Factory of Sadness

Taken just prior to the start of the preseason
home opener in August

For this past season I was able to work for the Cleveland Browns in Guest Services. In my job I ended up being the security for the door from the ramps to the Press Level, making sure anyone who came in that door had the proper credentials. Many weeks I also checked four suites before and after the game to make sure everything was working properly.

Anyone who knows me knows I love sports and sports history, so being able to work in an NFL stadium was quite the experience for me. As most know by now, the Browns just finished their season at 7-9. While it's an improvement over last season (5-11), it ended on a five game losing streak. In early November, the Browns were in first place, but ended up in their all-too-familiar final place at the bottom of the AFC North. Since returning to the NFL in 1999, the Browns have had two winning seasons: 9-7 in 2002 (which was their only playoff appearance) and 10-6 in 2007

Working in the stadium gave me the opportunity to see the "behind the scenes" aspect of stadium operations, but I was also able to interact with a lot of fans during the season. At various times during each game, I would usually position myself out on the ramp just outside the door I was watching. Not only did it discourage smoking (mostly at halftime), but many times people would come ask me for directions or to verify they were headed in the right direction. Even though the ramps were designed mainly for exiting the stadium, they were quite popular for people entering the stadium if they didn't want to wait for the escalators or use the stairs. Being able to interact with the fans was usually a pretty good experience, especially after a Browns win. I would often say after a win that "peace and good will" was free-flowing at the stadium. It was especially evident after the season-opening win over the Saints (on a last-second field goal), the first hope-opener win for the Browns since 2004. A Saints fan even remarked how happy everyone was around her and I replied "we're not used to this!" She smiled and said a few years ago, Saints fans were the same way!

The front of the main press box. I was in the press box almost every game, usually passing through or directing people to where they needed to go.

The main press box, further back from the previous picture.

One thing I was really hoping for (besides the Browns making the playoffs) was for the team to have a winning season at home. I knew coming into the season that the Browns have had just one winning season at home, when they went 7-1 in 2007. While they started out 4-1 this year at FirstEnergy Stadium, they ended up 4-4 (though they could've easily ended up 6-2 as two losses were in the final minutes of play). I decided to look up their all-time records at home to see how they were at the old stadium and ended up finding some interesting pieces of information, at least for a statistical geek like me.

Panoramic shot I got of the stadium from the top corner of section 501 before the game against the Oakland Raiders, October 26, 2014

At FirstEnergy Stadium (previously known as Cleveland Browns Stadium until 2013), the Browns have an all-time record of 51-77-0 for a winning percentage of just .398. That is absolutely atrocious and is one of the reasons the stadium has become known as the "Factory of Sadness". The other reason is the nature of the losses. While I don't have all the scores, there seem to have been a large amount of close, excruciating losses at home where the Browns gave up the lead late in the 4th. There were two such home games this season. In going through the seasons, as I mentioned, the Browns have just one winning season there. In their 16 seasons at FE Stadium, they also have nine losing seasons and six .500 (4-4) seasons, including this past season. The stadium has never hosted a playoff game (the Browns haven't hosted a playoff game since 1994) and it's currently the only NFL stadium that hasn't hosted any postseason game. Of those nine losing seasons, the worst was the very first season when they went 0-8 in the inaugural 1999 season after being reactivated as an expansion team (team was 2-14 overall with both wins coming on the road), That was the first (and so far only) time in franchise history the team went winless at home. The second worst season was a 1-7 mark in 2008, the season after they had been 7-1.

Photo of old Cleveland Stadium my grandma took at my suggestion on a trip to the Great Lakes Science Center. This was taken  August 8, 1996, just a few weeks before the stadium was demolished.

Aerial of Cleveland Stadium during the final game played there, December 17, 1995 against the Cincinnati Bengals. Photo credit Paul M. Walsh, uploaded at Wikimedia Commons

