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175-year-old home razed: Historic Olin House in Franklin Township was owned by Akron

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By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

The city of Akron razed a 175-year-old piece of Portage County history this week when crews demolished the Olin House in Franklin Township, one of about 42 properties countywide on the National Register of Historic Places.

Arvin Olin built the Franklin Township homestead at Diagonal and Ravenna roads in 1835 practically of solid brick. He had settled in the township a year earlier.

Streetsboro resident Bob Gressard, a fourth-generation descendant of Olin, is a builder by trade and tried to work with the city of Akron to save the property.

“The city of Akron, I’ll give them credit,” Gressard said. “They really bent over backwards to try and make this thing happen.”

The city of Akron acquired the property in 1990. The house, located at 1425 Ravenna Road at the Diagonal Road intersection, is a stone’s throw from the Akron Water Treatment Plant at Lake Rockwell.

Collin Coy, watershed superintendent for Akron’s water supply, said he has been working with Gressard, the Kent Historical Society and Franklin Township to try to preserve the house. It was placed on the National Register in 1995.

“But no one could find it affordable, and so ultimately now we’ve had to take the building down,” Coy said. “It had become a nuisance. It was being infested with many different types of animals, and it was starting to crumble on its own.”

At one point, the residence had been used to house employees of the Akron water plant. The structure had been vacant for many years.

Gressard said he had considered moving the house, but its brick construction made the job costly. The house contained almost no wood, as the interior walls were solid brick. Its sheer weight — 110 tons — prevented Gressard from obtaining a permit from the Ohio Department of Transportation to use the bridge on Diagonal Road to move the house north to Streetsboro.

Sam Abell, Franklin Township’s zoning inspector, said the township saw no logic in buying the house simply to preserve it.

“The township’s position was it didn’t make any sense to us to buy a building and abandon it,” he said.

Shortly after its completion, Samuel Olin, Arvin Olin’s brother, constructed a “sister house” of similar design in Streetsboro at the corner of S.R. 14 and Diagonal Road now home to Sandy’s Notions flower shop.

Gressard said, despite the family connection, he had to let it go. He salvaged what he could from the house before demolition began Monday.

“We tried,” Gressard said. “We gave it the best shot we could, but it just didn’t happen. It had to (be demolished). The house was in bad shape.”