Center Street in downtown Akron used to run all the way from the University of Akron to Glendale Cemetery, where it made a sharp turn southwest before connecting to West Exchange Street.
Today, that turn in the road by the cemetery is the only section of Center that survives west of the Innerbelt, leaving an isolated L-shaped artifact of what was lost. It is home to a handful of residences and one office building.
That office building, now home to Community Action Akron Summit’s Hub and the Akron Chapter of the NAACP, sits right at the edge of the Innerbelt’s swath of destruction at the corner of West Center and Rand Avenue. The brick and stone Art Deco building was constructed in 1941 for $65,000 by Local No. 894 of the American Federation of Labor’s Hod Carriers Building and the Common Laborers Union and housed the union’s offices and an assembly hall.
In 1968 the union was notified by the state that its property would be taken to make way for the Innerbelt. Only the rear parking lot ended up being taken — the rest of the property was left in the possession of the union. The hall was never torn down. Since the union had already purchased a new property on Wolf Ledges Parkway,it decided to sell the old one.
At the same time, the Summit County Community Action Council, now Community Action Akron Summit, needed to find a new building. Community Action is a non-profit corporation that serves low-income residents of Summit County.
Community Action’s original East Market Street building was in such poor condition that one of its floors had been condemned. The City of Akron bought the old union hall for $135,000 in 1970 and moved Community Action there. The city donated it to the non-profit in 1986.
Akron NAACP moves in
In September 2015, the Akron Chapter of the NAACP moved into the building’s first floor. Community Action’s Hub is on the second floor. Judi Hill, Akron NAACP president, said the space serves the organization well and she is grateful that Community Action allowed them to rent the floor.
“Buildings from back then were built so solid. We really like it here,” she said. She and a group of volunteers cleaned out the vacant rooms and gave everything a fresh coat of paint when they moved in. The floor houses the agency’s offices and space for programming, press conferences and meetings. Despite the isolated location, visitors are able to find it easily.
Prior to 2015 the local chapter of the venerable civil rights organization never had an official office. The Akron chapter was organized in 1917 by the city’s oldest Black church congregation, Wesley Temple AME Zion Church on North Prospect Street.
From 1994 to 2015 it was run out of longtime president Ophelia Averitt’s salon and shop on Copley Road. Before Averitt’s tenure, the base of the civil rights organization moved around. Its address in 1969 was on Rhodes Avenue, in a building also taken shortly afterwards by eminent domain for the Innerbelt.
Akron Innerbelt project sliced through
Today’s NAACP offices overlook the now-vacated portion of the highway, which runs like a scar over the landscape. Although the old union hall was spared the wrecking ball, most of the predominantly Black neighborhood was not, and that trauma is still strongly felt in the community.
From 2021 to 2023 the City of Akron contracted Liz Ogbu of Studio O to lead community engagement and documentation efforts as part of the long-term goal of repurposing the highway.
The study resulted in a 93-page report and the Innerbelt History Collection in the Akron-Summit County Public Library’s Summit Memory database. It contains oral history interviews, photographs and videos.
Ogbu’s final report and more information about the Innerbelt’s status is available at the city’s Reconnecting Our Community website.
On Dec. 4, 2023, former Mayor Dan Horrigan issued a formal apology.
“On behalf of the City of Akron, we apologize for the city’s past implementation of policies and practices from multiple levels of state and federal agencies which have caused this lasting harm to our community.”
However, it is still unclear what plans are being made to promote healing.
Hill envisions a corridor that can “re-energize African American businesses” and correct some of the economic loss caused by the highway. Whatever is done, she hopes it will be designed for “all of us.”
As for the Akron NAACP, she said the organization is solid, just like the office building it calls home. That stability is built on the membership and dedication of its volunteers.
“The NAACP has been here for over 100 years, and we aren’t going anywhere.”