The City of Akron’s plan to demolish all of Firestone Plant #1, including its clock tower, runs afoul of a 2024 agreement the city made with Ohio’s State Historic Preservation Office — and the office is pushing back on Akron to ensure the clock tower can be preserved.
In a Nov. 24 letter to Mayor Shammas Malik that was recently made public, State Historic Preservation Officer Diana Welling said it had come to her attention that Akron might not be able to uphold the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding signed Aug. 8, 2024.
The agreement came as the city sought a waiver to demolish Firestone Plant #1, at 1200 Firestone Parkway, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The State Historic Preservation Office was required to grant a waiver before the building would be eligible for demolition, the agreement says.
In doing so, the state office required the city to preserve the clock tower on the front facade of Plant #1, with a plan to incorporate it into a new building. It also required the city to keep a portion of the eastern-most building on the property standing, and to provide justifications for why parts of that building would be demolished. Those justifications would be reviewed by the state office.
In the November dispute letter, Welling said the city had 30 days, as laid out in the agreement, to provide “a plan and commitment for how it will resolve this dispute and fulfill its responsibilities related to the preservation and interpretation of the Firestone Clock Tower.”
If it could not, she wrote, her office would terminate the agreement.
And because that agreement was necessary for the Ohio Department of Development to approve the demolition of the 116-year-old building, Welling’s letter said, the termination of the agreement would mean that the conditions that allowed the city to move forward were no longer being met. The breach would be reported to that department.
A spokesperson for the city declined to comment on the dispute letter. The city confirmed in mid-November, before the letter had been sent, that it planned to demolish the entire structure.
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Finding an alternative proposal to save Akron’s iconic clock tower
In a statement Friday, Welling said the State Historic Preservation Office granted the city a limited extension “to allow it to develop and present an alternative mitigation proposal that would address the loss of the Firestone Clock Tower.”
She did not give a timeframe for that extension but said the office has had “productive discussions with the City and other involved parties.” The city has not yet submitted a final proposal for how it might move forward.
Any revised proposal, Welling said, must meet or exceed the intent of what the parties originally agreed to. She said the city has been encouraged to work with Akron’s Urban Design Review Commission on its proposal.
While Welling said the office’s letter was meant to be procedural, not punitive, Progress Through Preservation Advocacy Chair Dana Noel said he thought the State Historic Preservation Office’s decision to remove support could lead the Department of Development to rescind money it had granted the city to help pay for demolition. A spokesperson for the Department of Development did not respond to a question about whether any demolition money was at risk.
Noel, who has been outspoken about his belief that the city should preserve a portion of Firestone Plant #1, including the clock tower, said it wasn’t right that Akron had negotiated an agreement with the office then tried to go around it.
“I think they should honor their agreement,” he said. “This is a mess.”
Members of City Council voted unanimously Dec. 15 to ask the administration to save the clock tower — or at least the clock face.
It’s not clear if they knew at the time that the state had gotten involved. Council Member Donnie Kammer, who represents the area, did not respond to two phone calls and an email seeking comment.
In December, Kammer said, “I believe the administration should really look at alternatives and avenues to try to save and preserve the clock tower.”
Keeping clock tower maintains cultural, historic connections
The building’s saga dates back to the summer of 2025, when Akron’s planning department asked the city’s Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission to reconsider a plan that would have allowed for a partial demolition of the building.
The commission had previously agreed to allow the partial demolition, but planning department officials said the cost to tear down some of the building and keep the clock tower was too high.
At the time, they said the low bid to separate and secure the front of the building was upwards of $12 million, while the low bid to demolish the entire structure was just over $7 million. Noel has disputed those figures.
The city’s historic preservation commission denied the request, saying the 1910 building was important not just to Akron, but to the nation. That decision was appealed to City Council, which granted the request following a last-ditch effort to find a developer who would be willing to pay $5 million for the property on a short timeframe.
One developer came forward to suggest Akron consider moving its police headquarters to the site; the city rejected the plan. Malik later decided to renovate the existing police headquarters.
After that rejection, the city confirmed the entire structure would be torn down.
Noel said he first became aware of the dispute letter late last year when he tried to become a party to the state agreement as part of Progress Through Preservation. He said he hopes the State Historic Preservation Office is “inclined to hold their feet to the fire” and insist the clock tower be saved.
It’s important, Noel said, because the clock tower itself anchored all of Firestone Park, a planned community. He believes saving the clock face and mechanism, as some officials have proposed, is not enough.
“If you tear it down, you’re severing the cultural and historic connection to Firestone,” he said. “You erase its sense of place. It acts as a marker.”