| Julius A. Sumner, the most picturesque character of early Akron, with a long white beard and hair hanging down over his shoulders, was born in Vermont in 1802. In 1818, seven years before Akron was started, he came with his father to Middlebury. In the middle forties he was proprietor of the Ohio Exchange, then the leading hotel in Akron, located on the southwest corner of Market and Main streets. Later Mr. Sumner built the Sumner Hotel and Opera House, corner North Howard and Tallmadge streets, and the Empire House on present site of Portage Hotel. |
