Neighborhoods
Population 7,146 Library Northwest Branch Parks & Recreation Sand Run Metro Park Cuyahoga Valley National Park Cascade Valley Metro Park Towpath Trail Landmarks & Attractions Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens The Anchorage Portage Path Merriman Road
Merriman Hills
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Left: Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens. Photo courtesy of Akron-Summit CVB. Above: July 4th parade spectators. Photo by Katie Orendorf.
n the early decades of the 20th Century, Merriman Hills was the most desired address among the upper-class executives of rubber companies and allied industries. A century later, it has stood the test of time. It remains one of Akron’s wealthiest, most desirable neighborhoods.
In 1912, when F.A. Seiberling, founder of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., decided to build his enormous Tudor Revival home on North Portage Path, the area was mostly undeveloped farms and woodlands. Well to the west of downtown and away from the sooty tire plants of east and south Akron, the area was considered the countryside when the Seiberlings built Stan Hywet Hall. Others soon followed. Paul Litchfield, the longtime president of Goodyear, built his mansion known as The Anchorage on Merriman Road in 1925. He then hired the firm of Good and Wagner to develop the Ridgecrest Allotment subdivision, which includes Mayfair Road, Genesee Road and Delaware Avenue. The homes were originally built on double lots to allow for spacious gardens, although many of those lots were eventually sold off and developed. Good and Wagner also designed commercial projects in Akron, including the Municipal Building downtown and the Portage Country Club at the intersection of Twin Oaks and North Portage Path.
company. He was known for graceful, arched doorways and ornamental ironwork that is still admired today. In the 1920s, residential building also took off down the hills of Sunnyside Avenue and Palisades Drive. Although those homes are generally more modest than the grand dames of Portage Path, they still boast the fine details of that prosperous time in Akron’s history such as custom cabinetry and elaborate molding. In the mid 1970s, as Akron’s existing housing stock aged, a new development of mainly split-level, mid-century modern homes sprung up on steep hillsides in a subdivision called Merriman Woods. An adjacent subdivision, Riverwoods, was developed mainly in the 1990s.
Neighborhood Ambassadors Barbara Feld What gives your neighborhood its unique flavor? We live in the city, but it has always seemed so rural—a fascinating dichotomy. What do you like best about your neighborhood? The friendliness and concern for the senior citizens still living in their homes.
Natalie Rothenbuecher What do you hope for your neighborhood in the future? Continue to maintain its old charm and younger residents moving in.
Several elegant homes in the area were built by Roy What do you like best about your neighborhood? Firestone, a self-taught Akron architect who, oddly enough It continuously maintains its sense of home and tight-knit community. Growing up here, moving away, then being back for Akron, had no relationship to founders of the tire to visit—all has the same comfortable feeling.
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