Built around the tire plants
East Akron’s story is tied to Goodyear. Signal Akron lists the company’s headquarters among the neighborhood’s landmarks, and the former headquarters building at 1144 East Market Street was listed on the National Register in 2013. The neighborhood lies directly south of Middlebury, with South Akron and Firestone Park to the west and Ellet to the east.
When the tire industry cut jobs and closed plants, East Akron’s houses took the hit. HUD records that the East Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation was formed in 1982 “in response to deteriorated housing and property abandonment in east Akron” after those closings. EANDC has worked on scattered-site construction and rehab ever since.
What neighbors say about the blocks today
People interviewed for Signal Akron’s 2025 profile describe a neighborhood held together by its residents more than by investment:
- A church food coordinator who worked at Goodyear for 30 years said a survey walk found “a lot of houses were vacant,” and that upkeep has declined.
- Her husband, a pastor on South Arlington Street, said sidewalks are broken in many places and streetlights are often out.
- Arlington Street once had stores up and down it; now, they said, there is “nothing” there, and the nearest urgent care is on Waterloo Road.
- A longtime resident said falling homeownership has hurt community pride.
Another long-time resident, who said the old feeling of East Akron as a “village” is gone, also insisted that it remains a beautiful place with a lot of promise, and that every Black neighborhood is not defined by crime.
There are bright spots. The Joy Park Community Center, whose gym LeBron James helped renovate in 2004, finished another renovation in 2019. And one resident made a point worth repeating: many of the abandoned houses “can be fixed up instead of tearing them down.”
Selling a house on a street with vacancy
A seller in East Akron is often weighing a house that needs work against a block where comparable sales are low. That’s the situation where a direct sale is most useful, because you skip the repairs that a retail buyer’s lender would demand.
Before you decide, it helps to know where you stand with the city:
- Open orders or a condemnation placard? Our Akron demolition order guide explains the Housing Appeals Board process and how to get time to repair.
- Behind on property taxes? See selling a house with back taxes for how they’re paid off at closing.
- Empty for months? Insurance and break-ins become the risk, covered in selling a vacant house.
If the house was your parents’ and you’ve inherited a Goodyear-era home you don’t want to manage, Bob can walk it with you and give you a written figure. Start with the address.