Fast Facts

Stats
Situated south of Cleveland, along the Ohio-Erie Canal, Akron was the fastest growing city in America during the 19-teens and 20's.  The rubber industry attracted people from all over the world to work here.  From 1910 to 1920, Akron's population went from 69,000 to 210,000.  By the mid 20's, Akron's population was in the 300,000s.

Akron is the home of...

• Ice cream cones, hamburgers and caramel corn snacks were invented in Akron by Charles E. Menches
• The first graded school system in the United States and where the concept of a school superintendent was created
• The highest point on the Ohio-Erie Canal
• The first synthetic rubber tire, marketed in 1940
• The first balloon tire in 1924
• The first long distance electric railway in the world, the ABC Line -- Akron, Bedford, Cleveland
• The birthplace of the trucking industry
• The world's largest model train display at the Depot, at Quaker Square (former site of the Quaker Oats Co.)
• One of the largest buildings without interior supports, the Loral Airdock -- where Goodyear once built blimps --- is 22 stories high and could accommodate four football games at once.
  Height and atmosphere actually produce rain inside.
• The first breakfast cereal, now Quaker Oats
• Processed cereals developed by Akron's Ferdinand Schumacher, the oatmeal king
• Alcoholics Anonymous,  founded in Akron by "Dr. Bob" (Smith) and "Bill W." (Wilson) in 1935
• America's first toy company, S.C. Dyke Co., manufacturer of marbles.
• The first automobile police patrol wagon, in 1899
• Derby Downs, home of the All-American Soap Box Derby, the world's greatest amateur racing event
• The first artificial fish bait, made by Pfleuger Fishing Tackle Company
• Abolitionist John Brown, and the site of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman" speech on freedom from slavery (1851)
• Inventure Place, the world's first transactive science museum, and is the home of the National Inventors Hall of Fame
• The NEC World Series of Golf at Firestone Country Club every August
• The largest small business incubator in the state and one of the largest in the world.
• Stan Hywet Hall and Garden, considered the finest example of Tudor Revival architecture in America, built by Frank A. Seiberling, founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.

Claims to Fame

• Art Arfons - three time land speed record holder with his green monster series of jet powered cars - born in Akron, Ohio (1926 - 2007).
• In 1982 Akron natives Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia wrote and recorded the top 10 hit "Pac Man Fever." It sold over 3 million singles and albums world wide and today remains a pop culture favorite. Jerry and Gary also produced the hit recording of the theme to the long running television show, "WKRP In Cincinnati." In 1985 Anne Murray reached the top 15 with a song written by Jerry called, "On and On." 
• LeBron James, number one overall selection in the 2003 NBA Draft, joins the Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron, born and raised in Akron, was drafted after graduating from Saint Vincent - Saint Mary High School.
• Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders
• Devo!
• Grammy Award-winning singer, James Ingram
• Clark Gable worked in Akron before making it big in Hollywood
• Character actor and longtime "Maytag Repairman" Jesse White
• "Third Rock From the Sun" actor John Lithgow lived here
• Supermodel and actress Angie Everhart
• ABC's Hugh Downs
• Former Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian
• Former Miami Dolphins running back Larry Csonka
• Former NBA greats Gus Johnson and Nate Thurmond
• Guinness Book of World Records "Most Traveled Person" Parke Thompson
• The late Challenger astronaut Judy Resnik
• Thomas Edison married an Akron woman, Mina Miller, in Akron, Ohio
• Rita Dove, the Pulitzer Prize winning Poet Laureate
• Ruby and The Romantics
• Linda Lorenz-Sengpiel - The Akron yo-yo champion, never defeated in during her lifetime, offered $100,000 to anyone who could match her skills. No one ever collected.
• Melina Kanakaredes
• Philip Shawn (known in Akron as Jack "Pat" Waltz), starred in the 1950 movie,The Sun Sets at Dawn. During the 1950s and 1960s Shawn also made frequent TV appearances in shows such as Perry Mason, McHale's Navy, Gomer Pyle, Lassie, The Twilight Zone, The Mod Squad and many others.
• Punk-rock guitarist, Robert Quine (1942-2004)