I decided to go through all of the Browns seasons and see how well they had been at home when they played at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, their home from 1946-1995. I was only 13 when the move to Baltimore was announced, so I don't remember a lot of details from those previous seasons, but I do remember they typically won more at home. What I found in looking over the stats confirmed this. In the 50 seasons the team played at Cleveland Stadium they had nine losing seasons TOTAL. So, in just 15 seasons at FirstEnergy Stadium (since this 16th season was .500), the Browns have already equaled their total of losing seasons they had in 50 seasons at the old stadium. At Cleveland Stadium, the Browns also had five seasons where they finished at .500. Every other season was a winning season (36 total) for an overall record of 239-126-6 (.652), which includes their 28-2-1 record in the AAFC (1946-49) and a 12-5 (.705) mark in postseason games (3-0 in home AAFC games and 9-5 in home NFL games). They also had no winless seasons and five undefeated seasons (1948, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1957) at the old stadium. In fact, the Browns didn't even register their first losing season at home until their 11th season (1956), when they went 1-5. After that, they wouldn't have a losing season at home again until 1974 and 1975 when they went 3-4 both seasons. The longest stretch without a winning season at home was four seasons (1990-1993), and the 1992 and 1993 seasons were both .500 seasons.

The view I had if I went out on the ramp during a game. This is from the southwest corner.

Just to the right of the previous picture. The double doors go into the Press Level, which includes the scoreboard operations rooms and coaches booths. Several suites are on this level at the opposite end. The large door on the right is a freight elevator used mainly by food service.

In contrast, the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium went eight seasons before having that sole winning season in 2007 and are currently on a seven season drought since then. FirstEnergy Stadium also holds the longest drought in team history of not hosting a playoff game, now at 16 seasons (17 total counting the final season at Cleveland Stadium). Prior to that, the longest drought was 14 seasons (hosted in 1971 and not again until 1986).

Looking west from southeast corner showing one of the new scoreboards and the reconfigured upper level in that end zone after the 2014 renovations. The Dawg Pound is just to the right of this photo.

Now, obviously, the record at home isn't much of an anomaly when you look at the team's overall record during the same period, and their road record is actually even worse than their home record. In their 16 seasons since being reactivated, the Browns, as I said, have only had two winning seasons and one playoff appearance, In general, the majority of the team's wins in a given season were at home. Only on four occasions have the Browns won more games on the road than they did at home: 1999 (0-8 at home, 2-6 on the road), 2002 (3-5 at home, 6-2 on the road), 2003 (2-6 at home, 3-5 on the road), and 2008 (1-7 at home, 3-5 on the road).

New scoreboard and reconfigured Dawg Pound after the 2014 renovations

2002 is also their only winning season on the road (6-2) since the return, while they have had 15 losing seasons on the road including two winless seasons (2004 and 2006), four 1-7 campaigns, and zero .500 seasons. The 51-77-0 record at home looks a lot better than the road record in that same span: 33-95-0, good for a dismal .258 winning percentage. Ouch. The Browns overall record since the return is 84-172-0, a .328 winning percentage.

Another panoramic shot from the aisle between sections 501 and 502 I got after the game against Baltimore, September 21, 2014

Obviously from a fan's perspective, I hope the team finally turns it around and starts having consistent winning seasons at home (and overall) as opposed to the consisted losing it currently has. The Browns still have a very large and loyal fanbase as evidenced by not only the attendance at home yet again this season, but the large crowds of Browns fans present at most road games this year, especially Atlanta, Carolina, Cincinnati, and Tennessee. It seems every sports league has a team like the Browns: a proud and illustrious history, but a long championship drought and no recent success, along with periods of dysfunction or other poor management or just bad luck. In the NHL, it's the Toronto Maple Leafs (no Stanley Cup since 1967, but second most overall), in the NBA, it seems to be the New York Knicks (might be the most dysfunctional team in the NBA...haven't won anything in decades), and in Major League Baseball, the Chicago Cubs (over 100 seasons since their last World Series championship and almost 70 years since their last World Series appearance) and Cleveland Indians (last World Series championship in 1948), and to a lesser extent, the Pittsburgh Pirates (20 straight losing seasons).

Even so, I'm still a Browns fan and will remain so. Hope springs eternal! Make the Factory of Sadness a Factory of Gladness!

Ravenna State University?

Most people who are familiar with the history of Kent State University are aware that the state of Ohio awarded Kent with what was known as a "normal school" (a school to train teachers) in 1910.  They also are familiar with the somewhat embellished story of how local leaders here in Kent were able to convince the commission that was sent from Columbus to scout various sites in both northwestern and northeastern Ohio for two new normal schools that Kent was the best spot and how the Kent visit was nearly a total disaster.  Not only did the weather not cooperate in the least, but the local welcoming committee didn't meet the search commission at the right place (the train station downtown) believing that the commissioners would be arriving by car.  Only a wonderful blue gill dinner at the Frank Merrill home in Twin Lakes saved the day, enough that Kent eventually won the normal school which later became Kent State University.  The next stop for the commission was Ravenna, where they were expected by lunchtime but arrived about three hours late.  It's most often presented like the committee in Ravenna knew their bid was doomed and that Kent would win.  But was Ravenna really ever a major consideration for the normal school?  And was it a competition exclusively between Kent and Ravenna?

