PTP Response to UA Demolition Funding Request
(reprinted from PTP's January/February 2016 newsletter)
Recently, The University of Akron has, pursuant to a request from the state of Ohio for estimates of costs for prospective, long-range capital repairs and improvement, identified the demolition of Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (most recently The University of Akron’s Ballet Center) and four buildings in the Quaker Square complex as potential future projects.
These properties have unusual historic, architectural, and cultural significance. The Church, located at the intersection of East Market and Forge streets, is two structures, constructed in 1885 and 1909. The older part is an excellent example of the highly popular church style known as the Akron Sunday School Plan, which originated in our city and spread across the nation. Through its rector, the Church played a role in the establishment of Alcoholics Anonymous, founded in Akron in 1935.
The structures in the Quaker Square complex represent the hugely successful milling industry that was a major part of the Akron-area economy during the latter 19th century and well into the 20th century. The grain storage silos constructed by Quaker Oats are now being used as a dormitory by the University.
Progress Through Preservation (PTP) of Greater Akron, through President Dana Noel and Lauren Burge, restoration architect and chair of PTP’s Advocacy Committee, contacted University President Scott L. Scarborough to express our concerns and offered to engage in a process with the University to discuss alternative solutions to demolition, including sources of funding and expertise. In his response, President Scarborough indicated that the University has not engaged in any action toward planning the demolition of these buildings.
We are currently engaging in efforts to invite the University, the City of Akron, and Summit County to participate in a process to discuss the future of these buildings. This is consistent with our mission to assist and educate the community in the identification and preservation of structures that are important components of the fabric of our community. Preservation serves to ensure that our rich historical past will continue to be available for generations to come. See PTP board member, Bob Dill's article below for more information about St. Paul's.
(reprinted from PTP's January/February 2016 newsletter)
Recently, The University of Akron has, pursuant to a request from the state of Ohio for estimates of costs for prospective, long-range capital repairs and improvement, identified the demolition of Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (most recently The University of Akron’s Ballet Center) and four buildings in the Quaker Square complex as potential future projects.
These properties have unusual historic, architectural, and cultural significance. The Church, located at the intersection of East Market and Forge streets, is two structures, constructed in 1885 and 1909. The older part is an excellent example of the highly popular church style known as the Akron Sunday School Plan, which originated in our city and spread across the nation. Through its rector, the Church played a role in the establishment of Alcoholics Anonymous, founded in Akron in 1935.
The structures in the Quaker Square complex represent the hugely successful milling industry that was a major part of the Akron-area economy during the latter 19th century and well into the 20th century. The grain storage silos constructed by Quaker Oats are now being used as a dormitory by the University.
Progress Through Preservation (PTP) of Greater Akron, through President Dana Noel and Lauren Burge, restoration architect and chair of PTP’s Advocacy Committee, contacted University President Scott L. Scarborough to express our concerns and offered to engage in a process with the University to discuss alternative solutions to demolition, including sources of funding and expertise. In his response, President Scarborough indicated that the University has not engaged in any action toward planning the demolition of these buildings.
We are currently engaging in efforts to invite the University, the City of Akron, and Summit County to participate in a process to discuss the future of these buildings. This is consistent with our mission to assist and educate the community in the identification and preservation of structures that are important components of the fabric of our community. Preservation serves to ensure that our rich historical past will continue to be available for generations to come. See PTP board member, Bob Dill's article below for more information about St. Paul's.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church Sunday School and Parish Hall
by Robert Dill
Greater Akron area Episcopalian congregations had their start in Stow as early as 1818. St. John's Episcopal Church and Society was organized there in 1830 and located in Cuyahoga Falls in 1832. A building was erected in 1836 which still serves the congregation at 2229 Front Street.[1]
Early in the 1830s, Episcopal families held occasional services in private homes in Middlebury and Akron, but it was not until 1836 that a congregation was formed as a mission of the Cuyahoga Falls parish under Rev. William H. Newton. Rev. T. J. Davis was the new congregation's first leader in 1838. Meetings continued to be held in private homes, school houses or other churches and then, for three or four years, on the second floor of the "Old Stone Block" on the southeast corner of Market and Howard Streets. Because the building was not substantially constructed it was destroyed in a wind storm in late 1840, while services were in progress. Fortunately, no one of the congregation was injured.
Funds were raised and a building was erected on South High Street and dedicated June 27, 1844. It was enlarged in 1870, and again in 1872. Even so, the space needs of the congregation became such that new accommodations were sought, and, "a commodious triangular lot, bounded on East Market, Forge and Fir streets, was purchased in 1884. at a cost of $10,000, on which was erected a fine stone parish and Sunday School house, 72x88 feet, at a cost of $35,000. It was dedicated on the 'Feast of Epiphany,' January 6, 1885."[2]
Lewis Miller (1829-1899), Akron industrialist, founder of the Chautauqua Institute, father-in-law of Thomas Edison, and lay minister of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Akron, along with Akron builder, Jacob B. Snyder and Rev. John Heyl Vincent, devised a unique "Akron Plan" Sunday School design. It was first used in First M. E. Church's auditorium completed in the Autumn of 1871 and dedicated in January 1872. This design was replicated frequently in many churches in the late 19th and early 20th century, including that of St. Paul's Episcopal Church's Sunday School and Parish Hall of Akron.[3] That "fine stone parish and Sunday School house" stands yet today on the "commodious triangular lot, bounded on East Market, Forge and Fir streets."
This building and adjacent 1909 St. Paul's Episcopal Church building is presently owned by the University of Akron. The University is soliciting Ohio State funding to raze these historic buildings and convert the "commodious triangular lot," to be a parking lot.
[1] Lane, Samuel A., Fifty Years and Over of Akron and Summit County, Beacon Job Department 1892, pp.1010 and 740
[2] Lane, pp. 198-200
[3] Lane, p. 193
Kilde, Jeanne Halgren, When Church Became Theatre, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 176