Called the Highland Hill Building today, the orange brick, mixed-use structure at the corner of Rhodes Avenue and Colfax Place in West Hill has been home to a number of businesses since it was built in 1913.
Within the past year, three businesses have opened in the structure’s two storefronts — from the outside, the two-story building looks like two buildings built side by side, with different shades of orange-yellow brick on each storefront’s facade. But it’s actually one building with an addition on its south side with some matching architectural features.
Property records available online show that the Rhodes Avenue building was owned by members of the Walter family from 1967 until 2022, when it was sold to Adrian and Jennifer Sanchez.
The couple operates Akorn Vintage in one of the storefronts and two short-term rental apartments on the second floor. Akorn Vintage opened in November of 2024 and specializes in selling clothing and goods made in the U.S. from the 1920s to 1990s.
Watershed Community School, which offers early childhood education and care, recently opened in the building’s other storefront.
Here We Go! Coffee, a nano coffee roaster based in Highland Square, also recently opened a coffee cart inside Akorn Vintage. The coffee cart is mobile and can be set up elsewhere for special events as needed.
Building’s street numbers change over the years
The building’s address is 123-127 Rhodes Ave., but it appears that the building’s street numbers have changed over the years, according to Summit County Fiscal Office records, ranging from 121 to 135. The number above the left storefront currently says 121.
The building first appears in the 1913 city directory as 125-135 Rhodes Ave. and lists Thomas White and James Sieber as both living there. At the time, Akron’s population was booming due to the growth of the rubber industry and many people were moving to the West Hill neighborhood (and the west side in general) to escape the pollution from the rubber factories.
A 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the building with the address 125 Rhodes Ave. The 1940 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows an addition to the right (south) side of the building that roughly doubled its footprint, along with an attached shed or garage that wrapped around the neighboring building at 129 Rhodes. The 127 street number was used as the street number for the addition.
One of the storefronts, on the south side of the building, was a grocery for about the first 12 years.
White operated the first grocery store, but he retired from the business a year later. By 1917, another grocery store, Montgomery & Son, occupied 125 Rhodes Ave. and was operated by Burt A. Montgomery.
Montgomery’s obituary in the Akron Beacon Journal on July 2, 1936, noted he was the superintendent of the Quaker Oats Co.’s packaging department for 25 years before he retired in 1915.
The 1925 city directory lists an H. & R. Bakery at 127 Rhodes Ave., which was owned by James Henaughan and James Roughley. Roughley was also listed as living at the same address.
A Nov. 12, 1927, ad in the Akron Beacon Journal promoted the bakery’s famous crullers and doughnuts with the slogan “Better made because butter made.”
H. & R. Bakery moved to South Main Street at some point prior to 1937, and West Hill Upholstering (sometimes called West Hill Upholstery) moved into the Rhodes Avenue storefront. Initially owned by George B. Smith, his son, Bayard E. Smith, later took over the business.
The elder Smith was quoted in the Akron Beacon Journal on April 28, 1938, as saying, “More and more people every day are realizing the advantages and savings in having their furniture upholstered.” He had taken up the trade just four years before in the midst of the Great Depression.
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It’s not clear how long West Hill Upholstering stayed in the Rhodes Avenue building, but it was gone by 1980. Richard’s Antiques listed 127 Rhodes as its address in various ads in the Akron Beacon Journal that same year. Karam’s Antiques later listed the address in 1982 and 1983. Estate sales were listed there in the early 1990s.
Building once housed a second location for Stagecoach Antiques
The building’s other storefront on the north side, currently with a street number of 121, the original part of the building, has also been occupied by several businesses over the years. These included: Sadie’s Grocery, which opened in 1948; Joan Marie Antiques, which operated there from 1969 to 1990; Wayne’s World, a gym that opened in 1992; and Kangaroo Kutz Multicultural Barbershop, which relocated there in 2017.
A second-floor unit in the building, 123 Rhodes Ave., also served as a second location for Stagecoach Antiques for a short period of time. This store was first mentioned in a Jan. 30, 1968, ad in the Akron Beacon Journal. A longstanding Akron antiques store, Stagecoach Antique’s main location was just a half mile away at 449 W. Market St. in West Hill, the current home of Leaf florist.
Leo G. Walter III, the founder of Stagecoach Antiques, first started selling antiques as a child from his mother’s dining room on Marshall Avenue in Highland Square. A July 20, 2013, Akron Beacon Journal article said that after serving in the Korean War, Walter returned to Akron and opened the store. It moved a few times over the years, but its longtime location was at the West Market Street store before it closed in 2018.