Part of my morning route to the office is on Twin Oaks road. My goal is to avoid the congestion and currently poor pavement conditions on W. Market St., plus Twin Oaks is a beautiful street in the early morning. It also happens to be in an area of the city that is rich with local history.
On the north side of Twin Oaks near North Portage Path is the venerable Portage Country Club. PCC has been around since 1894 when Charles C. Goodrich (son of Benjamin F.Goodrich who founded B.F. Goodrich Tire & Rubber Company) and Charles G. Raymond convinced Charles Raymond's father-in-law and Goodrich president, George T. Perkins, to set up a 9 hole course on his property on the southwest corner of Copley and Diagonal Rds. The Clubhouse was in the old wood frame house that the famous abolitionist, John Brown, lived in during the 1840's when he worked for George Perkins' father. In 1905, the club moved over to its present location on Twin Oaks and North Portage Path. Ever since then, the PCC has been a go-to hang out for Akron's heavyweights and those that think they're are. Incidentally, they tend to be terrible drivers and my highest frequency of buzzing incidents have been on that road when something special and early is going on at the country club. Anyway....
On the south side of the street is concentration of homes that were built by Akron's earlier heavyweights. After entering the road from Market St., one is met with the ostentatious mansion built by Harvey S. Firestone, Jr., son of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company founder. His father lived in the huge Harbel Manor on West Market where the Georgetown Condominiums are. His polo field (because you need one of those when you hang out with Presidents) was where St. Paul's Episcopal church is now.
The next house belonged to C.I. Brunner who founded the Bruner-Goodhue-Cook-Cranz Company, a real estate company.
After that is the Edward D. Andrews/Harry P. Schrank house. Andrews was a high up exec for the Quaker Oats Company and eventually founded the Andrews-Alderfer Co. Later, the house was owned by Harry P. Schrank a Seiberling Rubber Company Executive that was also a member of the board for the University of Akron. The bizarre Schrank Hall North and Schrank Hall South at the University is named for him.
Just before you get the Mayfield Ave., you come to the L.W. Camp house, which was built by the founder of the Camp Company that manufactured fire-proof building materials.
All these hoity-toits built their mansions during the wave of migration to the city's west side around 1900. Prior to 1900, they all lived near E. Market and Fir Hill (hard to believe looking at the area today). The Hower House is the only mansion that remains from that era. However, by the turn of the century viable real estate in that area couldn't be found and the old neighborhood was downwind of the factories and rubber plants. The old elite neighborhood was becoming dingy and a noxious fume hung in the air. So, everyone headed west. The first homes were built near the old PCC location on Perkins Hill, but later on the building boom took place on North Portage Path, Merriman, and West Market St. Many of these homes still stand today, a testament to Akron's boom years. Twin Oaks Road, which is only a 1/2 mile long, is an excellent example of the neighborhoods that sprung up during this time. And, the country club was a major reason why these homes were built where they were.
A little further up the road on the south side is the Twin Oaks Manor Apartment building, directly across from the PCC club house. Here, you will find something that only someone on a bicycle would notice- the makings of a sink hole. I ride by this depression every day and have noticed that its getting deeper and deeper. What once looked like a bowl shape, is now an extreme cone shape as the asphalt continues to sag. I give it a wide berth. I've also contacted the city about it. Who knows if they will do anything (they finally cleaned up that tree, by the way).
Natural sink holes are caused by the karst process (which I'm not going to get into). In urban areas, sink holes are usually caused when old pipes collapse. That's what is happening on Twin Oaks. I determined this because the depression is right next to a manhole. I know, my powers of analysis are staggering. As I rode past it this morning, while giving it the eye, I remembered a rather notorious sink hole incident that occurred not too far from there in 1964.
On July 21, a huge downpour dropped over 3 inches of rain in less than an hour causing the sewer under Tallmadge Parkway to collapse. Velma Shidler, her 10 year old daughter Claudia, and their neighbor Janet Lewis swerved to miss the crater that suddenly opened up, but did not escape the collapsing pavement. Their car fell into the crater upside down while water continued to pour in from above and from the burst pipes. Rescuers were able to pull Velma and Janet out, but Claudia and two of the rescuers, Hugh Michael O'Neil and Akron police office Ronald Rotruck, were sucked underground during another cave in. O'Neil's body was found in the Cuyahoga Rive the next day and Claudia and Rotruck's bodies were found in the crater. Tallmadge Parkway (one block northeast of Twin Oaks) was renamed Memorial Parkway after the road was repaired. It is a little known, but tragic event in Akron's history.
I doubt that the Twin Oaks sink hole will be as dramatic, but I avoid it just the same.
Akron's historic streets are best explored by bike, if you want to see them up close. From time to time, I'll be posting short tours like this one on some of the city's most interesting spots.
Tomorrow, however, I will be giving a tour so there won't be any posting going on. Hopefully, I'll be back on Friday, but if not, have a great weekend and pedal safe!
*If Blogger's image loader starts working again, I'll put up pictures of some of today's spots.
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