Akron Hopes to Save Vacant Restaurant
By Samantha Honl | Online Only | May 5, 2009
In Akron, Ohio, a turn-of-the-century hotel and restaurant sits vacant in Portage Lakes State Park, awaiting its fate. The future of Young's Restaurant, the last of its kind in the area, has yet to be determined, but thanks to a concerned citizen and new city leadership, the building will likely remain to tell the story of the once-thriving Ohio and Erie Canal community.
Last month the city, which bought Young's Restaurant in 2007, signed a development agreement with the nonprofit Ohio and Erie Canalway Coalition to collaborate and generate ideas for the lakefront site of Young's Restaurant, located near the canal and towpath trail.
"The site is what is most important to us," says Dan Rice, president and CEO of the Ohio and Erie Canalway Coalition. "The challenge that we're facing is a property that has had a lot of deferred maintenance. I can't tell you that this building will be saved, 100 percent. We will work to preserve and save as much as we can."
For the last several years, the city and the coalition have worked to connect downtown and suburban Akron via the canal towpath trail. Young's is located in a National Scenic Byway and in one of the nation's 37 National Heritage Areas.
"The canal has a really important role in the city's history, and when Mayor Plusquellic came into office [in 1987], he understood this," says Plusquellic's spokesman, Mark Williamson.
Originally built in 1850 as a log cabin for John Young and his wife, Young's evolved into a restaurant for canal travelers. In 1905 a descendent of Young replaced the log cabin with a grand, 100-room hotel in response to the popularity of Portage Lakes as a vacation spot. (Two years later, the hotel was lost in a fire, but it was rebuilt that same year on its 1905 foundation.)
This year Akron resident R.C. Norris started a grassroots effort to save Young's Restaurant. As an owner of a similar property in the Portage Lakes area, Norris became concerned for the future of Young's Restaurant after it closed in 2004. After nearly a century of family ownership, the building was left empty and vulnerable to vandalism, and Norris fears that it could accidentally burn down. He wants to host a clam bake or "steak-out" at his restaurant to raise money to preserve Young's.
In the meantime, the coalition is working on its own ideas for the lakefront property. "This is a site that should have activities during all four seasons," Rice says. He suggests an office, a canoe-rental outpost, a youth hostel, or a restaurant and bar. "The key here is having a mixture of activities to complement [the tourism and recreation] that is already going on there."
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Comments
Submitted by ladyofthelake at: September 29, 2009
I hpe this restaurant is saved. There is so much history. I would love to know the role it played in the Underground Railroad.