Description: This photograph shows Main Street in Akron, Ohio, with the Lumber Yard at the center. The front caption for the photograph reads "Main St. In the Sixties - Lumber Yard is Present Site of Howe Hotel" and the reverse caption reads "District 6 files. 902 City Bldg Akron, Ohio. Dec. 16, 1937. Main Street in the Sixties, at the extreme left on the Southeast corner of Main and Market Streets, now occupied by the United Building, is a mill. The lumber yard along the P. & O. Canal is present site of Howe Hotel. In the background are successively, (1) Universalist Church (still standing), (2) Grace Reformed Church, (3) Courthouse (since replaced), and (4) Old Stone School (still standing). All of these face on Broadway. The street climbing the knoll is High St. The P. & O. Canal joined Ohio Canal S of Mill Street." This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B08F01_027_001
Subjects: Streets--Ohio; Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal (Ohio and Pa.); Central business districts; Storefronts--United States--Pictorial works; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Works Progress Administration; Ohio Federal Writers' Project
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)