Nomination for Quaker Oats Cereal Factory

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Form No. 10-300 REV. (9/77) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AUG 1 1 1978 NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS AND/OR COMMON STREET & NUMBER -NOT FOR PUBLICATION CITY. TOWN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 14 - John Seiberling - VICINITY OF PRESENT USE X MUSEUM _PUBLIC BUILDING(S) _PRIVATE RESIDENCE _IN PROCESS - YES: UNRESTRICTED 4 OWNER OF PROPERTY 5 LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC.

REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS 44308 COUNTY CODE DATE LOCATION DISTRICT AGRICULTURE ACCESSIBLE CATEGORY CLASSIFICATION Akron RECEIVED OWNERSHIP TRANSPORTATION Summit INDUSTRIAL STATE SCIENTIFIC RELIGIOUS PARK MILITARY NAME STATUS Summit County Quaker Square GOVERNMENT _EDUCATIONAL TITLE BEING CONSIDERED 1978 OTHER: COURTHOUSE, PUBLIC ACQUISITION Ohio DATE ENTERED _SITE Quaker Square Associates, Inc. S. High Street XPRIVATE FOR NPS USE ONLY 120 East Mill Street XOCCUPIED XSTRUCTURE - OBJECT XWORK IN PROGRESS -BOTH PH 0 683. 004 HISTORIC Quaker Oats Cereal Factory YENTERTAINMENT 7 DESCRIPTION CHECK ONE X_ORIGINAL SITE _MOVED DATE. Covering the equivalent of an entire city block, the Quaker complex is at Some of the floors are 2x6's, arranged vertically and spiked together side-to- side, covered with hardwood flooring.

Building #2, "Corn Puffs": 42x90 feet, contiguous to #1 with matching foot- thick masonry exterior. Interior structure, however, is steel frame and poured-in- structure, linking #1 and #3.) is a heavy-timber and brick structure whose gable roof, loading dock sheds and at its base. (not rehabilitated at this time) masonry walls, five stories high. (no interior floors) of 12" reinforced concrete, in one, continuous pouring operation that lasted CONDITION adaptation. UNALTERED DETERIORATED place concrete flooring system. XALTERED The brick warehouse buildings and former rail-siding shed retain their over- lighted its historical importance.

general overall configuration, have been preserved in its retail and restaurant XGOOD brick of the warehouse structures provides a strong - and relatively unchanged- Quaker Square had developed into a specialty shopping complex, but wherever possible, all visual impression as a mill complex, due to the sensitive design of needed the developers have retained the integrity of the original structure and high- the intersection of Broadway and Mill Streets in downtown Akron.Those significant deep basement.Heavy timber and beam interior structure, with some of the posts portions of the complex which are being nominated include: EXCELLENT three weeks.The contrast of these smooth cylindrical shapes with the textured glazing treatments.(l975).

Interior alterations are somewhat.more.extensive as The thirty-six, 9o' tall, poured-in-place grain storage silos were constructed been glazedto function asa gallery/entrance to the shopping complex. visual indentity to the complex. - UNEXPOSED Building #4,The"Loading Shed":a steel frame structure with corregated sheet Building #5,The "Elevator Building":twenty 14' diameter concrete grain Building House":49x90 story timber post and beam The 1900 Railway Express Agency depot building of Quaker Square, Building #l,the "Cereal Mil1":90xl00 feet,4 stories plus an18 foot - FAIR DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Description of the property

silos, 90' tall with a square 170 foot tower on top and a 53 foot train car dumper contemporary additions such as a brick supported exterior elevator shaft and some metal facing which served as a protected siding area.The open first floor has construction with masonry walls matching #l and is actually a later 2'square.Masonry exterior is 12"thick;posts generally on 14'centers through- -RUINS Form No 10-300a UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FOR NPS USE ONLY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AUG 11 1978 NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES DEC 8 INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM DATE ENTERED Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit County, Ohio CONTINUATION SHEET ITEM NUMBER -250'+ _ RECEIVED REA silos PAGE BROADWAY PLAZA STREET SOUTH MILL B94 (Hev. 10-74) - AREAS OF

