Akron
Discover Akron
A concise introduction to Akron, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Akron was the rubber capital of the world. Goodyear, Firestone, General Tire and B.F. Goodrich were all headquartered here, the city made most of the tyres in America for half a century, and its population grew faster than any other American city’s in the 1910s. Most of the factories closed between the 1970s and the 1990s, and what Akron has been doing since is turning the buildings over to other uses — polymer research, health care and university laboratories.
The best thing to see is Stan Hywet Hall, the Seiberling family’s sixty-five-room Tudor Revival estate built in 1915 on the profits of Goodyear, with gardens by Warren Manning and one of the largest historic house properties in the country open to the public. The Akron Art Museum has a strong modern collection in a building by Coop Himmelb(l)au.
The Cuyahoga Valley national park begins at the northern edge of the city and runs to Cleveland — waterfalls, wetland and a towpath trail following the old Ohio and Erie canal, with a scenic railway you can put a bicycle on. Akron is also where Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935, and where the Soap Box Derby has run since 1934. Summers are warm and humid; the valley in October is the reason to time a visit.