Locally, many people are aware that Ravenna was one of the cities that tried to get the normal school along with Kent, but for some reason, many also believe that it was a choice the state made only between Kent and Ravenna.  This has evolved into an even more bizarre myth that Ravenna was given a choice between having the county seat and the university and chose the county seat so Kent got the university.  Where that story came from I have no idea, but it's pure folk history (and false).  Ravenna and what would later become Kent did compete for the honor of being the county seat when Portage County was formed, but that was in 1807, over 100 years before the state of Ohio passed the Lowry Bill to establish two new normal schools in northern Ohio.  In 1807, neither city was much of anything in terms of buildings or a city layout.  Ravenna won because its founder, Benjamin Tappan, was able to convince the powers that be to give his settlement the county seat (on his land, which is now downtown Ravenna) over what had apparently been the favored location in Franklin Township, owned by Aaron Olmstead.  Had Olmstead's land been chosen, the county seat would've been located about where Standing Rock cemetery is today in northern Kent along SR 43, and Kent itself likely would've been located further north that it is.  As it turned out, Olmstead died before the deal could be worked out and his heirs used the land for other purposes, so the county seat went to Ravenna.

Front page of the Ravenna Republican,
September 22, 1910

On to the normal school.  The first important fact to know is that the search for the normal school site in northeastern Ohio included far more than just Kent and Ravenna.  Over 40 communities statewide applied for consideration for one of the two schools.  In northeastern Ohio, Kent and Ravenna were just two among a group that included Ashtabula, Canton, Chagrin Falls, Columbiana, East Liverpool, Geneva, Hubbard, Hudson, Lorain, Massillon, Medina, Poland, Salem, Seville, Urichsville, Wadsworth, Warren, and Youngstown.  Eventually the commission narrowed the list down based on a number of criteria like central location in the region, access to railroads, etc.  They then heard presentations from each candidate city and made further cuts.  After those two "rounds", the commission visited the remaining candidate cities, which totaled 14 for northeastern Ohio.  Both Kent and Ravenna made those first cuts as both cities shared a central location in the region and rail connections.  Also included were Wadsworth, Medina, Hudson, Salem, Warren, Poland, Youngstown, Ashtabula, Geneva, Chagrin Falls, Canton, and Massillon.

Front page story from the Ravenna Republican, September 29, 1910

After the commission narrowed down the list, they started making their official visits.  Each community's first visit was highly planned and announced ahead of time.  I already mentioned Kent's first visit, which was plagued by bad weather and poor communication and was preceded by a visit to Wadsworth.  Most of the details about the time the commission spent in Kent are accurate as far as I can tell.  They did arrive without anyone to greet them; the weather was miserable, and they did go to a dinner at the Frank Merrill home in Twin Lakes, which was on the "road to Ravenna" (which is technically correct; it's just the "road to Ravenna" between Ravenna and Hudson, not Kent and Ravenna).  It is also true that they were originally expected around lunchtime and arrived later in the afternoon.  However, if the Ravenna committee felt their bid was dead-on-arrival, they certainly didn't let on in the press.  The Ravenna Republican makes no mention of the commissioners being late and they felt like the Ravenna committee showed off what they needed to and that it was received well.  The feeling the bid may have been doomed from the start is expressed in Philip Shriver's 1960 history of Kent State, The Years of Youth, but the footnote says it was from an interview in 1958, so 48 years later and a lot of time to put hindsight into the view.  Further, a few months later, the commissioners made surprise visits to the same cities, including Ravenna.  I hardly think they would've made a second visit to Ravenna if they weren't still considering it as a site.  Shriver notes that most of the cities the commissioners visited felt confident about their respective bids.  Hudson in particular, which had an entire campus (the former campus of Western Reserve College and current campus of Western Reserve Academy) ready and waiting, felt they had a strong case for the new school.  The positive feelings of Salem, Warren, Chagrin Falls, Hudson, Canton, and Wadsworth (as expressed trough their newspapers) are also recorded.

