'd buy me a big pickle from time to time? I know the butcher shop/deli was just up the street from Leda Place, where we lived, on Spicer as I recall. We moved when I-76 was built long, long ago.

One grandfather worked on the line at Goodrich, one at Firestone, and one grandmother worked at Sun Rubber. My grandfathers told me about having to work 22 hours a day if they wanted to keep their jobs. (I assume that was during the Depression, but I don't know that.) They told me how the men would take turns catching a few winks in the broom closet, and cover for each other when the supervisor would come through. They didn't say much about the time of union formation, except that there was violence against the strikers, and against the scabs. If I ever get a breather, I want to learn about that time -- if I dare. It sounds really painful.

My uncle (and later, his sons) drove truck for many of those tire deliveries all over the country. I remember his excitement when he got his first truck driving job when he got out of the Army. I remember his telling me how he had to drive as many miles as possible in order to keep his job, and how hard it was to stay awake. He showed me the small cotton tube that the men would take out of the inhalers (for sinus congestion) and chew on to help stay awake. They had Benzedrine in them, what we now know as an "upper." That was the beginning of my uncle's drug addiction -- although no one called it that in those days. Benzedrine was legal then, and there were no regulations that gave the drivers so many hours off to sleep, and then they had to keep a log. His boss made him keep two, one for the regulators, and the real one for the boss. He said that was the hardest part of his job!

I remember the Soap Box Derby, and what a big deal was made of it. I felt left out (I was only a girl, in those days when there was a lot of deprivation built into that). I was really impressed until my dear friend Frank Conrad was hit by a car and killed in his soapbox car. I remember the Goodyear blimp always hanging around. It even followed me when I moved! (or so it seemed -- I know it was just everywhere.)

Most of those photos date from before my time, but I seem to have my own memory photos!

I attended the University of Akron initially. I stayed in Orr House (you can imagine the jokes people made about that name!), the first women's dorm, and went to classes in the morning and evening, so I walk to work at Western Union downtown from 11 - 7pm. In those days, you could smoke in classes that were not the older wood buildings. And most people did -- can you imagine? How did we all breathe??

My roommate was from Asbury Park, NJ, and she is what was then called Negro, although the nomenclature was shifting to "colored," and some were beginning to call themselves "black." There was a lot of discussion about that. It was the beginning of a new era, and I was so very blessed to draw Tina as a roommate. Disciplined, hardworking, intelligent, patient, affectionately humorous and kind, she was a godsend to the scrawny and ill-bred waif that I was. She turned the course of my life around, with love and amusement. "Get up, Long! This place is a wreck, and today is the day to get clean and organized!" she would announce every Saturday morning at (what seemed to me to be) the crack of dawn. She single-handedly raised my consciousness about AfroAmericans (or is it "people of color" now?), without that's ever being anyone's intention. She was just trying to help me learn about life (and trying to get me to do my half of the work she saw that had to be done!). I had met only one black person prior to college. I find it most amusing that, before getting to know my college classmates, I thought "they all looked alike"! That was an amazing opportunity, and I will always be grateful. Those memories of my ignorance help me to be tolerant of others who were not so fortunate.

One of my memories of the beautiful and well-architected dorm at the University was of a delicious spring day, blue skies, gentle warm breeze, which invited opening a window first thing. Upon my return from my morning classes, in preparation for going to work, I decided to shut the window, in case of rain. For some reason I wiped the windowsill, and was shocked to see on my hand the oily black smear of carbon black that had fallen in the two hours I had been at class that Monday. (I know it was clean before, because Tina saw to that on Saturday!) That was before the EPA existed, and before scrubbers or catalytic converters. AND there was lead in the gasoline!

I remember Akron as an excruciatingly dirty place, growing up, from the polluted air to the sewer gas along my walk to elementary school. Not as bad as Steubenville, with its brown-leaved trees and almost opaque windows, but not clean.

You know, most of my memories of Akron make me remember why I couldn't wait to get out of there, and the xenophobia of my high school classmates and much of my family reminds me how much better my life is as a result of having left. The contrast you've presented does my heart good. Thank you, Mr. Ed!

Yours truly,

Lucy

Saw your blog. It's great!!

Thought you might be interested in an old pic of Firestone Stadium.

Tom

1836 The Akron Weekly Post. And the following...
The Akron Journal
The Era
The American Balance
The Buzzard
Glad Tidings
The Flower of the West
The Pestalozzian
The Cascade Rourer
The Summit Beacon, (Now is the Akron Beacon Journal)
The Flail
The American Democrat
The Casket
Free-Soil Platform
The Akron Eagle
The Free Democrat
True Kindred
Akron Offering
The Free Democratic Standard
The Sockdelager
The Whip
The School-Mistress

