Hower Mansion - Akron, Ohio - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

According to its website, “Hower House was completed in 1871 by John Henry Hower, a leading Akron industrialist who was active in the milling, reaping and cereal industries. Hower and architect Jacob Snyder designed this house in the Second Empire Italianate style. The floor plan, known as the " Akron Sunday School Plan", features rooms radiating from a large octagonal center hall. The plan was used for churches across the United States. This 28-room mansion is capped with a mansard roof and soaring tower, and is filled with hundreds of treasures and furnishings the Hower family collected from around the world.

“In 1901, John Henry's son Milton Otis, his wife Blanche, and their two children, Grace and John, came to live in the house. The elderly Hower and his second wife moved to a smaller home nearby. Blanche continued to live in the house even after John Henry and Milton Otis both died in 1916. Sometime later, Grace and her husband, John, moved into Hower House with Blanche. The house was occupied by the Hower family for 100 years before it was deeded to The University of Akron in 1970. In 1973, Hower House was placed on the National Register for Historic Places.

“The house has three floors with a ballroom on the third floor. Two and a half acres of lawn and stately trees provide a green island of tranquility for The University of Akron campus community.”

Architectural details include a round arch entry with keystone and flanking pilasters situated at the northeast corner beneath a corbelled veranda supported by fluted Corinthian columns. Decorative corbelled hoodmolds with keystone accent and segmental-arched double-hung windows (some with matching decorative lug sills) are found on the first two stories. The irregular plan includes various projecting bays and side verandas with balustrade. A dentiled entablature features frieze panels and a heavy bracketed cornice. Dormers in the mansard roof contain round arch openings with keystone and a bracketed segmental pediment. The four-story tower, with a mansard roof topped by cresting and a weathervane, is a continuation of the entry bay.

The web site of the Hower House is (http://www3.uakron.edu/howerhse)

Street address: 60 Fir Hill Akron, Ohio USA 44308 County / Borough / Parish: Summit County Year listed: 1973 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1850-1874 Historic function: Domestic - Single Dwelling Current function: Museum Privately owned?: no Season start / Season finish: From: 02/01/2009 To: 12/31/2009 Hours of operation: From: 12:00 PM To: 3:30 PM Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/28/2009 buffalohiker visited it