For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by history.
Growing up in Stark County, there was no shortage of historic places to help cultivate this passion, from the Massillon Library to the McKinley Museum and Presidential Library in Canton.
The latter has an exhibit called the Street of Shops, a life-size replica of a historic town. I insisted on visiting that floor of the museum every time my family went. I’d walk along the red-brick road, peering into the windows of vintage shops, like a hotel, post office and barbershop. (And of course, I always had to slide down the pole at the old fire station.)
While observing the displays, I’d imagine what it might have been like to live in a different time period. I’d picture people in the shops and make up stories about them in my head. As I got older, history was always my favorite subject in school, and now as a reporter, I find myself gravitating toward story ideas that have a historical element.
Recently, I’ve been working on a project that has allowed me to combine my reporting skills with my lifelong love of history. “Hidden History” is Ideastream's new social media series.
My colleague, digital producer Dmitri Ashakih, and I developed a series of short Instagram reels focused on obscure or lesser-known nuggets from Akron’s past.
We partnered with Charlotte Gintert, a cultural resources specialist with Summit Metro Parks, for a few of the episodes, including one coming up later this month.
“There’s something special about learning things that, just down the street from where you grew up or went to school … that you were completely unaware of,” Gintert said. “A lot of that is below the ground.”
Our first episode explores how the construction of the Ohio & Erie Canal incidentally created one of the city’s first working-class neighborhoods. Another episode reveals the importance of the Little Cuyahoga River — a tributary of its more widely known 'big sister,' the Cuyahoga River — to Akron’s early industrial history.
The most recent episode is perhaps the most “hidden” history we’ve tackled yet: A network of tunnels under the former B.F. Goodrich tire factory, now a commercial complex known as Canal Place.
While most of the factory's buildings and its iconic smokestacks have been demolished over the years, a handful are still standing and have been repurposed into office spaces, art galleries, apartments and a brewery.
Many of the underground tunnels have been filled in, but a few passageways remain — and I got to explore them.
During B.F. Goodrich's boom from the early 1900s to the 1980s, employees used the tunnels to move materials across its 40-acre campus. The tunnels are rumored to be the designated hiding spot should the factory be targeted during World War II. Day-to-day, workers also used the tunnels for, let's say, various forms of “entertainment." (You’ll have to watch the full video to see what I mean.)
After several weeks of attempting to access the tunnels on my own (spoiler alert for anyone thinking of trying: the basement doors are all locked), I eventually was able to get permission to go down there with a security guard.
As I walked through the tunnels, observing the old bricks, pipes and the occasional cockroach, I got a similar feeling to what I experienced as a budding history lover at the McKinley Museum.
I pictured B.F. Goodrich employees driving golf carts through the passageways. I wondered what products and materials had been hauled through there. I imagined workers chatting and smoking with each other, holding on to the last few minutes of their breaks before heading back up to the assembly line.
B.F. Goodrich was Akron's first tire company and helped the city become known as the “Rubber Capital of the World.” The company manufactured dozens of other products and made advancements in aerospace and technology.
I wonder if the workers realized then, sitting there in the tunnels, just how important they were — not just to Akron, but to the world. I loved shedding light on them now, decades later, through this piece.
I plan to keep uncovering more underground or lesser-known stories just like this, expanding “Hidden History” to feature topics beyond Akron and across Ideastream’s 22-county listening area.
What hidden Northeast Ohio history should we explore next? What do you want to learn more about in your community? Email me your suggestions.
I can’t wait to keep digging deeper into our region’s past.
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