BLESS YOU, MR. ED!!!
My friend, Kevin in Akron sent me the email with the Akron pics. I lived in Akron all my life (48 years) until 8 years ago, and moved to Jacksonville, FL, and now St. Augustine which is the oldest city in USA. Big tourist town. I'm a pianist, and there is tons of work for me here.
I send this with tears of joy. It was a fun game to scroll down, not exposing the picture title, and guessing what each picture was of. I could probably name about 70% of them. But, interesting enough, I FOUND MY MOTHER IN THE PICTURE of Buchtel's class. She was a midget, and was no doubt, standing on books for that picture. Second row, far left. My father is buried in Glendale Cemetery.
The old Robinson house belonged to the Robinson Rubber family, making rubber floor tiles. Then selling the formula to Goodrich. The mansion was eventually renovated and became "The Florence Critenden Home (for unwed mothers)", housing young unmarrieds in from across the USA to secretly have their babies and put them up for adoption, mostly by affluent families that the girls brought shame to. Most were have rumored to be "visiting their aunt" during the pregnancy. Last I knew, it was Steinway Hall when I moved in 2002.
The Hotel Akron, I believe, is the old Portage Hotel, that my ex's mother used to run as head housekeeper. They lived in the hotel. My aunt-in-law was then put in that hotel when it became Portage Manor (nursing home).
I used to play with a little girl who's parents were the caretakers of the Perkins Mansion, living in the servant's house behind the main building. I remember playing tag through the rose gardens, and swimming in the pool, before they filled it in.
I easily identified John Brown's home from the cobblestone wall, which we would balance carefully as we walked across them on our way the back entrance of the Zoo, cutting through the woods.
I graduated from Buchtel in 1972.
My step-father worked at Seiberling Rubber.
I thank you for taking such great time to share this over the internet. Who'dathunkit that you would be touching someone's heart in FL!!!?

Jamie

Oatmeal

INDUSTRY

1874

3,349,500 gallons of stoneware were dug out of the ground.

2,365,716 bushels of coal were mined.

540 tons of stoves were manufactured.

1,000 tons of car wheels were produced.

(Car wheels for trains & streetcars).

7,000 tons of bar & nail rod iron were produced.

15 steam engines were built.

45 steam boilers were built.

10,100 mowing and reaping machines were built and shipped to the Pacific Coast, the Sandwich Islands, South America and Europe plus some stayed to be used locally.

1891 - 28,919 mowers and reapers were sold.

A few of Akron's earliest companies:

A. Rice Foundry

Akron Silver Plate

Akron Selle Gear Co.

Whitman & Barns Co. Knife Works

J. C. McNeil Co. (Boilers)

Burger Iron & Wire Works

Akron Paint & Varnish

Baker, McMillen & Co.

Akron Porcelain & Plastics Co.

Renner Brewery

Burkhardt Brewery

Thomas Phillips & Co.

Biggs Boiler Works

Robinson Brothers $ Co. (Sewer pipe, clay products)

RUBBER COMPANIES

B.F. Goodrich (India Rubber Co.) 1870s



Diamond Rubber Co. 1894. Originally Sherbondy Rubber Co. Organized by O.C. Barber. It merged with B.F. Goodrich in 1912.



Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. 1898. The Goodyear clock tower was constructed in 1915.



Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. 1900

General Tire Co. Founded by Will O'Neil in 1915. He was the son of M. O.Neil of O'Neil's Department Store.



Seiberling Rubber Co. Founded by Frank Seiberling in 1921 in Barberton.

Rubber Company Employment

1920 - 75,000

After the panic of 1920 - Less than 20,000

1930 - 58,000

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First telephone company - 1877.

By 1920 Akron had between 80 to 120 millionaires.

By 1834 Akron had 746 miles of streets.

321 miles were paved, but 425 still were not.

Kenmore area began in 1901. The center of Kenmore Boulevard was used for streetcar tracks.

In 1891 Akron had four fire stations:

Church St., downtown. Middlebury, Maple St., and Thornton St.

POPULATION

1874 - 10,006

1891 - 27,601

1900 - 42,728

1910 - 69,067

1920-208,435

1930-255,040

UNDERTAKERS

J.F. Viall. Funeral & Furniture.

Baldwin & Weeks. Funeral & Furniture.

George Wulle. Funeral & Livery Stables.

Billow Co. Funeral.

OTHER BUSINESSES

O'Neil & Dyas. (1st department store, 1877, corner of Main & Market St.'s) Built new store on Main St. in 1928. Closed down in 1989.

Abram Polsky. (Howard St.) Built new store on Main St. in 1930. Closed down in 1978.

Yeager's Department Store. (Main St.) Closed down in 1961.

Hower Depatment Store. Located on East Market St. in the old Middlebury section.
Sisler & Hoy, Chemists & Druggists. Howard St.

Quaker Oats. The old mill was built in 1832, razed in 1909. New building was built in 1913 at Mill and Howard St.'s.

First Automobile Dealers.
Chevrolet
Hudson
Ford
Cadillac
White
(All were located downtown).

1910 - Guth & Hammel's Fancy Grocers
46 E. Market Street.

LODGES
Knights of Pythias
The Elks
Masonic Lodge
Odd Fellows (Hall was built in 1895)
The Eagles
The Owls
Military Order of the Serpent

Theaters
Coloniel
Orpheum
Strand
Palace
Lowes
Civic

Akron Hotels
The Buchtel