As Akron celebrates its bicentennial in 2025, we’re looking back at two centuries of headlines.
Visit BeaconJournal.com every Sunday morning throughout the bicentennial year for a look back at the week in Akron history.
Here’s what happened the week of July 27 in local history:
1825: Surveyor Joshua Henshaw finished work on a plat map for landowners Gen. Simon Perkins and Paul Williams on a village that would become known as Akron in what was then Portage County. The surveying took two months to complete. The map included streets, homes, public buildings, a town square and other sites along the Ohio & Erie Canal, which was in the early stages of construction.
1875: Akron authorities warned that a gang of thieves and arsonists could be headed toward town. The miscreants had blazed a trail of havoc after traveling west from New York City along the Erie and Atlantic and Great Western railroads. The New York towns of Randolph and Jamestown and the Pennsylvania town of Meadville were in “a ferment of excitement” with fires and burglaries. “Our turn may come next,” the Summit Beacon noted. It didn’t.
1925: A new burglar alarm system failed to thwart safecrackers from looting the Carlton Clothes Shop at 184 S. Main St. Managers had installed the alarms after a previous break-in. Undaunted, the thieves carefully avoided a network of tiny wires, emptied the safe’s contents and then draped an insurance policy over the open door as a mocking gesture.
1975: The Lone Star Fraternity at the University of Akron helped wreckers get an early start on the demolition of its house at Fir Hill and Buchtel Avenue. Fraternity members tore holes in walls, shattered windows and trashed the interior before vacating the premises Aug. 1. The university had bought the house and planned to raze it for a campus expansion program.
2000: Mayor Don Plusquellic’s top aide, Joel Bailey, said goodbye to City Hall after 10 years as chief of staff. The 38-year-old resigned from his post to become a federal lobbyist for FirstEnergy Corp. Jeff Wilhite, formerly of the Summit-Akron Solid Waste Management Authority, succeeded Bailey as Plusquellic’s chief strategist.
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron at 200: Surveyors, arsonists, safecrackers and Lone Stars | Local history
Reporting by Mark J. Price, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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