History of Canal Place

Canal Place is truly a special place. Its tie to the BFGoodrich Company dating back to 1871 and its contribution to the livelihood of thousands of people make this property a landmark of Akron, Ohio. To fully appreciate Canal Place, one must acknowledge its proud past, its role in the community and the groundwork it has laid for an exciting future.

The year was 1871 when Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich relocated his small rubber company from Melrose, New York to Akron, Ohio. The company settled on the banks of the Ohio Canal and was neighbors with the former Diamond Rubber Company. In 1912, the two rubber companies merged and, with constant construction over the next thirty years, BFGoodrich became the largest rubber factory in the world. With over ninety buildings by the end of World War II, the complex was a self-contained city with its own police, fire and medical services and boasted the first telephone system in Akron.

In 1988, operation "Green Grass" was scheduled to demolish the complex. The operation would cost BFGoodrich approximately $18 million and would have left an open pasture measuring thirty-eight acres. However, Covington Capital Corporation, then a New York-based real estate development company, could see what no one else could and bought the complex from BFGoodrich. Stuart Lichter, Gerald Wendel, and Barry Lang saw a diamond in the rough. An idea that is now called Canal Place.