Editor's note:
The following are a collection of our favorite classic features, some narrative in style, some essay. They range from highlighting the creative spark that inspires dance, like Dominic Moore-Dunson’s “The Remember Balloons” choreography, to the competitive spark that motivates a kid to sit behind the wheel of a Soap Box Derby car as it flies down the hill.
It’s about the artistic drive that goes into building “Falling Angel,” a massive mixed media piece by Los Angeles artist Max Hooper Schneider that consists of fluorescent light tubes suspended from chains connected to a wrecked helicopter carcass.
It’s about the devotion of the lovely ladies of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, who put hours of work into the Les Belles Perles Cotillion so it brings honor to the debutantes and their escorts.
These stories provide a window into the life, love and laughter in our community — we’re looking forward to bringing you more like them in 2025.
Dominic Moore-Dunson prepares for national tour of ‘The Remember Balloons’
Dominic Moore-Dunson discovered “The Remember Balloons” during a library visit with his wife and two kids in early 2023. The 2018 book by Jessie Oliveros was part of a display of children’s books about difficult topics.
The dance production based on the book took flight with a seven-city national tour last year. Moore-Dunson has discussed the book and the effects of dementia with dancers, caregivers, seniors at a memory care center and his own family. All of it was in service of creating a dance production for children that paints a picture of a disease that adults struggle to discuss.
The Well Community Development Corporation is rehabbing Middlebury’s housing market
Twelve days after Anqelique Robinson and her family lost their housing because of a fire, her family received emergency housing assistance from The Well Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit that restores houses in the Middlebury neighborhood, among other services.
Summit Lake’s first Black-owned house designated an Akron historic landmark
When James Allen Brown Sr. and Johnnie Elaine Brown purchased 242 Lake St. in 1966, the married couple didn’t know they were making history as the first Black family to own a house in the Summit Lake neighborhood.
Their daughter, Dr. Lisa Brown, only learned of the home’s significance when she submitted a historic landmark application to the City of Akron. The white, two-story home was built in 1913. Its blue-trimmed windows match the roof, and a large porch adorns the front. It sits on a corner lot, a two-minute walk from Summit Lake.
Point-in-Time count aims to provide data on people experiencing homelessness in Greater Akron
Teams of Summit County social workers headed into some of Akron’s most remote places to count, in real time, the people experiencing homelessness and living in tents and makeshift shelters at various locations across the city.
The workers are Community Support Services (CSS) employees trained in mental health, addiction, housing, shelter operations and veterans’ services. The CSS teams visit these often-temporary neighborhoods several times per week and know their clients’ stories.
Old Wooster Avenue, Akron history reflected in the former Hi-De-Ho Bar building
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.
Cleaning Stan Hywet: How Akron’s famous house is readied for the season
The stately Tudor revival mansion in Northwest Akron with its red-brick exterior and sweeping grounds is impossible to miss. Built in 1915, Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens is the former home of Goodyear co-founder F.A. Seiberling and his family.
From mid-January until the end of February, when the estate is closed to the public, 25 volunteers help the staff clean Stan Hywet Hall — all 64,500 square feet of it.
Delta Sigma Theta celebrates 40th Les Belles Perles Cotillion
The 15 young women sprinkled throughout the room represent the 40th class of Les Belles Perles Cotillion debutantes. The pearls, they’re called – a fitting name for an accomplished group of high school students who represent the best and brightest in their communities. This year, in front of 598 people, the pearls were presented to their families and friends.
There’s a strong history of cotillions in the Black community, with a focus on community service and scholarship. At 2024’s Les Belles Perles, more than $30,000 in scholarships were awarded to the 15 debutantes. (That also included $100 book scholarships awarded to each of their escorts.)
Cordelia chef Vinnie Cimino is just getting started
There’s a tattoo of a blimp on Vinnie Cimino’s right forearm. It was visible as the chef prepped fresh English peas before dinner service at Cordelia, the restaurant where Cimino is head chef and partner.
Although the tattoo bears the instantly recognizable coloring of the Goodyear blimp, Cimino’s version reads “Good Beer.” It’s a nod to Cimino’s Akron roots and to his grandfather, who worked at Goodyear.
A safe space: The Green Book helped Black people traveling through Akron
The unassuming beige house at 645 Moon St. has a history that belies its modest appearance.
For several decades beginning in 1920, the home served as a boarding house, primarily for Black people. In 1940 and 1941, the property was featured in “The Negro Motorist Green Book” under the category “Tourist Homes.” It was listed as C. McQueen’s, in reference to the proprietor, Claude McQueen.
It’s unclear who stayed in the house — maybe locals in need of housing or travelers passing through town. What is clear, though, is what the home symbolized during a period when the ugly effects of segregation and racism were rampant: This was a safe space.
Akron e-recycling facility refurbishing thousands of Spin scooters
Thousands of defunct electric scooters sit stacked more than six feet high outside of the low-slung yellow brick industrial building that houses Summit e-Waste Recycling Solutions, an electronics recycling facility.
Ben Baker, owner and vice president of the company located on Grant Street, took on the task of refurbishing thousands of the distinctively orange-red scooters.
I Promise Too sees first parents earn associate degrees
It wasn’t until Jimmy Jones’ diploma arrived in the mail last month that it really struck him: He is a college graduate.
Black with a gold seal, the Stark State College associate degree Jones earned in applied science made the 62-year-old high school dropout pause to think about what he had accomplished.
Walking across the stage to the whoops and cheers of his family was already a thrill, but seeing that paper? That was something else.
