The property remembered as the home of the Hi-De-Ho Bar / Hi-De-Ho Lounge at 558/560 Vernon Odom Blvd. has been vacant for many years and is in severe disrepair.
Despite an April 10 vote from the Akron Vacant Buildings Board to demolish the building, it is still standing as of July 11 and has been painted blue.
A visual inspection of the building indicates that it probably served another purpose prior to being a night spot.
The front of the building once had two large windows that were later bricked in. The style of brickwork and window openings on the second floor are consistent with commercial vernacular buildings from the turn of the 20th century. The rear of the building is made up of entrances and porches that lead to apartments, also consistent with the period. According to the Summit County Fiscal Office’s records, it was built in 1911.
Although there are still residential structures on Vernon Odom Boulevard that predate it, the Hi-De-Ho is the oldest commercial building left. It was built when the neighborhood transitioned from being on the edge of Akron into a vibrant community of immigrants.
Update: The current owner of the property, Rubber City Lounge LLC, is working with the Akron Law Department to keep the building from being demolished, according to a spokesperson for the City of Akron.
In a process commonly used in the city, the owner will be given a specified amount of time to complete the needed repairs and post a bond to cover the cost of demolition, in case the owner doesn’t meet the terms of the agreement.
This building provides a glimpse into the neighborhood’s history that can be recreated using Akron City Directories, historic maps, newspaper articles and U.S. Census records.
Originally 224 Wooster Ave., from 1897 to 1913 the address was the residence of Orlando P. Edgar and his wife, Miranda. His Oct. 15, 1928, obituary in the Akron Beacon Journal says Edgar served in Company F of the 121st Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and fought in the Battle of Nashville.
Since no business is listed at the address in the Akron City Directories until 1915, the Edgar house was probably a different building. No building is listed at the location in 1914, further hinting that the brick one was built on the same parcel c. 1914-1915, not 1911.
From 1915 to 1925, George E. Durham operated a grocery store in the building, which matches its design, given the large windows originally on the ground floor.
For the first few years, Durham lived with his family in one of its apartments before he moved to Berry Avenue — he continued to operate the grocery. According to census records, Durham was originally from Kentucky, but his wife, Minnie, was Swiss.
A 1927 article in the Akron Beacon Journal reported that the “store and apartment building” was still owned by Edgar, but according to the directories, he had moved to 808 Mallison Avenue. In the 1915 Akron City Plat Book, this address can be seen directly behind the grocery store on the same parcel, along with another residential building.
While the apartments were rented to several individuals over the years, a grocery store occupied the location until 1948. It was operated by five different managers after Durham. These were Albert Ray Gisinger (1925-1930), cousins Assaad J. Azar and George R. Masud (1930-1935), Milos Stoyanchul (1935-1940) and James Leroy Riley (1940 to about 1947).
Gisinger and Riley were both born in Ohio. According to the 1930 census, Azar and Masud were Syrian. Azar immigrated to the United States in 1910 and Masud followed in 1928.
An immigrant-run grocery store on Wooster Avenue during this time reflects its transition to a multicultural neighborhood, with immigrants arriving in droves during the rubber industry boom.
Judy Orr James says in her book Akron Family Recipes that the business district of Wooster Avenue was a hub for Jewish-owned bakeries, groceries and butchers from the 1910s through the 1930s. The 1920 census records show that several Syrian, Slavic and other Eastern European families and individuals had moved into the neighborhood as well.
In 1948 the building was taken over by James J. Kelly, who transformed it into a nightclub called Kelly’s Den/Kelly’s Inn, which opened on Jan. 30. This is likely when the large grocery windows were bricked in. The grand opening ad in the Akron Beacon Journal advertised the venue as a “working man’s night club.” An in-house orchestra provided dance music and the bar served sandwiches, French fries and spaghetti dinners.
Kelly changed the enterprise’s name to the Hi-De-Ho Bar around 1955. According to articles in the Akron Beacon Journal, the bar was shut down multiple times in 1965 and 1966 for selling alcohol to minors. Kelly sold it in 1968.
That was also the year of the so-called Wooster Avenue Riots. Many cities experienced large-scale demonstrations that year in Black neighborhoods after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
In Akron, Black residents were also dealing with displacement by the Innerbelt project and racially motivated discrimination, which impacted every facet of life, including housing, policing and education.
According to a 2022 Akron Beacon Journal article, when urban renewal projects destroyed the Little Harlem neighborhood on North Howard Street, the center of Black commerce moved to Wooster Avenue, which was renamed Vernon Odom Boulevard in 2002. However, the Innerbelt project and the aftermath of the demonstrations led to disinvestment and decline, repeating the effects of the Howard Street removals.
The Hi-De-Ho, however, stayed in business under new management until 2010. By then it had developed a rough reputation as the site of multiple violent incidents through the decades. The last owner of the building was William Perkins Jr., who was also the bartender, according to a 1977 Beacon Journal article.
The heirs of Perkins, who died in 2016 and also tended bar at the lounge according to a 1977 Beacon Journal article, are the current owners. They could not be reached by the Vacant Buildings Board. Perkins was originally from Alabama and served in the Korean War with the U.S. Army.
Google Maps currently lists the address as the Rubber City Jukebox LLC bar and grill – the Summit County Auditor’s office lists the current owner as Rubber City Home Front Sector B LLC, but the business is not operating.
The address changed when the city renamed Wooster Avenue after Akron civil rights leader Vernon Odom. The old brick building at 558/560 Vernon Odom Blvd. has seen more than a century of history. If it is demolished, a unique relic from old Wooster Avenue will be lost to time.
Sources:
Akron Beacon Journal articles listed above.
1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1940 U.S. Census records
Death certificate and veterans gravesite records for William A. Perkins Jr. via Ancestry.com
Akron City Directories 1895-1955