FR. LIVINGSTON I PRESUME - PART IIII

This is part of a series exploring what there is to see on the very boarders of Saint Sebastian Parish in Akron.

At this point we find ourselves having to traverse straight through the woods and hills of the Metroparks with no easy way just to swing around on any convenient roads. Here are two options: You might either turn left on Smith, turn left on Sand Run Road, and then pick up the boarder again by turning left on Thurmont.What I did was turn around until I returned to Portage Path, turn right, and then turn right again onto Sand Run Parkway. A good distance down the road you will hit this nifty little feature. This is the ford where Sand Run actually crosses over the street. I remember as a very young child going for a Sunday afternoon drive and coming upon this unusual sight and the street sign that proclaimed, "Ford impassable after heavy rain" and wondering what was wrong with Ford cars that they were singled out as being incapable of crossing over this little bit of water after a rain storm. I think I was in my 20s before I spent enough time thinking about this to pull me out of my childhood musings.

Well, the boarder picks up for a little spell along this road and the abruptly turns left and goes throught he woods again. Our only choice is to continue on until we get to the intersection of Sand Run Parkway and Sand Run Road. (Do you see how this might get confusing?) Turn left, and when you reach Thurmond turn left and then on the second road (here is where I THINK streets might have changes names, so I think it is dubbed Winslow Avenue) turn right and once again we are on the parish boarders, the parish being to your left.

Here we pass through a nice little nieghborhood until we hit Market Street. We should continue on White Pond but it is closed off to through traffic and so we must once again make something up. Turn left on Market and the right on Frank Blvd. This will take you back to White Pond. Turn left and we follow White Pond over the highway and past White Pond until this road dead ends. Turn left on Coply for a short jaunt and then emmideatly make a right on Collier. We follow Collier past farms and nursuries until it dead ends onto a road that may or may not be called Wadsworth Road anymore. (You may remember I said I was using an old map.) Regardless turn left. This road dead ends into a road that may or may not be called Wooster Road. Turn left again.

Eventually you will come over a hill and be given an interesting view of Downtown Akron. If you can spot the twin towers in the middle of the picure that is Saint Bernard, one of our neighbors. It is a beautiful church that was rumored to be closing but was saved from the axe. Don't stare too long though, you need to keep an eye out for Mallaston Ave and it is not well marked. Turn left, goa short distance and then turn left again on Euclid Avenue. This will twist up and hit Diagonal Road. Turn Right. We have just skirted around the Akron Zoo which is actually in Saint Berbard so is not pictured here.

On the corner of Diagonal and Copley we see the John Brown House. According to this web site, "The Akron home of abolitionist John Brown stands at Copley and Diagonal roads in West Akron. Brown moved here in 1844 and worked with Simon Perkins, Jr. in the wool trade. The Perkins' family mansion still stands across the street from Brown's home. The famous abolitionist moved on to win fame in Kansas and at Harper's Ferry. He is now recognized by a permanent exhibit showing his significance as a symbolic hero and martyr of the anti-slavery movement." (The Perkins mansion is half a street off of our project and so not shown here.)

As we cross over Copley we find ourselves back on Portage Path South and almost done with our tour. Coming up on our left is Coach House Theater which I believe is run by the Akron Women's city club. Here is the only site I could find for them which makes the promise that a new web site would be coming soon. I worked at this inimate little theater when I attended the University of Akron running the lightboard for a production of "Night Watch."

Finally we make it to the Akron Woman's City Club. Their website explains, "The Akron Woman's City Club was established in 1923 as a place where women could meet to discuss subjects of interest, hold seminars for education, promote charitable events, and serve as a social center and meeting place for women of Akron. Today it remains one of the oldest and largest clubs for women in America."

A hop, skip, and a jump further and we are back to the Indian, the starting point of our journey. So we turn left into the heart of our territory and back to Saint Sebastian.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

FATHER LIVINGSTON I PRESUME - PART III

A few more paces down the road finds us before Stan Hywet Hall and gardens. The Hall was closed for the season and there was an ugly van parked by the main gates and so I was unable to snap a picture for you. But here is their website. I’ll let you read more about this magnificent structure there save for this tidbit, “The Manor House is one of the finest examples of Tudor Revival architecture in America. The Seiberlings chose architect Charles S. Schneider to design the home for $150,000. Schneider and the Seiberlings travelled to England and visited well-known homes including Ockwell’s Manor in Berkshire, Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire and Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, influencing the design of Stan Hywet.”