By the time of the decision, the front runners weren't exclusively Kent and Ravenna, however.  For whatever reasons, the front runners were seen, at least in the media, as Kent, Warren, and Wadsworth.  Ravenna certainly believed they were still in the running as a newspaper article seems to suggest, as did Hudson, but that may have just been pure optimism on the part of the newspaper.  And remember, newspapers in those days were a lot more editorial than papers today and often acted as the mouthpiece for an entire town or a specific family or group within a town.

Ravenna Republican front page,
November 24, 1910

Obviously, Kent won the normal school since Kent State University exists today.  This was after those visits by the commission (the 2nd visit being much better than the first for Kent), and final hearings in late November 1910.  The news of Kent getting the normal school came at the end of November and was met with disappointment in Ravenna, but still the Republican offered Ravenna's "heartiest congratulations" and found some solace that the school would be located in Portage County.

Two sites were presented to the commission in Ravenna (2 sites were also presented in Kent and both of them are now part of the KSU campus).  The first was the Beebe farm, which straddled the line between Ravenna and Ravenna Township.  Today, that area is roughly bordered by Washington Avenue, North Walnut Street, Freedom Street (SR 88) and the railroad. It's largely residential, but includes Carlin Elementary School on Washington Avenue and Bethel Baptist Church on Coolman Avenue.  The other site was known as "Bunker Hill" in the southeastern part of town.  I have not been able to pinpoint exactly where that was as it is a name that was apparently not all that common (not on any period maps) and certainly isn't used today.  All I can narrow it down to is in the part of Ravenna south of Main Street and east of Chestnut Street, probably a few blocks out of downtown.  It is apparent that the commission wanted, or at least preferred, a site that was on a hill as both sites in Ravenna were on a hill (or at least purported to be) and the main site in Kent, where KSU's original front campus is now located, is a hill (over 60 feet above Main Street and about 100 feet above downtown).  Sites in other towns mentioned also indicate that hilly sites were offered.  Indeed, the KSU history indicates that one of the primary features of the Kent site that really attracted the commissioners was the hill (some views below).  Obviously in northwestern Ohio, hills are hard to come by, so it doesn't seem like it was a priority or preference there (Bowling Green State University has no hills anywhere on its campus and the entire town is roughly the same elevation).  Below is a map of Ravenna that has the former Beebe farm outlined.  Had this been selected, it would be the nucleus of what would more than likely be called "Ravenna State University".  However, as we can see, there was a more likely possibility of a "Warren State" or "Wadsworth State" than a "Ravenna State University".

View Ravenna Normal School locations in a larger map

View of Kent from N. Mantua Street looking east showing the relative height of the KSU campus in the background (water towers on the right, pitched roof building just to the left of the crane) over downtown Kent.  

View looking northwest from the KSU campus in 1919, similar to the view the commissioners would've seen in 1910
(image from Kent State University Special Collections & Archives)

View looking west over Kent from the KSU campus, similar to the view the commissioners would've seen in 1910
(image from Kent State University Special Collections & Archives)

Giving a Second Look

I had one of those unexpected history moments this past week where looking closely at a photo made me realize it wasn't from the time period and event I (and seemingly everyone else) thought it was.  As fun as those can be, the search for answers (and ultimately finding them) was the most fun.  Now, I'm left with the question of exactly when one of the photos was taken.

This first picture was a photo I had seen many times online and in print.  It was thought to be of the great flood of 1913.  The flood in Kent was part of a larger flood across the state over several days at the end of March.  Virtually every city in the state has some kind of story related to that flood.  Over 100 people each died in Dayton and Columbus because of the flooding in those respective cities among countless losses of property all over Ohio, including the dynamiting of several old Ohio & Erie canal locks in downtown Akron.  The damage in Kent was mostly restricted to areas right along the river, helped in no small part by the fact that through downtown, the Cuyahoga River is around 40 feet below street level.  The Baltimore & Ohio tracks (known locally as the "lower tracks" because of how they pass through downtown) suffered the most damage simply because they are closer to the river.  The stone arch dam, built in 1836, suffered severe damage and the adjoining lock was pretty much totally destroyed (though by then it had long been bricked over).  The dam would eventually be repaired in 1925, but only after a long debate over whether it should be removed since it no longer served a purpose for the canal or industry (in addition to the adjacent canal lock, the dam also fed a mill race on the opposite side of the river that initially served the old Kent Flour Mill near Stow Street).

