Photograph by The original uploader was IanManka at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Via
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Goodyear Airdock
Built in 1930. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. 8 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1906.
From the record
“The Goodyear Airdock is an airship construction and storage hangar in Akron, Ohio. At its completion in 1929, it was the largest building in the world without interior supports.”
Wikipedia article Goodyear Airdock, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 180 National Register listings published here for Summit County · listed in 1973 · category: Building · built in 1930.
National Register reference number.73002259- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Then and now
1906 to 1994
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
88 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
It is inaccurate to say that the Ohio Canal made Akron. The city as it stands today is the resultant of many causes. Many and different influences, and various men and measures, have co-operated toward the end now attained. The start was made long before the Ohio Canal was built. - Within the present limits of the city, settlements at two different points had been made, which antedate the canal by nearly two decades. In 1807 the first settlement had been made in Middlebury. In 1811 Miner Spicer had started "Spicertown." In the same year Paul Williams settled upon the lands immediately west of the Spicer settlement and adjoining the land of General Simon Perkins on the east. When the canal was opened in 1827 Middlebury was an important village. It had attracted many settlers from the East, principally from Connecticut, and boasted of half a dozen mills and factories, a dozen stores, three inns and about five hundred inhabitants. It certainly deserved a place on the maps of the time.
Let us search that we may find, if we can, the economic reasons for the existence of Akron. The sentence that begins this chapter contains the idea that is ordinarily advanced as the sole reason for the Akron of today. The unthinking man repeats: "The canal made Akron." The wTiter on Akron history records: "Dr. Eliakim G. Crosby made Akron."
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 731 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Goodyear Airdock between 1867 and 1975: 620 Animalia, 65 Plantae, 44 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by (no collector listed), A. W. Cusick, A. Woolman and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
14 workings within 5 miles of Goodyear Airdock: 9 past producers, 4 producers, 1 plant.
5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Coal. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Akron, the town this property stands in, in 75 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 38 hail, 31 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 1 lightning.
The reports record 2 deaths. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
On Wednesday afternoon, July 10, the City of Akron experienced 3 to 4 inches of rain in an hour and a half. Flooding occurred causing the closings of roadways and expressways. Along with the roadway flooding, the City received reports of nearly 200 flooded basements. Widespread flooding was reported throughout the city and numerous homes, businesses, and vehicles were inundated by the rain.
Weakened tree fell onto home in Akron and killed occupant. Thunderstorm was likely sub-severe per radar data. The nearby Akron-Fulton International Airport ASOS recorded a peak convective wind gust of 44 mph at 9:26 AM EST. No other reports of thunderstorm-related damage or severe convective weather were received as the cluster of storms moved through the Akron area.
A severe thunderstorm moved across Summit County and caused unprecedented damage. Hail as large as softballs fell across much of the county. Extensive damage was done to homes and vehicles in Akron and surrounding areas. Nearly 51,100 insurance claims were filed for damage in the county. The south side of Akron was the hardest hit.
Thunderstorm winds downed trees and limbs in the Akron and Stow areas resulting in scattered power outages. At the peak of the storm a few thousand customers were without power.
Route 8 northbound was closed from Perkins St to E. Tallmadge Avenue. Akron police reported traffic accidents and delays due to the high water conditions. Route 8 southbound closed at Seasons Rd in Hudson/Stow to flooding. Storm total rainfall from Hudson 4.75.
2 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Statement of significance
It houses the photographic division of, the Commerce losophy Communications SIGNIFICANCE Conservation Aboriginal Art REGISTER Religion/Phi Architecture NATIONAL Theater Science Prehistoric Agriculture Music itarian Education Social/Human- centers for development and construction of lighter-than-air Landscape Zeppelin Corporation from plans created by the Wilbur Watson RECEIVED Political original purpose. Goodyear Aerospace Corporation. At the present time the building is a part of the Goodyear The Goodyear Airdock was constructed in 1929 by the Goodyear Sculpture Urban Planning Invention dirigibles, the Akron and the Macon, were built in the Airdock. With the construction of the Airdock, Akron became one of the Pre-Columbian| cost of 2.2 million dollars.
NOV 20 1972 Other (Specify) PERIOD (Check One or More as Appropriate) Engineering Company of Cleveland, Ohio. Work began on April Transportation ships. Aerospace complex. Among the first large airships to be constructed was The structure is no longer used for its the Navy dirigible 193land 1934 two other Public Relations Dept., Goodyear Aerospace Corp., July, 1971. pp. 444-448.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 73002259, 25 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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