After passing the Hall you will start a descent into a valley. A sign welcomes you to Sand Run Metro Park. (This is also where the parish boundaries begin to become difficult to follow.) The website for the park reports in part, “The 992-acre Sand Run Metro Park opened in 1929, but the area has been welcoming visitors for centuries. The land surrounding Mingo Pavilion was a campsite for Mingo Indians. Portage Path was once an important Native American trail between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers; later, it was the western boundary of the United States. A high ridge above the Wadsworth Area was a lookout point for General Elijah Wadsworth, who made his camp near the present-day Old Portage Area during the War of 1812.”

Not too far after passing Merriman Road Portage Path crosses over a river. The center of this river is the northern limits of Saint Sebastian. Perhaps someday with a canoe this route could be explored but for now I will stay safely in the car, back up and drive down the valley for along the southern bank of the river there are at least two sites of note.

The first is that of the Tow Path Trail. According to the site for this part of the trail it reports in part, “The Towpath Trail is a piece of history. This segment of the Towpath was originally constructed in Akron from 1825 to 1827 as part of the Ohio & Erie Canal. It served as the path that mules and horses walked to pull canal boats. The trail is on the flood plane between the Cuyahoga River and the Ohio Erie Canal. It now serves as a hiking/biking trail.

Also situated along this most northern part of the parish is Weathervane Community Playhouse which you can see from this picture is undergoing some renovations. Their site reports in part, “From 1935 until 1951, Weathervane was housed in a modest carriage house barn on Marshall Avenue in Akron. The 'barn,' as it was known, has long since been destroyed but there are still a few people who recall its cramped quarters and especially the energy and devotion of the four ladies, Grace Hower Crawford, Laurine Schwan, Helen Troesch and Muriel MacLachlan, who believed that Akron deserved the best in theater and that volunteers could make it all happen." From here we hit the corner of Merriman and Smith Roads. The parish boundaries now turn south and cut back through the woods. Thus the reason for the axe in the front seat of the car. But no venture was made into the woods this time so we will pick up (and most likely finish) tomorrow with the approximate ventures of the border patrol.

FR. LIVINGSTON I PRESUME? PART II

Continuing down the road on our left you will see the aptly named Portage Country Club. According to the history page of its web site it reports in part, "Portage Country Club is one of a handful of clubs that is a hundred or more years old.

"The growth of the Club paralleled the rise of the rubber industry in Akron, and it became the place for the athletic and social activities of the city’s most prominent families. Today, Portage Country Club is recognized as one of the country’s elite private clubs, a tribute to the success and prosperity of the City of Akron and a memorial to those who contributed to its evolution.

"There were few golf courses in the world when golf was introduced to Akron in 1894 at the original site of the Portage Golf Club, a rural area then known as the “West Hill Residential District.” Charles C. Goodrich, son of company founder Dr. Benjamin F. Goodrich, and Charles G. Raymond, a young executive at BF Goodrich, persuaded Raymond's father-in-law, Colonel George T. Perkins, to allow them to lay out the golf course on their farm. C.C. Goodrich, C.G. Raymond and Bertram G. Work, friend and co-worker at Goodrich, were the founding members. They rented a structure known as the "Old John Brown House," once the home of the Harper's Ferry Abolitionist, and constructed a crude nine-hole golf course around it. The balls were handmade and the clubs, if not exactly primitive, were little more than tree limbs by today’s standards.

"Equally primitive were the locker room facilities, located on the second story of a nearby stable. Despite such handicaps, interest and membership in the Club grew until, on January 5, 1905, it incorporated under the name, “The Portage Country Club Company.” According to The Official Golf Guide For 1900 by Joseph Newman the nine-hole course was "fairly good though somewhat short." The Club became affiliated with the United States Golf Association in 1904.

"In 1905, with membership growing, the Club moved to its present location at the corner of Twin Oaks and Portage Path. Chicago architect Howard Shaw designed the clubhouse, and the formal opening was May 19, 1906. By 1917 sufficient acreage had been acquired to expand the course to 18 holes. William B. Langford, noted golf course architect was hired in 1918 and designed a new 18-hole golf course which made Portage Country Club one of the best and most complete clubs in the United States."

