Akron History Center Is Taking Shape
December 11, 2024 By Mark J. Price | Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK
Exhibits being installed as city’s bicentennial nears
Caitlyn Conley, local history and museum specialist for the Special Collections Division of Akron-Summit County Public Library, discusses the local music scene while standing in front of an Akron History Center mural of the Rolling Stones performing at the Rubber Bowl in 1972. PHIL MASTURZO/AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
Pardon the dust. Workers are unpacking over 200 years of local history for a new museum downtown.
The Akron History Center at 172 S. Main St. is a blur of activity. Crews are busy installing 20 truckloads of exhibits in the orange brick building just a couple of doors from the Akron
Civic Theatre.
The sounds of hammering, sawing, sweeping, shoveling, measuring and unwrapping echo through the three-level complex.
“We are not ready to make any announcement about its opening, even though that is the most frequently asked question that we get,” explained David Lieberth, president of Akron History Center Inc., a tax-exempt, nonprofit
What he can reveal is that Nov. 22 is the scheduled completion date for the installation of all exhibits. The city is celebrating its bicentennial in 2025.
The Akron-Summit County Public Library will operate the 3,000-square-foot museum and has assigned a full-time specialist to oversee the space. The Summit County Historical Society has provided most of the historic artifacts that will be displayed — many for the first time.
Additionally, the museum has partnered with the University of Akron Archives and the Lighter-Than-Air Society, both of which have provided artifacts and images.
“We have 62 different donations of substance,” Lieberth said. “More than 1,000 items.”
It’s a dream come true for the Akron historian, civic leader, attorney, author, broadcast journalist and former deputy mayor. Lieberth has worked for decades to establish the museum.
He credits Welty Building Co. owner Don Taylor, who offered the space as part of The Bowery Project on South Main Street. The brick building opened in 1909 as the Imperial Market and later served as the home of Wagner Provision Co., Siff Shoes, Jay Drugs and other businesses.
Work continues at the Akron History Center on South Main Street. A giant reproduction of the cover of Devo’s 1978 debut album is being installed as a salute to the Akron Sound. In the background is a wing-footed statue of Mercury. PHIL MASTURZO/AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
“One of the first artifacts we have is this right here,” Lieberth said as he pointed down. “This is 100 years old. They don’t use these terrazzo floors much anymore. This probably dates to 1909.”
Work underway at museum
Like a proud father welcoming a new baby, Lieberth led a handful of visitors on a tour of the museum’s progress.
Crews were working from three teams:
- Communication Exhibits Inc. (CEI) of Canal Fulton, a vendor of exhibits for industrial trade shows and museums, which built the museum’s exhibits at a cost of $1 million.
- Truly Reaching You (TRY), a reentry ministry in Akron, which has provided much of the labor for installation over the past month.
- Welty, which is constructing restrooms that will connect to the museum at the mid-level from an adjoining building.
The complex, which provides a corridor from Main Street to Lock 4, will tell Akron’s history through relics, artifacts and modern technology. There will be 34 flat screens to help trace time from prehistory to the present.
Gen. Simon Perkins founded Akron in 1825 along the route of the Ohio & Erie Canal.
Display cases on the lower level were made from oak, maple, poplar and black walnut trees that toppled during a 2013 storm at the Perkins Stone Mansion and the John Brown House.
“That’s the wood that’s being used here,” Lieberth said. “A little bit of the Perkins family is here and present in the room.”
For the first time in 50 years, Gen. Perkins’ pistols and holsters will be exhibited along with the compass that he used to survey Akron. There also will be a 70-foot chain from the early surveying of the Western Reserve.
Local historian Dave Lieberth, a driving force of the Akron History Center, leads a tour of the downtown museum, which is still under construction on South Main Street near the Akron Civic Theatre. The floor features an 1899 city map that shows the Ohio & Erie Canal. PHIL MASTURZO, AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
A display on abolitionist John Brown will include photos and videos of his life in Akron and the story of his raid at Harpers Ferry. The exhibit will feature a reproduction of one of the iron-pointed pikes that Brown used to arm enslaved men for the uprising.
Abolitionist Sojourner Truth’s story will also be represented, including her 1851 speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron.
A Civil War display will feature a number of local artifacts such as items from the battleground, vintage photographs and Gen. Alvin Voris’ medals.
Rubber and other industries
Akron’s industrial history will be examined through clay products, mowers and reapers, breakfast cereal, fishing tackle and, of course, rubber. Goodyear, Firestone, Goodrich and General are among the companies that started here. The historical society has supplied a tire-building machine and Akron-made tires, including one that helped set the land speed record on racer Art Arfons’ Green Monster.
A Goodyear exhibit will feature a newly made NASCAR tire. When visitors step on a pedal, they will hear the roar of the racetrack. Communication Exhibits Inc. and Goodyear’s Racing Division collaborated on a video game that will allow patrons to simulate racing on different tracks with different tires in different types of weather.
“This is an original piece,” Lieberth said.
The Lighter-Than-Air Society has provided girders from the USS Akron, an original model of the Navy airship and the pull cord that first lady Lou Hoover used to christen the vessel in 1931 at the airdock.
The labor movement, immigration, civil rights, social justice and sobriety will be covered.
Mike Hill, a production supervisor from CEl, removes a protective coating Thursday from an Alcoholics Anonymous exhibit at the Akron History Center. In the middle is A.A. co founder Dr. Bob Smith’s office door. The building in the vintage photo at right is the Mayflower Hotel. PHIL MASTURZO, AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
Important artifact of A.A.
Lieberth pointed out a wooden door that Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Dr. Bob Smith used every day at his practice on South Main Street.
“That was the door to his office,” Lieberth said. “For A.A. adherents, that’s going to be a really important artifact. They’ll be able to put their hand on that door.”
Flat screens will tell the story of 64 Akronites who had an impact on America — everyone from inventor Waldo Semon to physician Gerald Austen to NBA superstar LeBron James to musician Chrissie Hynde to poet Rita Dove.
The Knight Foundation has made a $200,000 grant to the museum and will lend a portrait of Beacon Journal editor and publisher John S. Knight. The painting hung for decades at the newspaper office.
The museum will cover everything from prehistoric fossils to indigenous artifacts to Akron department stores to the All-American Soap Box Derby. Not everything is behind plexiglass. There will be plenty of objects for visitors to touch and feel.
An EarthQuaker Devices kiosk will demonstrate some of the products of the Akron company, which manufactures effects pedals for musicians.
“Their partner in Tokyo created this site so the kids can actually download music,” Lieberth said. “Then they can mess with it on a touchscreen. They can make it fuzzy or make it wah-wah-wah.”
‘Rhythms of the Rubber City’
Work continues at the Akron History Center on South Main Street. A giant reproduction of the 1978 cover of Devo’s debut album is being installed as a salute to the Akron Sound. In the background is a wing-footed statue of Mercury. PHIL MASTURZO, AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
Caitlyn Conley, local history and museum specialist for the Special Collections Division of Akron-Summit County Public Library, has designed an exhibit titled “Rhythms of the Rubber City,” which traces folk, classical, opera, jazz, rock and soul music from the city.
“I’ve really tried to do diligence to the entire musical history of Akron,” she said.
One of the highlights will be artifacts from the Akron Sound Museum collection acquired by the library. The 1970s and 1980s collection includes Devo, Tin Huey, Rubber City Rebels, The Bizarros, Hammer Damage, Rachel Sweet, Chi-Pig and others.
“We have Rod Firestone’s pants that are actually made from the inner tubes of a tire,” Conley said. “I’m not going to lie: They’re absolutely disgusting. They have degraded a bit over time. The rubber cement’s really sticky.”
Display cases will be filled with artifacts from that era of music.
“It’s almost like a rebirth of the Akron Sound,” Conley said.
The Downtown Akron Partnership and the Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau will operate a flat-screen kiosk on the Main Street level to offer information about dining, attractions, parking and more.
A lasting legacy for Akron
Leianne Neff Heppner, president and chief executive of the Summit County Historical Society, praised Lieberth for his decades of work and passion for local history. He’s the longest-serving member of the society, having joined 52 years ago in junior high school.
The museum’s opening will arrive during a confluence of historic events.
“For us, this is during our centennial year, so we’ve been collecting history and artifacts for a hundred years,” she said. “At the same time, the library, where our archival collections are kept, is celebrating its 150th, and then to come upon Akron’s 200th, it’s a really awesome combination of history.”
The museum will be a lasting legacy for the city, she said.
“I’m really excited for Dave and I can’t wait for the public to see it,” Heppner said.
Although it’s too early to reveal when the Akron History Center will open or what its hours will be, visitors will be pleased with the cost.
There won’t be an admission charge.
“It’s always free,” Lieberth said.
Now that’s the best bargain in history.
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com