Akron Art Museum embraces the light with new exhibit
“GLOW: Neon and Light” at the Akron Art Museum, on view through Feb. 9, features 23 pieces. The exhibit is inspired by a previous project curator Wendy Earle worked on at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland where she helped create a 16-foot outdoor neon piece.
Legally blind, this former art teacher returned to her craft in her 80s
As a teenager living in New York, Heather Wicks and her best friend often wandered the Met in hopes of getting lost and stumbling upon unusual exhibits. The pieces they discovered along the way — from paintings and costumes to ancient musical instruments — ignited a lifelong love of art in Wicks.
Outside the Huddle: Buchtel’s Gregory Clark connects generations of Griffins
Gregory Clark is one of the unsung heroes of high school football in Akron. While his current title is equipment manager, his impact goes far beyond jerseys, socks and shoulder pads.
“I’ve heard a lot of people tell me that sometimes I care too much,” Clark said. “But that’s just the way I am. I care deeply, I love deeply, and I know what I’m supposed to do here.”
“Outside the Huddle” showcased 10 of the often unsung, off-the-field supporters who make high school football special in Akron. Read about the rest of these heroes at https://signalakron.org/?s=outside%20the%20huddle
Best hidden gem: Fred’s Diner offers tasty trip back in time
What waits inside Fred’s Diner is a blast from the past. It’s the picture of an old-school diner, from its floral wallpaper and vintage Coca-Cola plates on the walls to the yellow rotary phone at the counter.
This was always the dream of the restaurant’s namesake, Fred Spencer, said his son, Donald Spencer. He recalled a photo of his father as a child selling hot dogs from his mom’s backyard shed.
“He was always going to own a breakfast spot,” Spencer said. “He loves breakfast.
Hugs, tears, cheers as champions are made at Akron’s Soap Box Derby
Racers from as close as Goodyear Heights, Columbus and Tuscarawas County and as far as New York, Oregon and Nevada converged at Derby Downs July 20 for the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship Races.
Now in its 86th year, the annual event brought 320 racers to Akron for a week of racing and festivities.
Purrfect job for Wednesday, the orange rescue cat at Dirty River Bicycle Works
Wednesday Adams is an orange-and-white rescue cat who works and lives at Dirty River Bicycle Works, a retail and repair shop in Akron’s Northside District.
Since leaving a farm owned by friends of the store’s owner, Ryan Adams, this furry, four-legged feline has gained favor from employees and customers.
She got her name from a bicycle manufactured by Surly — it’s described as the ideal all-around, fat bike. That’s to say Wednesday is a tad pudgy. Also, the bike repair team thought it would be purr-fect to name her after Wednesday Adams, the dark and emotionally reserved character from “The Addams Family.”
Cornflakes, Wonder Woman and telephone keypads — inside the National Museum of Psychology at the University of Akron
What do cornflakes, Wonder Woman and the telephone keypad have in common? All of them have ties to psychology.
Cornflakes were created by brothers John Harvey and W.K. Kellogg in the late 19th century. At the time, they worked at a sanitarium, and John Harvey wanted a healthier breakfast option for the patients.
Wonder Woman was the brainchild of psychologist William Moulton Marston. The idea was William’s, but it was his wife, Elizabeth, a fellow psychologist, who told him to make her a woman.
Then there’s the telephone keypad, which Jennifer Bazar said is her favorite example of psychology’s effect on everyday life.
How Akron’s Sojourner Truth statue and plaza came to life
In 2019, Towanda Mullins was part of a group of local women leaders who formed the Summit Suffrage Centennial. The goal was to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Eventually, the committee shifted its focus to creating a public memorial for Truth and formed the Sojourner Truth Project, with Mullins taking the lead.
Garfield’s academic coach nourishes minds and hearts
They call her “Coach Mom.”
But Stephanie Morek, 52, does more than provide team snacks and pep talks at Garfield Community Learning Center — she offers support, tutoring and community to each student-athlete she encounters.
As the academic coach for Garfield’s football program, Morek runs the study table, a space where teenagers complete schoolwork and receive tutoring to maintain their playing eligibility and find balance between athletics and academics.
Gertrude Seiberling’s historic Glendale Steps are ready for a big second act
Alice Christie, the program chair for Progress Through Preservation, remembers a time in elementary school at St. Vincent de Paul Parish School, in the 1950s, when she and her classmates would travel down the Glendale Steps on their way downtown for field trips.
Today, the 242 sandstone steps descending from the top of the hill at South Walnut Street to Glendale Avenue are crumbling and lead to an empty parking lot space that was originally intended for a park.
“As it was envisioned, it was going to be a beautiful downtown park,” Christie said. “And actually would have been much larger than it appears now because some of the land that would have been the park was taken over by the Innerbelt.”
‘I remember the smell’: Old Wonder Bread building to be demolished
Barbara Hembury Heath still remembers her second grade field trip to the Akron factory where Wonder Bread was made. She also remembers the hot, miniature loaf each student took home and the third grader who stole her bread and ate it.
“It was so cool being in there and seeing how they made stuff,” the 63-year-old Arizona resident remembered. “We didn’t go on many field trips, so that was a special thing. I remember the smell.”
The smell of baking bread permeated the area for years, until baking stopped in 2010 and the University of Akron acquired the building in 2011. Now, the university plans to tear the factory down, saying it has outlived its usefulness.
Oh, the places you’ll go with your Akron library card
What do community members want to check out at the library?
An on-board diagnostic error code reader, according to Keith Freund, the Adult Services librarian at the downtown branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library.
The OBD error code reader is a device that allows a user to find out why their car’s “check engine light” notification is on. And while it may not be “Pride and Prejudice,” to Freund, it’s the epitome of what the modern library’s services are all about.