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW PREHISTORIC _COMMUNITY PLANNING _LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE CONSERVATION SCULPTURE SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT POLITICS/GOVERNMENT _OTHER (SPECIFY) SPECIFIC DATES STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Statement of significance

it into smaller, easier to handle containers. 1400-1499 1500-1599 INVENTION 1600-1699 ART ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC X1800-1899 BUILDER/ARCHITECT ARCHITECTURE THEATER PERIOD LAW SCIENCE AGRICULTURE MILITARY TRANSPORTATION SIGNIFICANCE industrial structures. _EDUCATION _COMMUNICATIONS ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC X1900- XCOMMERCE LITERATURE Through various mergers and acquisitions, Schumacher's company became the retailing center by maximizing the quality and character of these handsome MUSIC Today, the complex is the only remaining visual element in Akron associated While quartered in Akron, Quaker developed some innovative marketing concepts _RELIGION XINDUSTRY ings on the same stone foundations. _ECONOMICS with the Quaker Oats Company; the city where Quaker began and served a vital the biggest industry and the largest single employer of the city.

also merchandised its products by developing the cross-country"whistle-stop" Schumacher's company flourished, and in 1872, he built his greatly expanded destroyed by fire in 1886,these structures were quickly replaced by similar build- city's history since it has been "recycled"into a successful regional specialty of national brand advertising by renaming its generic - ENGINEERING Schumacher built his first hand-operated mill in Akron.He perfected two revolution- _PHILOSOPHY roomed because of its ease of preparation on.the battlefield. economic role in the community for decades. -1700-1799 "slogan" for its product - "shot from guns". silos on the Akron site. breakfast product "oatmeal".

During the Civil War Quaker Oats' popularity mush- pioneers in consumer packaging - taking what had been a bulk item and putting Oats" and promoting it by distinguishing it from competitive products.The company which have had world-wide impact.In addition, Quaker was a pioneer in the concept The success of the Quaker Oats Company was born in the mill buildings and 1930's.For a number of years before the turn-of-the-century, Quaker Oats was ary milling processes - steel cut oats and rolled oats - and popularized the new Quaker, for example, was one of the first companies to actively promote a campaigns to increase public demand. The company was also one of the The complex continues to be an important part of the "Quaker Oats"Company and the Akron headquarters continued to grow through the "Salvage a Factory" Professional Builder, May 1977, pps.

128-129 "Quaker Square" Western Reserve Magazine, Jan-Feb 1978, pps.

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

GEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY Approximately 4 QUADRANGLE NAME QUADRANGLE SCALE 1:24000 VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION Beginning at the southeast corner of Broadway and Mill Streets STATE V 11 FORM PREPARED BY NAME / TITLE Richard C. Foran Foran & Greer, Inc. STREET & NUMBER CITY OR TOWN 12 STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATION THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS: NATIONAL - LOCAL - As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665).I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.

STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER SIGNATURE I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS PROPERTY IS INCLUDED IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER KEEPER OFTHE NATIONAL REGISTER ATTEST GPO 921-803 216-253-3900 TELEPHONE 1/10/78 CODE ORGANIZATION DATE COUNTY NORTHING Akron West 420 Quaker Square UTM REFERENCES Ohio MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES ZONE EASTING Urban 1978 FOR NPS USE ONLY SHPO then turn east and proceed approximately 250' to the railroad tracks, then proceed along the proceed south along the eastern curb line of Broadway Street approximately 480' to an alley, DATE 12.8:28 ZONE "Working Places" National Trust Movie, 1976 Working Number 8.11.78.3826 Photos _ ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN Inventory X OTHER KEEPER TECHNICAL Entered ARCHEOLOGIST Send-back HAER CONTROL Maps Re-submit 8.15.78 National Register Write-up Federal Register Entry BRANCH CHIEF United States Department of the Interior National Park Service WASO No.7 11-20-79 12.8.78 I UNIT CHIEF REVIEW HISTORIAN DEC 8 1978 Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co.,Ohio complex: factory buildings, elevator tower Photographer: Rick Foran, 1975 Aerial shows intersection of Broadway and the tracks is the University of Akron and storage silos.The REA building is in the Mill Streets (lower left) and entire Quaker rear next to the railroad tracks.

Across behind. At the rear is the 170' elevator DEC 8 AUG 1 1 1978 Negative: with photographer Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio building #10 to the right with the silos This shot from the intersection of Mill and 1eft with the new (l975) elevator tower, Broadway Streets, shows building #1 to the tower . View looking southeast 1ooking southeast. AUG 1 1 1978 Photographer Rick Foran, June 1978 Negative: with photographer Buildings #1 (left) with 1975 elevator addit Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio ion, and #10 (right) tower behind. View DEC8 The monumental 90 feet tall grain storage south and west boundaries of the site. They View looking northeast DEC 8 AUG 1 1 1978 were poured-in-place, around the clock, in Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 trast with the older brick mill building.

Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio These huge silos, with l2' thick walls, a three week period around Negative: With photographer silos are 24 feet in diameter and from the create a unique urban experience and con- AUG 1 1 1978 DEC Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 signed in the geometric stepped style 1978 The low, dark metal building is the loading shed which served the factory as a protected storiage silos are behind the front of REA, features the REA building to the lest (be- Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio the nearest of which shows some original hind the steam locomotive). The grain Negative: with photographer siding. View looking southwest From Mill Street, the rear of the complex popular in the 1920!s. fenestration. The elevator tower is de- Partial Broadway Street elevation with buil-, ding #10 to the left, original sub-station AUG 11 1978 southeast.

Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 Negative: with photographer and tower base to the right. View looking Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio DEC 8 dings (#1) shows the massive sandstone 1ooking northwest AUG 1 1 1978 Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio Negative: with photographer The Mill Street facade of the factory buil- foundations from 1872, and the re-construc- arched 6/6 windows with stone sills. View Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 ted (1886) building featuring corbelled brick and pilaster surface treatments, and EXPRESS DEC 8 Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio detailing on the timbered shed and loading Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 platform. View looking east. Western facade of the REA building showing Negative: with photographer AUG 11 1978 ground. View looking northwest.

Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 connectors and tower structure to the right, Detail of the largest concrete silos (left) Negative: with photographer beginning of loading sheds in the fore= Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio 1978 AUG 11 1978 AUG 11 1978 Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 Negative: with photographer Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio Tower (left) and major silo structures to the right. View looking southeast. Rear of the stepped tower structure. View looking west. Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio 1978 AUG 111978 DEC 8 Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 AUG 11 1978 DEC 8 1978 Silos, tower and former loading sheds. Quaker Oats Cereal Factory, Summit Co., Ohio Negative: with photographer View looking north.

Photographer: Rick Foran, June 1978 TS MINUTE SERIES (TOPOGRAPHIC) 7 UTm: AKRON WEST QUADRANGLE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 17/456740/4547620 Quaker Oats Cereal GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ROAD CLASSIFICATION Suite 407 QUAKER SQUARE ASSOCIATES 120 E. Mill Street Akron, Ohio 44308 (216) 253-5934 August 29, 1978 Dr. William J. Murtagh United States Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 20240 Dear Dr. Murtagh: Thank you for your letter of August 23, 1978 regarding Quaker Square Associates, Inc., 120 E. Mill St. Akron, Ohio 44308 regarding Quaker Oats Cereal Factory. Jay Nusbaum JN/ fh President Enc. Regarding H32-NR. Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service the history and the beginning of the Quaker Oats Company. development of this project. and is continuing to be the center of attention in downtown Akron.

Keeper of the National Register Very truly yours, I am enclosing excerpts from the book, Brands, Trademarks and Good Will, which refers to City of Akron, Quaker Square has helped in the rebirth of the downtown area by the Just as Quaker Oats was one of the major industries leading to the development of the SEP 0 6 1978 INITIALS THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES TRA 8:23 Chapter 2 * An Industry Is Born to the ne woke slumbering Akron, Ohio. The night was crisp and cold, no hint in it of the spring thaw of 1886 that soon car on t mud, which bogged delivery of agricultural products that the across gumbo roads for months, prudent miller Ferdi- 100,000 bushels of oats, plus a supply of other grains Akron, Schumacher was saluted as The Oatmeal King, world; his Jumbo mill, only three years old, was five Streams stories high and a mechanical wonder.

Schumacher had tion, wi introduced to America the use of oatmeal as a human The i food. He had created both an industry and a staple sub- ble wil stitute for meat. His Rolled Avena was known to whole- west as Denver, and even exported to that sanctum of ployer, the heaviest buyer, the biggest industrialist in were a him. So the disaster of fire at the mill affected, directly asked a or indirectly, almost everyone in town.

price f Bra everythi replied coveted There hydrants crash." Schuma Jumbo] Clevela steam an new alar Daily Be salers throughout New England and the East, as far would mire every road into the city.Against this annual nand Schumacher had just brimmed his bins with had reared the mightiest oat-milling complex in the sufficient to carry him until the summer harvest.In fighting Akron.The economy of the area had grown up around of sights and so he was.He accepted the accolade as his due.He watchec porridge, Scotland. Schumacher was the largest em- three mi hose cou cial train hour it some unl the hour of two in the morning when the cry of Fire! value.of L HE bells of Saint Bernard's church had just chimed Sixth Wa An Industry Is Born 11 There was some delay in reporting the flames to the Sixth Ward firehouse.

By the time a pumper had built steam and raced behind four horses to the blaze, a crowd flung, but the equipment generated no pressure. For some unknown reason, the machine failed to function. A to the nearby town of Kent, and also to Cleveland, thirty- three miles off. The Kent firemen responded, but their hose couplings had the wrong-gauge thread to fit Akron hydrants. A pumper from Cleveland, dispatched by spe- cial train, was derailed when the engine struck a hand- car on the railroad tracks. Every piece of Akron's fire- that the hose supply was inadequate. everything of a consumable nature, and within a half Jumbo] fell in, and the walls fell with a deep rumbling crash." When Saint Bernard's chimed six, there were five streams of water sizzling the ruins, but the conflagra- coveted by tycoons as far away as millionaire-studded Cleveland.

The mills, the grains newly laid in storage, asked at the climax of the blaze."They want a fearful tion, with nothing left to feed on, was sated. replied in heavy German-accented English. watched his life work go. He was scarcely insured for the ble will power, as the newspaper described him, The immigrant miller, "of iron nerve and inexhausti- of sightseers almost blocked its way. Hose lines were value of his elaborate $100,000 office, the pride of Akron, "The elevator,"said a special edition of the Akron fighting equipment had responded by 3 A.M.,but the thrust of the fire fiend.

The flames quickly licked up hour it was an utter ruin.Then the roof [of the great new alarm went out.The fire's glow in the sky radiated were a total loss."Why weren't you insured?"a reporter Daily Beacon that day, "became food for the insatiable Schumacher mills were spread over so much acreage price for the premiums; I wouldn't pay," Schumacher 12 Brands, Trademarks and Good Will quacies of the primitive fire-fighters. The Empire mill, his best building until the Jumbo had been built, escaped Soon the timbers began to smoke. Suddenly, like flaming building, and in another moment, with a spontaneous roar, the Empire was fully ablaze. Schumacher watched The disaster tempered Ferdinand Schumacher. Until Now he was severely crippled financially, and, of equal significance, he had nothing to sell. Into this double vacuum surged two competitors who, in different ways, in the land.

An era had begun of combine, monopoly, national marketing, and technological advance that pro- giants: Morgan, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and the rest. Like a phoenix rising with greater vigor from its own ashes, from the Schumacher fire emerged the embryo of cesses: The Quaker Oats Company. reflected the new approach to industry hesitantly abroad duced America's first financial and manufacturing ated with nobody and crushed all opposition ruthlessly. the fames for a long time.Schumacher suggested that hoses played from inside that building to the flames what today is one of America's great merchant suc- round about would preserve it."Save the Empire and you the calamity, strange calm masking his despair.

Only once did he become provoked with the inade mice, tiny flecks of yellow scudded up and down the then he had been an arrogant Dutchman who cooper- save me,"he pleaded.But the firemen had no more hose. - ADDRESS: DIVISION: NR REA - 1900 PHONE: 3-1886 REPORT: OFFICE OF ARCHEOLOGY AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION DATE: To/FROM: Silos-1940 PROJECT: 10-1886 TELEPHONE REPORT 2-1912 STAFF MEMBER: ADDRESS: - DIVISION: NE PROJECT: DATE: REPORT: TELEPHONE REPORT OFFICE OF ARCHEOLOGY AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION STAFF MEMBER: To/FROM: 336 12-4-78 - PHONE: 614-4606-150 Mitchel1, Randolph, House Shelby County Henry, Robert W., House Honorable John E. Glenn, Jr. Dr. Thomas H. Smith Honorable Iennyson Guyer Honorable Charles A. Vanik Columbus, Ohio 43211 Honorable Thomas A.

Luken 1978 Location Byers/bjr Botkins Barnett-Criss House STATE Akron Director The Chio Historical Society Clifton Avenue Historic District Cincinnati Date Entered Mahoning County Guernsey County Alliance vicinity Perry County Shelby House Hamilton County New Reading ENTRIES IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER Quaker Oats Cereal Factory State Historic Preservation Officer Cambridge vicinity Honorable Douglas Applegate Honorable Howard M. Metzenbaum Interstate 7l at 17th Avenue Cuyahoga County Honorable Charles J. Carney Parna Heights Also Notified Honorable John F. Seiberling Honorable Clarence E. Miller Alliance Clay Product Company Name Summit County CHIO Hotel HOUSING UNITS before N/A FEDERAL FUNDS (*)no () yes Quaker Square Associate, Inc.

Akron, OH 44310 Date info requested | () non-contributing () denied ( ) conditional () plans ( ) sustained () overturned -- nora 8/21/80 REHABILITATION SIGNIFICANCE after COMPLETED WORK PRELIMINARY APPEAL Date listed/certified Date received FINAL COST PDIL PROPOSED WORK Name of district Date info received NAME AND ADDRESS OF OWNER AKRON 120 East Mill Street Date of action USE original () approved Reviewer Industrial/Manufacturinfermediate OH-80-0087 2 OTHER NAMES: 3) date of entry : DEC 8 5 LOCATION street & number 120 E. Mill St. 12)SOURCE of NOMINATION - deteriorated Daltered Dexcellent O -NOT INTACT-O Dunexposed Oreconstructed - Unknown Ounexcavated 20 NOT APPLICABLE-7 - No Access IS PROPERTY A HISTORIC DISTRICT?

Dyes Ono @ AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE : OCLAIMS: explain -RECREATION -28 'first'O -ARCHEOLOGY - prehistoric-2 - LAW- 16 - RELIGION- 22 - SETTLEMENT-29 - ARCHEOLOGY-historic-1 - LITERATURE - 17 - SCIENCE- 23 - URBAN PLANNING-31 'oldest' O - AGRICULTURE-3 - CONSERVATION - 8 - HEALTH -27 - MILITARY - 18 - ARCHITECTURE-4 - ECONOMICS- 9 C INDUSTRY-13 - MUSIC - 19 - SOCIAL / CULTURAL- 30 'only' D - ART-5 - EDUCATION-10 - INVENTION -14 - PHILOSOPHY - 20 - TRANSPORTATION - 25 83) functions major alterations : "architectural style(s): Dlandscape architect/ garden designer: S interior decorator: date IF ADDITIONAL SPACE NEEDED, NUMBER & PUT ON REVERSE 153 county CONDITION Midwest Summit ASSOCIATION Akron engineer: STATE FEDERAL ENTERTAINMENT-26 ENGINEERING-11 PERSONAL: INSTITUTIONAL: EVENTS: builder/contractor: artist: CURRENTLY: master builder: SUBSTANTIALLY INTACT-2 historic events: WHEN HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT: artisan: Quaker Square ADMINISTRATOR: LOCAL NATIONAL REGISTER WRITE-UP COMMERCE-6 PRIVATE ORGANIZATION Quaker Oats Cereal Factory SAVED?YES if state who prepared form?

NATIONAL REGISTER DATA SHEET Doriginal site as it appears on federal register: Mfeatures: Oruins Cmoved --NOT APPLICABLE - 8 - COMMUNICATIONS-7 CEXPLORATION -12 Ireviewers initials. ETHNIC GROUP Ofair dates of initial construction: city/ town 4county code: NAMES give role & date architeot: