City guide

architecture in Akron.

3 buildings worth a detour, each with what to look for. Open them on the map, or walk them with the iPhone app, which collects each one you photograph.

Styles you'll see Colonial Revival Renaissance Revival

Landmarks

The buildings that define the city's architecture.

Landmark

Akron Civic Theatre

John Eberson

The Akron Civic Theatre began as the Hippodrome, a 3,000-seat theater with thirty stores and restaurants planned by dance-hall owner L. Oscar Beck, who started building its lobby in 1919 before going bankrupt in 1921 and leaving the theater end boarded up for a decade. In 1925 Marcus Loew, founder of the Loew's theater chain, bought the abandoned lobby and adjoining land at a Sheriff's auction for $143,000 and hired theater architect John Eberson to complete it. It is the last surviving theater of the eleven Loew opened, and one of only five atmospheric theatres Eberson built that still stand in the United States.

Photo: Robbie Schneider , CC BY-SA 3.0

Colonial Revival

Charles Willard Seiberling House

1913

The Charles Willard Seiberling House is a 1913 Colonial Revival mansion built for Charles Willard Seiberling, who co-founded Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and later founded the Seiberling Rubber Company. As the home of one of Akron's defining industrial figures, it stands as a marker of the wealth the city's rubber industry generated in the early twentieth century.

Photo: Nyttend , Public domain

Notable buildings

Worth a stop when you're nearby.

Renaissance Revival

Akron Public Library

Frank Weary · 1904

The Akron Public Library, also known as the Carnegie Building, was built in 1904 with an $82,000 donation from U.S. industrialist Andrew Carnegie and designed by Akron architect Frank O. Weary in the Beaux-Arts Classical style. It served as the city's public library until 1942, then housed the Akron Art Institute from 1922 to 1932 and later became office space, now occupied by the law firm Brennan, Manna & Diamond.

Photo: Robbie Schneider , CC BY-SA 3.0