Local history: Tallmadge Circle is center of creation
Around and around they go. Where they exit, nobody knows.On an average day, more than 45,000 vehicles pass through Tallmadge Circle. Daring motorists wait their turn to go for a whirl on the...
View ArticleLocal history: Outrageous pranks recalled from Buchtel College
The sound of muffled laughter echoed through the quiet corridors of Buchtel College in Akron.During the late 19th century, mischievous students took the starch out of the Victorian era with a series of...
View ArticleLocal history: Police raid at alcoholic hospital makes headlines in 1950s
Investigators spent months of surveillance at the building, quietly observing the arrival and departure of guests, noting every vehicle that parked in the lot and using binoculars to peer into windows...
View ArticleLocal history: Akron actress Marian Mercer a real character
If you don’t know her name, you probably know her face.Actress Marian Mercer seems so utterly familiar because she created a lengthy playbill of memorable characters during more than 40 years in...
View ArticleLocal history: Survivors remember terrifying April 1943 tornado
The wind shrieked as lightning raked the evening sky and clouds turned a ghastly green.The Mills Bros. Circus was entertaining a family crowd under the big top in Wadsworth when the giant tent...
View ArticleLocal history: South Akron cop walks to different beat in early 20th century
Akron Patrolman Arthur A. McClister rarely made big arrests or solved major crimes.He considered that a badge of honor.In the early 20th century, the police officer commanded respect as he walked the...
View ArticleLocal history: Underwater stripper’s act makes waves in 1950s
When a mermaid stripper performed her act in Akron, nightclub patrons enjoyed getting tanked.Her name was Divena and she was a breathtaking sight.She undulated behind glass in a 600-gallon tank of...
View ArticleLocal history: Author’s life filled with exciting adventures
A single arrowhead pointed James A. Braden toward a literary path.He was a little boy when he discovered the chipped-stone relic on his family’s farm in Trumbull County’s Greene Township. The artifact...
View ArticleLocal history: Handcuffed daredevil endures Akron road test in 1928
Would you lend your brand-new car to a total stranger? What if he promised to chain himself to the steering wheel, stay awake for five days and drive around continuously? Why, yes, of course you would...
View ArticleAll fired up: Bath residents save historic oven
Of all the things you would expect to find inside the Bath Township Nature Preserve – plants, birds, ponds and horse trails – an outdoor brick oven capable of artisan bread baking may not be one of...
View ArticleLocal history: Akron nurse an angel of mercy during hell of war
Try as she might, Mary Gladwin couldn’t forget the sights and sounds of war.She saw blood-soaked soldiers, writhing on squalid floors, crying and pleading for help. She heard the low thud of exploding...
View ArticleSweeping debut: Hale Farm and Village opens for the season
Xerxes Smith took a few practice sweeps with a corn broom, a replica of one from the 1800s, and pronounced it would be perfect for sweeping his trampoline at home. “It’s made of corn and it will last...
View ArticleLocal history: Mysterious disappearances of two children recalled 50 years later
Summer vacation stretched off into the horizon, a seemingly endless parade of picnics, carnivals, swimming pools, lemonade stands and ice cream trucks. Two children without a care in the world...
View ArticleLocal history: Ptooey! Akron pitcher’s spitball a moist memory from 1920s
Jimmy Vaughan was a spitfire with a spitball. He literally salivated at the chance to climb the pitcher’s mound.As ace hurler for the General Tire baseball team in the 1920s, Vaughan was Akron’s...
View ArticleLocal history: Police lock horns with mysterious goat in 1953
Something was loose in Perkins Woods Park.Something hungry.Akron police officers responded to an emergency call about a wild animal prowling in the dark at the 79-acre preserve in June 1953.Patrolmen...
View ArticleLocal history: What is that mound in Goodyear Heights?
If it weren’t for the chain-link fence, barbed wire and no-trespassing signs, the view would be spectacular.Reservoir Park in Goodyear Heights is a stone’s throw from Akron’s highest natural point at...
View ArticleCooking up a taste of old Europe in Brimfield
BRIMFIELD TOWNSHIP: Jodi Ashcraft, a 28-year-old Kent city school teacher, doesn’t have a lick of German blood in her, but she was there in the kitchen of the German Family Society, alongside a group...
View ArticleLocal history: Akron’s shortest-serving mayor casts long shadow
Russell M. Bird didn’t mind being a lame duck.As the shortest-serving mayor in Akron’s history, he still managed to accomplish the goals that he wanted — and do more than what most constituents...
View ArticleLisa Abraham: Remember Ed Micheli’s Restaurant?
I think I may change my title from Lisa, Finder of Lost Recipes, to Lisa, Akron’s Culinary Historian. Well, maybe that title is sort of implied by my job.But every time I get a request for a recipe...
View ArticleLocal history: Portage Path name change leaves trail of hard feelings
If Akron is the heart of local history, Portage Path is the aorta. It’s the main artery connecting the past to the present.From time immemorial to about 1805, Indians carried canoes on the ancient...
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