A VISIT TO THE HOWER HOUSE IN AKRON, OHIO

The Hower House, located on the University of Akron campus, is one of the few remaining tangible connections to Akron's early oatmeal millers.

John Henry Hower and his wife, the former Susan Youngker, built the historical home in 1871 with the wealth gained from his interests in the Excelsior Mower and Reaper Co.

The family was involved in the oatmeal business from 1888 until 1901.  Hower Company later became part of the American Cereal Company, and eventually, Quaker Oats.

The home was constructed off of East Market Street on a hill overlooking the bustling commercial activity of downtown.  This area was a fashionable residential location in Victorian Akron, though later many of the wealthy moved farther west to avoid the acrid smell from the rubber plants.   Many other prospering entrepreneurs, such as F. A. Seiberling and Ferdinand Schumacher (the "Oatmeal King"), also built their homes nearby. 

The exterior of the 28-room Second Empire Italianate mansion has the classic dormer windows, brackets under the eaves, and pediments above the columns of the porch.  Decorative cornices and ornamental stonework around the windows contribute to it's beauty.  There are three porches and six chimneys.

The 28-room house has an unusual floor plan, one based on the Akron Sunday School Plan.  On the first floor, the octagonal Center Hall has eight doors that lead to other rooms on the main floor.  Two parlors, a library, a music room and the dining room are located off of this main room.  A small telephone room is off of the hall leading to the kitchen in the rear of the house.  The second floor contains a bath and four bedrooms, two of which have sitting rooms.  The third floor boasts a Picture Gallery, a Ladies Drawing Room and a magnificent Ballroom which stretches the width of the house.  There is also a warming kitchen, served by a dumbwaiter from the main kitchen on the first floor.

The rooms of the mansion have 12-foot ceilings, 9-foot doors and rich wood moldings and trims made of black walnut that was taken from family timber holdings in Michigan.  Plaster ceiling medallions, different in every room, adorn the French chandeliers and other period lighting fixtures.

John Henry occupied the house for thirty years and in 1901 his son, Milton Otis took up residence there with his wife Blanche and their two children, Grace and John.  In 1919 Grace and her husband John Crawford moved into the Hower House with her mother (her father died in 1916, a few days after the death of John Henry).  Grace Crawford Hower continued to reside there until she died in 1973.  Grace and her brother deeded the house to the University of Akron in 1970.

The three floors of the home are filled with furniture, art and antiques that were collected from the family's travels around the world.   The travelers were the second and third generations, as John Henry and Susan stayed close to home.

Old suitcases covered with colorful stickers of places visited and the initials of their owners stenciled on the sides are displayed in the Trunk Room.  Recently discovered by one of the volunteers was an envelope of film negatives.  The negatives yielded some of the wonderful black and white photos that are now framed and hung on the wall of the Trunk Room--Grace and Blanche on their world travels--riding a camel with the pyramids in the background, one of the ladies on the deck of an ocean liner, as well as several more.

What evidence remains of the oatmeal miller in the Hower House?  A small poster of Hower's Oats hangs on a lone wall.  The rest is left to the imagination as what visibly remains is merely the fruits of their labor.

An old millstone, standing on its side in a small flowerbed in the front yard, is but a small reminder of the early vision and prosperity of those early millers of northeast Ohio.