Akron’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of Akron. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story so far
from Wikipedia & the U.S. CensusAkron () is a town in Hale County, Alabama, United States. On January 18, 1906, landowners Charles E. Waller, Charles Lichtman and M.H. Murphy sold at public auction a great number of individual business and residential lots which would be developed into the town of Akron, Alabama. Akron became the fastest growing town in Hale County, and in a few years had grown to include a modern post office, railroad depot, various retail businesses, barber shop, hotel, drug store, concrete and block factory, wheel spoke factory, lumber mills, and attractive residences. The town was incorporated in March 1918. As of the 2020 census, Akron had a population of 225. Akron has one site on the National Regis…
Akron was established in 1870. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 356 to 225 (-37%). Half of its homes were built before 1981.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Akron yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.
Start Akron’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Akron’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo1 archive item has no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewTanglewood, off Alabama 23: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Akron
See all 1 →
Akron, decade by decade
2000
unknown1 item
Nothing in Akron is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Akron has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Tanglewood in Akron, 4.4 miles away.
Akron and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Tanglewood, off Alabama 23 and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.