Huntington Tower, earlier known as FirstMerit Tower, First National Bank Building, and the First Central Trust Building, is a skyscraper in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...

. The centerpiece of downtown Akron, it sits in the Cascade Plaza at the corner of King James Way and East Mill Street. The tower has been the city's tallest building since its completion in 1931. The 27-story building is

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

in style and is covered in

glazed architectural terra-cotta Glazed architectural terra cotta is a ceramic masonry building material used as a decorative skin. It was popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s, and is still one of the most common building materials found in U ...

. Its lobby is built of

Tennessee marble Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found only in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, this stone has been ...

, white brick, and terra cotta, and features a large banking hall with arched windows. The top of the building had a television broadcast tower, formerly used by WAKR-TV (now

WVPX-TV WVPX-TV (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Akron, Ohio, United States, serving the Cleveland area as an affiliate of Ion Television. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, it is jointly operated with Canton, Ohio, Canton-licensed Bounce ...

) and

WAKR-AM WAKR (1590 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Akron, Ohio, and known as "Soft Hits 93.5 FM". Locally owned and operated by Rubber City Radio Group, Inc., the station primarily services the Akron metropolitan area, includ ...

. The

antenna Antenna ( antennas or antennae) may refer to: Science and engineering * Antenna (radio), also known as an aerial, a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic (e.g., TV or radio) waves * Antennae Galaxies, the name of two collid ...

reached a height of but was removed in 2019.

History

The tower replaced the

neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

Hamilton Building, completed on the site in 1900. Around 2000, the tower was given a $2.5 million facelift, including a $1.8 million restoration of the tower's

terra-cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...

, brick, and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

facade. The painstaking process involved the removal of some 450 blocks weighing up to for cleaning and reassembly. Over 1,100 other pieces of the masonry and tilework were repaired on site. In 2007, the tower underwent another restoration. Completed by Cleveland-based VIP Restorations, it included repointing of all masonry and terra-cotta joints, repairs to the windows, structural restoration, and a restoration of the 13th floor

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

.FirstMerit
VIP Restoration VIP Restorations also helped to get the building placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The building's name changed after Huntington acquired FirstMerit in 2016. In 2019, Huntington announced the building was for sale.

References

External links

National Register of Historic Places nomination form for First National Bank Tower
*{{commons category-inline Skyscrapers in Akron, Ohio Office buildings completed in 1931 Terracotta Art Deco architecture in Ohio 1931 establishments in Ohio Skyscraper office buildings in Ohio Office buildings in Akron, Ohio