Photo posted by Henry Halem; from the collection of the Kent Historical Society

Now, at first glance, this seems to be a photo of that flood.  I have seen this photo many times in books and online and never gave it a second thought about its timing.  Then, a few days ago, a friend of mine posted a photo in the possession of Kent State University's Special Collections and Archives that is from virtually the same angle and is also of a flood.  He and I both assumed it was simply another photo of the same event since it also featured flooding and shared the vantage point of the photo above.

Photo from the Kent State University Special Collections and Archives

Again, at first glance, these seem to be photos of the same event.  When I first saw this, I thought briefly that it was simply an untouched version of the previous photo, since the first picture is clearer.  Then I thought it must be a picture from a little later since the water level in the bottom picture is higher than in the first picture.  But then I looked more carefully at the first photo and noticed some big differences; differences that give an idea of when each picture was taken and that they weren't THAT close together.

The first that jumped out to me was the absence in the top picture of the large tower just to the right of center in the bottom picture.  This was a 150-foot flagpole (which included a bell) that was built in late 1895 on the site of the current gazebo downtown.  It stood until sometime in the 1910s and is often in the background of photos taken of downtown during its existence.  Next I noticed that the trees along the riverbank at the bottom of each picture were noticeably larger in the bottom picture than they were in the top picture.  The third major thing I noticed was the mill on the far left of the picture (and adjacent smokestack) was also absent in the first picture.

Now, with those obvious differences clearly visible, I still had to do a little digging and some more visual inventigative work to determine A) which (if either) photo was of the 1913 flood, and B) when the top photo  was taken since it was definitely not 1913.  I found a few clues in three Kent history books I have that allowed me to say with almost certainty that the bottom picture is of the 1913 flood and the top picture is probably sometime in the 1880s for a flood that is not mentioned.

The most detailed history of Kent ever written is the 1932 History of Kent by historian Karl Grismer.  He mentions three major floods for Kent: 1832, 1904, and 1913.  At first I thought the top picture was possibly the from the 1904 flood, but the absence of both the mill and the flagpole eliminate that since both were also there by 1904.  It's definitely not from 1832 since there wouldn't be clear photographs from then not to mention that where downtown Kent is now wasn't developed until circa 1836-37.  The large mill building seen in the bottom picture was built in 1890.  At that point, I was looking pretty carefully at the top picture to see if there were other details I could find.

The first additional detail I could find was the retaining wall that separates the upper tracks from the lower tracks is simply the natural rock cut away.  In the bottom picture, that has been covered with large bricks (still there today).  In a book I have called Images of Kent by Michelle Wardle, I found two photos taken of downtown in the 1880s that show that same rugged drop (as opposed to the brick wall), as well as the absence of the mill (and obviously the flagpole).  The pictures are dated in the captions as "1880s".  From that, I could definitely date the top picture as being from the 1880s at least.

Even with that, I still couldn't date the top photo or totally confirm that the bottom photo was, in fact, from the 1913 flood (instead of the 1904 flood).  Since the mill and flagpole were also present in 1904, I needed something else to give me more clues.  I looked at Roger Di Paolo's book Rooted in Kent, which is a compilation of many of his more recent Portage Pathways articles on Kent history.  I was looking to see if there was a larger version of the top pic so I could possibly see more detail.  Well, instead of seeing more detail on the picture, I found mention of a building that could help me date it.  From 1884-1905, there was a small building along the lower tracks immediately south of the Main Street bridge (accessible via a staircase from the bridge) known as the "boxcar depot" since it was a depot station for those tracks (Baltimore & Ohio or B & O) made from an old boxcar.  When I looked at the top photo again, sure enough, there it was right adjacent to the bridge.  When I downloaded the full-sized photo from Henry Halem's Facebook page, I could see the boxcar depot even clearer.  In the lower picture, there isn't anything in that area at all besides the staircase, which was there much longer than the depot was (a new and nicer depot for the B & O further down the tracks opened in 1905).

I was able to see several other photos from the 1913 flood, all of which match the bottom picture with certain background details like the flagpole, absence of the "boxcar depot", and presence of the mill.  As for the top photo, it is of a flood that is not mentioned in Grismer's history.  It was taken during or after 1884, but before the construction of the mill's prominent grain elevator in 1890.  So, in other words, sometime in the mid-to-late 1880s.

