12/10/2009 - West Side Leader
By Stephanie Kist
COLUMBUS — Members of the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board voted today to recommend that nominations for the several properties in Ohio be forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places for consideration, including the Gothic Building in Downtown Akron.
If the Keeper agrees the properties meet the criteria for listing, they will be added to the National Register of Historic Places. Decisions from the Keeper on all five nominations are expected in about 90 days.
The Gothic Building, located at 102 S. High St. and 52-58 E. Mill St., was designed by Akron architect Frank Weary and built in 1902. It is a four-story, masonry former apartment/commercial structure located in the central business district. The two-part building was constructed with stores on the first floor and apartments on the upper floors.
The Gothic is proposed for nomination because of the high level of architectural design and as a distinctive building type: an apartment building for the emerging middle class at the turn of the 20th century.
According to the Preservation Advisory Board, it is historically important in its representation of Weary’s eclectic use of architectural styles — Italian Renaissance Revival, Tudor Revival and Arts and Crafts.
Today, the Gothic is part of a federal and state tax rehabilitation project.
