A president is hiding in Goodyear Heights
Kermit Avenue isn’t named for a Muppet. Teddy Avenue isn’t a tribute to a stuffed bear — although there is a connection.
An unusual monument to a U.S. president is hiding in plain sight in Goodyear Heights.
Bully for you if you guessed it’s Theodore Roosevelt.
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It might not be obvious at first glance, but there’s a recurring theme in the Akron neighborhood east of Darrow Road and south of Newton Street. Many of the street names pay homage to the 26th president and his family.
Real estate agent Frank McDonald announced plans in 1920 to develop a residential allotment on the eastern outskirts of Akron in what was then Tallmadge Township. He partnered with John T. Miller, owner of Buckeye Plumbing & Heating Co., and Dr. Frank W. Ganyard, a dentist, to build Roosevelt Heights as a lasting tribute to the former U.S. president, New York governor and Rough Rider who died in 1919 at age 60.
“You can find no more attractive spot in Akron,” the ads promised.
“This development is so desirable that lots will actually sell themselves.”
Goodyear workers targeted in ads
Located a half-mile beyond Goodyear Heights, the allotment was marketed as convenient housing for factory workers at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. In theory, employees could walk to work, although it might take them more than an hour to make the trek in good weather.
“You will find Roosevelt Heights the most wonderful spot in East Akron as a homesite,” McDonald advertised. “It is situated in one of the beautiful and fast growing sections of the city on high level ground with improvements arranged for.”
The McDonald-Miller-Ganyard Co. planned to hire 50 salesmen to begin selling 700 lots for as low as $900 (roughly $12,500 today). The Akron developers had $1.5 million in property available to sell (worth nearly $21 million today).
Borrowing one of Roosevelt’s favorite phrases, they assured potential buyers: “You’ll be d-e-e-lighted.”
Civil engineers Sherman Swigart, George Ehrman and H.N. Legreid mapped out the development, but the project stalled during the recession of 1920-1921 and McDonald’s business partnership dissolved.
A ghostly allotment with cinder streets such as Teddy Avenue, Kermit Avenue and Quentin Avenue awaited houses.
The Pardee-Chambers Co., led by Richard L. Pardee and Edward C. Chambers, took up the Roosevelt Heights gauntlet in 1927. They scaled back the development, reduced the price of lots to $375 (about $6,000 today) and set up a field office at Darrow Road and Newton Street.
Roosevelt Heights had rosy future
Their sales pitch was unusual — to say the least. They urged potential buyers to realize their lot in life and settle for Roosevelt Heights.
“Wake up Mr. Workingman, and buy where you will always be safe and where happiness and contentment will always be yours,” they advertised in 1928. “Get away from that million dollar appetite on a $1,000 income. Get the best you can for the money you have and if it is not given to you on a platter don’t throw it away.
“It’s nice to dream but it hurts when you wake up and find it is only a dream. Roosevelt Heights offers you a home within your means. Come out and look them over and you will buy. Life will take on a new meaning. The joy of living will be yours and the future will be rosy in your own home sweet home.”
Somehow the approach worked because the lots began to sell. Bungalows and ranch houses started to sprout on properties nearly a decade after the allotment was proposed and two decades after Roosevelt left office.
Unfortunately, the development stalled again after the 1929 stock market crash. The Rubber City Realty Co., led by V.D. Emmons and Clarence G. Roush, guided the project during the Great Depression.
Progress was slow. A city waterline wasn’t completed until the late 1930s. Paved streets came later. Sidewalks never did get built.
After being annexed to Akron, the neighborhood took shape in the 1940s and 1950s with the construction of dozens of ranch houses. Two-family homes and garden apartments arrived in the 1960s and 1970s. Colonials joined the mix in the 1990s.
Over the decades, the Roosevelt Heights name faded from the public vocabulary, but street signs offer clues to the past.
Let’s crack the code.
Akron street names tell story
Obviously, Teddy Avenue is named for Roosevelt (1858-1919), but it’s also a reference to his son Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (1887-1944). Fun fact: Teddy bears were named for the U.S. president, so it’s kind of a reference to them, too. OK, maybe not.
Kermit Avenue is named for another son, Kermit Roosevelt (1889-1943). Roosevelt sons Quentin (1897-1918) and Archibald (1894-1979) also had streets in the allotment, but they have since been vacated and wiped off maps.
This was an all-boys club.
Roosevelt’s first and second wives, Alice (1861-1884) and Edith (1861-1948) didn’t make the cut in the neighborhood, nor did Roosevelt’s daughters Alice (1884-1980) and Ethel (1891-1977).
But a son-in-law inspired the names of two streets!
Nicholas Avenue is a tribute to U.S. Rep. Nicholas Longworth III, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who was married to Roosevelt’s daughter Alice.
Longworth Avenue, which stood for decades in Roosevelt Heights before being vacated, was named for the same politician.
Sagamore Avenue is named for Sagamore Hill, the Roosevelt family home near Oyster Bay, New York.
Roosevelt Drive, which connects Newton Street to Scotland Drive, is the shortest of shortcuts. It’s surprising that the name wasn’t used for a longer street in the neighborhood.
So that’s the tale of Roosevelt Heights, a monument to the 26th president of the United States. It isn’t exactly Mount Rushmore, but it’s all ours.
We hope you are d-e-e-lighted.
Mark J. Price can be reached at [email protected].
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