It just goes to show how valuable photos are in studying history and even more so how valuable dating them is!  This is why I like to get pictures around town (especially as things are changing) and I try to make sure my digital camera's date and time are set correctly.  It also goes to show the value of looking for details.  You never know what you're going to find!

UPDATE: February 2, 2012
I found a picture of the Kent Opera House, which is visible in the left backgrounds of both pictures.  It was built between May and November of 1889, which reduces the time frame of the top picture to about a year.  The fact it is in the picture and the mill is not tells us the picture was taken sometime after enough construction of the Opera House was done so that it was visible and before any visible construction began on the mill expansion.  If construction started in May, I would guess based on how it looks in the top picture that this picture was taken very close to its completion if not after.  If I had to pick a date based on what I know, I would say this is probably sometime in the early spring of 1890 since there are also visible leaves in the trees along the river.  Even today, the Cuyahoga gets very high from spring rains and snow melt in March and April (other times too).  The fact that it's not mentioned in the detailed History of Kent makes me believe it wasn't that big of a deal when it happened and if it were just another typical spring flood, that's what it would be.

The Fall of Old Ravenna High

Sometime during 2012, the old Ravenna High School will likely be torn down if plans proceed as they are currently laid out.  The building has been vacant since mid 2010 after it was replaced by a new, $26 million building on North Chestnut Street.  Now, I know what some of you are thinking.  Why write about the old school building of Kent's biggest rival?  As much as I enjoy the sports rivalry between Roosevelt and Ravenna, as a historian and fan or architecture, I can also appreciate the history and character that the old Ravenna High School has, especially the original portion of the building, which opened in 1923.

Front of the original portion of "old" Ravenna High School, which opened in 1923.  I took this picture in 2009

The building at the corner of Clinton and East Main near downtown Ravenna is actually the 4th home of Ravenna High School (3rd permanent home).  The school was first housed in an old grocery store when it was established in 1858.  Like the original Kent High School, that was only temporary while Ravenna's new Union School building was finished.  That building opened in December 1859, about 10 years before Kent's Union School opened (March 1869).  A "union school" was simply a type of building that consolidated local school houses into one structure and allowed for the students to be separated by grade level.  The Ravenna Union School was the home of Ravenna High School until 1883 when a new high school building opened at the corner of Walnut Street and Bowery Street (now Highland Avenue).  It also housed 7th and 8th graders, which occurred at the original Roosevelt High School on several occasions.  An addition was built on the front of this building in 1910 and it still stands, though it is no longer used as a school.  The original part of the building was torn down in 1960.  By the early 1920s, enrollment growth necessitated construction of a larger building, which is the one most of us are familiar with.

Ticket booth at the entrance to the auditorium wing from Clinton Street

Ceiling above the entrance to the auditorium wing facing Clinton Street

Having attended school at the original Roosevelt High School (now Davey Elementary and known as Davey Middle School while I was there in the early 1990s), I had long wanted to see the inside of "old" Ravenna High School since I knew the two buildings were built at roughly the same time.  I finally did in 2010 when the Ravenna Schools hosted an open house of the old building just before they officially closed it.  What I found was a lot of similarities in the overall feel of the original sections of both Davey and Ravenna, but some big differences as well.  Construction on "old" Roosevelt (now Davey) began in May 1921 and finished just under a year later in May 1922.  Ravenna High School was started in August 1921 but was not completed for almost 2 years.  It was dedicated in August 1923.  I haven't been able to find out why it took so much longer to complete Ravenna High School.  The buildings are pretty much the same size and the site in Ravenna is mostly a level grade, while the Kent site is on the side of a hill, so it doesn't make sense.  In any case, the two schools have a similar feel to them, even though both have been modified extensively since they first opened.  I'm hopeful there will be one more walk-through before the building is finally razed.

