Interesting Facts

50% of the U.S. population lives within 500 miles of Akron.

The name “Akron” is from the Greek word meaning “high,” signifying that it was the highest point on the Ohio and Erie Canal (Summit County, which was formed from portions of Portage, Medina, and Stark counties fifteen years after Akron was founded, got its name for the same reason).

Akron is the fifth largest city in Ohio

Home of the Akron Aeros, the Cleveland Indians AA Minor League baseball team.

Home to the Ohio Ballet

Home to the Akron Symphony Orchestra

Akron’s first school was built in 1834. The Old Stone School on Broadway Avenue, which still stands, replaced it.

Akron was originally two towns, Akron (founded in 1825 and for a while known as South Akron), and Cascade (founded in 1833 and for a while known as North Akron). After a few years of rivalry, the two towns merged in 1836 and received a city charter from the state.

Abolitionist John Brown lived in Akron in the 1840s.

One of the earliest women’s rights conventions was held in Akron in 1851.

Thomas Edison married an Akron woman, Mina Miller, in Akron in 1886.

At various times, Akron was also the leading producer of matches, sewer pipe, marbles, rubber toys, and farm machinery.Akron became “Rubber City” largely because of a $13,600 loan the city fathers gave to B.F. Goodrich in 1871 to move his rubber company from upstate New York.

By the early 1900s, the four largest rubber manufacturers—Goodrich, Goodyear, Firestone, and General Tire—were producing most of the world’s tires in Akron.

The largest zeppelins ever built in the U.S., the Akron and the Macon were built in Akron.Goodyear Blimps are still built and maintained in Akron.

The Goodyear Airdock—now the Lockheed Martin airship facility—is one of the largest buildings in the world without internal supports.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame is in Akron.

The International Soap Box Derby is run in Akron every year.

Largely because of the massive expansion of the rubber industry, Akron was the fastest-growing city in the United States from 1910 to 1920, tripling in size at that time.

Clark Gable worked in Akron in the 1920s. There were so many single men in the city at the time that he allegedly had difficulty getting dates.

Akron Firsts

Akron gave birth to the fundamentals of the public school system as it exists in most of the United States. In 1840, Akron resident Ansel Miller proposed a plan of free public schools for all children in Akron, to be paid for by property taxes. Although it initially met with opposition, the plan was championed by prominent citizen Rev. Isaac Jennings, and in 1846, he led a committee that drew up the “Akron School Plan.” This innovative plan included

• the creation of a single school district in Akron to provide free education for all children
• the election of members of the Akron Board of Education who would be authorized to run the district through a school superintendent
• numbered grades
• the establishment of schools in various locations of the city to accommodate all children, and
• funding of the schools through property taxation.

Adopted in 1847, the plan was so popular that the following year its framework was adopted by the state, and most other states followed suit in the following years.

The first mass-production of breakfast cereal started in Akron. Before becoming the “Rubber Capital of the World,” Akron was the Oatmeal Capital. The American oatmeal industry was born in Akron when Ferdinand Schumacher started producing it at his mill in 1863. Through various mergers, this business eventually became Quaker Oats.

Akron anchored the first long-distance electric railway (The ABC line—Akron, Bedford, Cleveland)

The first rubber-wound golf ball was produced in Akron.

The long-distance trucking industry was founded in Akron, with significant impetus from the rubber companies.

The first pneumatic tire for cars was invented by B.F. Goodrich Company in 1896 for the Winton automobile. Goodrich Scientists also invented the first tubeless tire, vinyl, synthetic rubber, and the spacesuit.

Akron had the first police car, an electric patrol wagon, 1899.

The first artificial fish bait was made in Akron by the Pfleuger Fishing Tackle Company.

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, and its co-founder Dr. Bob Smith is buried in Mount Peace Cemetery.

The Akron Pros were the first champions of the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the NFL. The team’s player-coach, Fritz Pollard, was the first African-American coach in NFL history.

Notable People Born in Akron

Television personality Hugh Downs
Actor Melina Kanakaredes (Providence, CSI: NY)
Astronaut Judith Resnik (Challenger disaster)
F ilm director Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers)
Model Angie Everhart
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove
Watergate conspirator John Dean
Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley (chemistry)
Football coach Ara Parsegian
Former Miami Dolphins running back Larry Csonka
Basketball players LeBron James and Nate Thurmond
Tennis grand slam winner Shirley Fry
Olympic gold medal figure skaters David and Hayes Alan Jenkins
Baseball player Thurman Munson
Three-time land-speed record holder Art Arfons
Musicians Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders)
David Allan Coe
Richard Quine (punk rock guitarist),
Vaughn Monroe
Tim “Ripper” Owens (Judas Priest)
James Ingram (Grammy Award-winning singer)
and the members of the band Devo.