Next stop down the road is the gate house for Stan Hywet Hall (which we will report on when next we pick up this series.) According to Stan Hywet's Web site, "The two-story Tudor Revival Gate Lodge was designed by Stan Hywet's architect, Charles S. Schneider. Supporting the "lodge" intent of design, the roof is uniquely different from the rest of the buildings on the Estate. With rounding contours and flowing horizontal rifts, the American thatch wood shingle roof was intended to resemble the reed thatch roofs of 16th and 17th century rural England.By 1923, this small, three-bedroom house would become the home of their eldest son, Fred, his wife Henrietta, and their three children. It would eventually become the setting for a world-changing conversation."

"Henrietta Seiberling's involvement with the Oxford Group, a religious fellowship movement, confirmed her belief that ordinary people had the power to change their lives. On Mother's Day, 1935, through mutual friendships, she brought together Mr. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, both admitted alcoholics. Their discussion, in the Gate Lodge at Stan Hywet, resulted in identifying the principles that were to become the cornerstone of Alcoholics Anonymous."

The home of Dr. Smith is a bit within the boarders of the parish and as such should not be shown in this series but I thought it so cool it is included anyway. The stone in front of the house reads, "The home of Dr. Bob and Anne Smith from 1915 to 1958. Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous." I am told that at the annual convention every year of AA this house in this quiet part of Akron becomes quiet the tourist spot.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

FR. LIVINGSTON I PRESUME? PART I

The Monday of Easter Week, the rectory being closed and having a little bit of time to get away, I decided to finally hop in my car and drive the parish boundaries. This is more easily said than done. The first mistake was grabbing a map from the history room in the basement of the house. Streets have closed and others been renamed since that map was drawn. Then there is the problem of the repetitive naming of streets in the area; Portage Path, White Pond, and Sand Run all stamped on road signposts for multiple streets. (Sand Run parkway, Sand Run Road . . .) The final problem was that parts of the parish boundaries run down the center of rivers and through wooded areas. But after a few false starts, success was had.

This short series will list some of the interesting things that are found on the boarder of the parish boundaries. There are some interesting interior spots also but that will have to be the subject of another set of posts. Below you see me and Sebastian (in the back window) getting ready for our big adventure. I hope you enjoy the ride. Here we go . . .

For any parishioners who might want to follow this trial someday we are beginning on the east side of the parish boundaries at the corner of Market Street and Portage Path (where Portage Path divides and becomes Portage Path North and Portage Path South) known as Highland Square. Much of the information that follows is from a site called Dear Rosemary that has a lot of interesting facts about this area. We turn right and head north on Portage Path. The parish boundaries stretch as far as the space between the double yellow line running down the middle of the road so we will only be looking to the left!

One of the first things you will see is this statue of an Native American that is reported to be a rather accurate depiction of the Native Americans that lived in this area. I guess it used to sit on the devil strip until National City Bank gave it a proper little park to sit in. For those of you who do not know what at devil strip is it is local lingo for a tree lawn. You will even see it on street signs, "No parking on Devil Strip."

There are a number of interesting things about this road called Portage Path. One of the interesting facts is written on the plaque below the statue. "A POINT ON THE PORTAGE PATH OR INDIAN TRAIL, until 1798 a part of the western boundary of the United States. Erected July 4 1905 by G. F. Krasch" Hard to believe that this city parish would have been the wild western wilderness beyond the United States border not all that terribly long ago!

Though not actually located next on our journey (it would be seen toward the end) I wanted to show you this Ohio Historical Marker that explains the history of Portage Path. It says, "PORTAGE PATH - You are standing on the famous portage carrying-place between the Cuyahoga and Tuscawarus rivers. The two streams and the portage across the watershed formed an early route between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. First the Indians and then French and English traders and trappers, then finally American settlers and travelers carried their canoes and packs across the narrow strip of land in passing, by way of the rivers, between northern and southern Ohio. The portage was part of the defined boundaries in the treaties with the Indians made at Fort McIntosh (1785), Fort Harmar (1789), and Greene Ville (1795). Use of the portage was discontinued in 1827 when the Ohio and Erie Canal was built along the old trail. Today, modern Akron streets - - Portage Path and Manchester Road - - follow the approximate route of the original portage."

To add to this story there is a tiny park with a 12' Indian on a horse made by local artist Don Drumm (not quite as authentic as the Indian above) within the parish bounderies that was once dubbed Watershed Park - not pictured because it is not on the boundary. The water north of this park makes its way to Lake Erie, on the south side down eventually to the Gulf of Mexico - unless city sewers have a say in the matter.

As you drive along Portage Path you will spy large arrow heads (about 2' high?) that mark the portage.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .