Entertainment & Lifestyle

The John Brown monument is located in Perkins Woods on property that is now part of the Akron Zoo.

Photo: Bruce Ford

WEST AKRON — The Akron area was a place that abolitionist John Brown lived in and returned to throughout his life. And now, the city and other organizations are planning events, exhibits and tours to highlight Brown and his local history this year.

The yearlong remembrance of Brown comes 150 years after his last visit to Akron during the last year of his life, when he led the raid on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia in an attempt to arm slaves.

Brown has been credited by many historians as laying the groundwork for the Civil War. The raid he led on Oct. 16, 1859, led to his execution Dec. 2 of that year.

Brown was born in 1800 in Connecticut but moved to Hudson in 1805. At age 16, he left Ohio to attend school in the East but returned to work in his father’s tannery. He married in 1820 and five years later moved his young family to Pennsylvania. One year after his wife died, he remarried and in 1836 returned to Ohio and settled in Franklin Mills, which is now Kent. According to the Summit County Historical Society (SCHS), he also lived in Richfield.

By the mid-1940s, Brown was considered an expert on sheep and wool. He began working with Col. Simon Perkins in West Akron and moved into the house across the street from Perkins’ mansion with his wife and children. Today, that house is known as the John Brown House and is maintained by the SCHS.

The house, at the intersection of Diagonal and Copley roads, was the site of an open house June 23 that kicked off the events of the next few months. According to SCHS Curator Leianne Neff Heppner, renovations have been ongoing at the house and it is not currently open for tours. She added the SCHS might open the doors in the next few months to tie in to another event.

Response from the public to the opening was positive, she said.

“It’s been exciting because we’re seeing people in the neighborhood just walking in because they saw the sign,” Neff Heppner said. “People are saying thank you to us for telling the story about John Brown.”

The city of Akron will celebrate Brown with tours at the permanent monument to Brown located in Perkins Woods, on property that is now part of the Akron Zoo. The monument, placed on the 76 acres along the high wooded ridge donated to the city by Col. George Tod Perkins, a Union Army veteran, was erected by the German-American Alliance in 1910 from a sandstone pillar that was part of Summit County’s first courthouse, razed in 1905. The monument was enlarged in 1938 by the Negro 25 Year Club to include a circular stone seating area and plaza.

“We will be conducting guided tours of the area this summer and fall,” said Akron Deputy Mayor Dave Lieberth, the coordinator of the city’s John Brown events. “This will provide an opportunity for people who have never visited the monument to see it up close.”

Tours of the monument will take place July 4, Aug. 15 and Sept. 5 at 9 a.m.; and July 5, Aug. 16 and Sept. 6 at 4 p.m. An official commemoration of the Raid on Harper’s Ferry will take place at the site Oct. 16 at 11 a.m. Tour attendees are advised to park at the western end of the zoo lot.

Lieberth said each tour will require about one hour. He cautions that the area may not be accessible to people with physical limitations. The terrain is rough and uneven, and the tour involves walking up an elevation that is moderately difficult.

Those looking for insight into Brown’s life and more on his role in history will find much to see at the Akron-Summit County Public Library. The library’s Special Collections Division, along with the SCHS and the Hudson Library and Historical Society, are collaborating on Summit County’s John Brown, an exhibit that will be installed on the third floor of Main Library.

According to Judy James, division manager of Special Collections, the exhibit will include mostly photographs and some artifacts relating to Brown.

“Although the focus will be on his time in Summit County, it will tell his entire story, up to Harper’s Ferry and his execution,” James said.

The library exhibit will be up by July 4 and will run through December, James said.

Local arts organizations also will celebrate the life of Brown. The Akron Art Museum will feature the exhibit The Legend of John Brown in the Judith Bear Isroff Gallery from Oct. 16 to Feb. 14. The exhibit will feature selections from Jacob Lawrence’s print series.

According to the museum, Lawrence was the first African-American artist to depict the story of Brown. Lawrence’s screen print series is from the museum’s collection and will be joined by related images and artifacts from the SCHS and the library’s Special Collections Division. For details, call (330) 376-9185 or go to www.akronartmuseum.org.

The Akron Symphony Orchestra will present an original musical work, “The Passion of John Brown,” by Malone University professor Jesse Ayers, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. at E.J. Thomas Hall on The University of Akron campus. Cleveland newscaster Leon Bibb will narrate the program, which also will feature the music of Berlioz, Barber and Beethoven. Single tickets will go on sale Aug. 17. For more information, call (330) 535-8131 or go to www.akronsymphony.org

Brown’s execution will be commemorated at First Presbyterian Church, 647 E. Market St., Dec. 2. Details will be announced later.