Colonel Simon Perkins, the son of Akron’s co-founder, General Simon Perkins, built the Greek Revival Perkins Stone Mansion, which was built between 1835 and 1837. Isaac Ladd of Warren, Ohio, possibly designed the mansion. The Summit County Historical Society purchased the mansion in 1945. The house, today a museum, interprets the Perkins family and Akron’s history.
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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, established in 1983, was dedicated in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 1, 1995. The museum documents the history of rock and roll, not just those who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Inductees are honored in an exhibit located in a wing that extends out over Lake Erie.
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Akron unveiled the 12-foot-tall Rubber Worker cast bronze statue in May 2021. It stands in a roundabout at the intersection of Main and Mill streets. The statue depicts a rubber worker wrapping a tire and is based on the cover image of “Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron,” a 1999 book by David Giffels and Steve Love. The ceremony included Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan and Zanesville-based sculptor Alan Cottrill.
Shrum Mound was likely built between 800 BC and 100 AD. At approximately 100 feet in diameter and 20 feet tall, Shrum Mound is said to be “one of the last remaining conical burial mounds” in Columbus. The grass-covered mound features a path leading to the top. The mound is located in Campbell Park, named for former Ohio Gov. James E. Campbell who later served as president of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society. The mound derives its name from the Shrum family, which in 1928 donated the land where the mound sits to the Ohio Historical Society.
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Swasey Chapel at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, has long stood as the visual and ceremonial centerpiece of the campus. Built between 1922 and 1924 as the first building in the university’s ambitious Greater Denison plan of 1917, it honors benefactor and trustee Ambrose Swasey, whose gift helped make the project possible. The chapel’s chimes serve as a memorial to his wife, Lavinia Marston Swasey, adding a personal element to one of the university’s most recognizable landmarks.
Designed by Arnold Brunner in an English Stuart Revival style influenced by the London churches of Sir Christopher Wren, the chapel is built of Bedford limestone and Harvard brick laid in Flemish bond. Its prominent placement on the university’s highest ground, reinforced by the campus landscape plan prepared by Frederick Law Olmsted Sons, gives it a visibility that helps define Denison’s overall appearance.
Although built as a house of worship, Swasey Chapel, which stands 140 feet, 6 5/8 inches tall, not counting the lightning rod, has long served a broader role in university life. It hosts convocations, concerts, speakers, weddings, funerals and other major events, allowing the building to remain central to campus traditions in times of celebration and remembrance alike.
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The Columbus Italian Club commissioned this sculpture, created by Gary Ross, in 1992. The statue is on display in Battelle Riverfront Park along the Scioto River.
The 23-foot-tall, 24-foot-wide World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock was built in 1972. The clock sits in the heart of the Swiss-themed village of Sugarcreek, Ohio. The town is sometimes called “The Little Switzerland of Ohio.” A cuckoo bird pops out of the clock every 30 minutes, and a small automated band performs Swiss polka music as a couple dances. The Guinness Book of World Records featured the clock on its cover in 1977. It moved to its current location in 2012.
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Anyone who says the judiciary does not loom large over society has never been to downtown Columbus. Artist Andrew Scott designed the 30-foot-long stainless steel gavel that today sits outside the Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center, which is home to the Ohio Supreme Court. The gavel was installed in 2008.
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