PTP meetings take place on the last Monday of most months usually beginning at 7:00 p.m.
and are preceded by an optional social dinner at a restaruant close to the meeting site. They
typically take place at historic sites and include a presentation by a guest speaker. Most
meetings are open to the public.
Progress Through Preservation
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The August 30 PTP meeting will be held at the
newly renovated Gothic Building on the SW
corner of South High St. and East Mill St.
Akron architect Frank O. Weary (1849-1921),
whose local landmarks include the Civil War
Memorial Chapel at Glendale Cemetery and
Buchtel Hall at the University of Akron, designed
the two-toned, brick-facade Gothic. Akron Realty
Co. General Manager William W. McIntosh and
Beacon Journal owner Russell T. Dobson
developed the corner building, which originally
was bordered on two sides by the Colonial
Theatre, a 1,600-seat playhouse that opened in
1902 .The Gothic was built when Akron was a
city of more than 42,000.
''The building will be four stories in height and
will be modern in every particular, the entire cost
being $15,000,'' the Beacon Journal noted on
Dec. 28, 1901. ''There will be four store rooms on
Mill Street and each of the three floors above will
have two suites of apartments, making six in all.''
Among the architectural innovations were a
skylight, an atrium and symmetrical rows of
arched and rectangular windows. The building's
name was spelled out in red tiles on the floor
inside the South High entrance for residents.
August 30 Tour of Akron’s 1903 Landmark Gothic Building

Completed in 1903, the Gothic Building was
home to a variety of businesses. Over the
decades, the Gothic housed a tobacco shop
& newsstand, monthly news magazine,
barbershop, cobbler, floral shop, loan
agency, insurance company, photo shop,
restaurant, a music store and dress store.
One of its last tenants was All-Ohio Athletic
Equipment.
Purchased by businessman David Brennan
for $165,000 in 1989, the building sold to the
City of Akron for the same price in 1991. Due
to water damage and deterioration,
demolition seemed likely.
However, in the spring of 2009, Tony Troppe
and Gothic City Revival Group LLC, a group
of private investors, purchased the Gothic
and spent nearly $2 million renovating and
restoring the building. With the assistance of
Alan Burge Architecture and Chambers,
Murphy & Burge, restoration architects, the
restoration has been completed.
Last December, the Ohio Historic Site
Preservation Advisory Board recommended
that the Gothic be put on the National
Register of Historic Places because it is
significant for its role as “an apartment
building for the emerging middle class of the
turn of the century.”
Tony Troppe will be our host on August 30.
The meeting will begin at 7 pm. Parking is
free in the adjacent CitiCenter parking deck
deck after 6 pm.
Tony has invited us to meet at the Uncorked
Wine Bar (above the Mocha Maiden, 17
Maiden Lane) to look at the gallery and enjoy
appetizers, pasta, and a glass of wine at 6
pm. The cost is $8 and we can park in the
parking deck at S. High & E. Market for free
after 6 pm. It’s a short walk to the Gothic
afterward.
If you will be joining us, please contact Jody by e-mail (admin@preservationakron.org) or by
phone at 330-374-3787 by Thursday, August 26.