Ravenna High School ca. 1923 when it was new.  The entrance visible on the right faces East Main and was covered up by the addition of Whittaker Hall in the late 1960s

The biggest difference between the two is their layouts.  Davey is 3 stories of classrooms with a partial basement, due to the building being on the side of a hill.  Old Ravenna High is also three stories, but it's confusing for visitors and new students because the main entrance is on the 2nd floor.  The building is also on a hill, but it's parallel to the hill rather than perpendicular like Davey is, so the bottom floor is slightly below ground level on the front of the school, while fully exposed on the back.  The other differences in the layout are the gym and auditoriums.  Both schools are largely symmetrical, but Ravenna High School is almost perfectly symmetrical from the outside, at least originally.  The only thing that keeps it from being perfectly symmetrical is the entrance to the auditorium from Clinton Street, which includes a porch and stairs.  There is no entrance for the opposite wing (which is the gym).  Davey is symmetrical up to the gym, which is slightly off-center, shifted to the east.  I'm not sure why that was made, though the original site plan from 1920 has the building completely symmetrical on the north-south axis of the center of North Prospect Street.  At Ravenna, the gym and auditorium were on each end of the building with the classrooms in the middle.  At Davey, the auditorium and gym are both in the middle of the building, but on the back, with the classrooms on the front.  The sites for each school are very different, with Ravenna High on a 5-acre block adjacent to downtown and Davey on a 10-acre site that, at the time, was the edge of Kent.  Kent nearly built the school on a lot similar to what Ravenna did before a firm from Columbia University recommended they not build on such a confined lot.  As a result, the Board took some more time to design a larger school and find a more suitable lot that could accommodate growth and campus with athletic facilities.  Ravenna, on the other hand, had to have athletic fields in other parts of town (old Gilchrist Stadium was located several blocks away) once the school had to be enlarged in the 1950s.  Only with the opening of their new high school in 2010 did Ravenna finally get a single, unified campus.

Aerial of Ravenna High School from the 1947 yearbook showing its symmetry.  The auditorium is in the wing on the right side of the building and the gym is in the wing on the left side.  A baseball diamond can be seen on the left, later to be occupied by the first addition to Ravenna High School, the Coll Annex in 1958.  

Aerial of "old" Roosevelt (now Davey) from the 1950 yearbook.  The long building in the back that is separate from the school is the vocational area, added in the late 1930s.  The symmetry of the front part of the building can be seen here with the auditorium the long part in the middle with the gym in the back.  For whatever reason, the gym does not match the symmetry of the building and is shifted slightly to the east (you are looking to the northwest in this picture).  The football field visible on the left was known as Bowers Field and was the home of the Roosevelt football team until 1970.  

The auditorium was an interesting bit of history for me.  The Ravenna Republican reported at the school's opening in 1923 that it had a "1,000 seat auditorium".  The auditorium at Davey, according to Karl Grismer's 1932 The History of Kent had 833 seats when it opened.  Today, the Davey Auditorium has about 500 seats, though the balcony no longer has any seats on it and the remaining seats have been modified with wider seats, reducing capacity, so 833 seems plausible in its original configuration.  1,000 seats in Ravenna's auditorium is simply not possible and can be attributed to a gross exaggeration or simply trying to make it look bigger (and thus, better) than it was (or a combination of both).  My mom and I counted 399 seats in that auditorium when we toured in 2010 with no sections having seats missing (like the Davey Auditorium balcony being totally void of seats).  While it is likely the original configuration had more seats than it does now (mostly because they were narrower with narrower aisles), there is not enough room in there for an additional 600 seats.  Despite the obvious that there is no way 1,000 seats could've ever been in that auditorium, it was repeated multiple times by the local newspaper and the Ravenna Schools themselves as the history of that building was discussed just prior to its closing.

Old Ravenna High School auditorium as seen from the stage.  Yeah, NO WAY there were EVER 1,000 seats there!  I would love to see an interior picture of this when it was new. 

Davey Auditorium in 2009 as seen from the stage

The original gyms in each building were also very similar, with Ravenna's simply a smaller version, but with a balcony that went completely around the gym where Davey's went around three sides but was much deeper.  Ravenna's "balcony" today looks more like a walking track (which is what is was mainly used for most recently), but old pictures show people sitting there for basketball games.  The estimate is about 200 people could fit in the gym for games, though in those days the basketball courts were smaller.  The Davey gym seated an estimated 300 people.  They gyms were similar enough that I mistakenly thought a picture of a basketball game was taken in the old gym at Davey and was actually at Ravenna.  The fact that it was in a Roosevelt yearbook AND a large banner that said "ROOSEVELT" was hanging off the balcony threw me off too, but sure enough, it was Ravenna's gym when I compared pictures I had of both.   

Can you see why I thought this was the gym at what is now Davey?  This is from the 1955 Roosevelt yearbook

Interior of the original gym at old Ravenna High in 2010 showing that yes, the picture above was taken in THIS room, not in Kent!

One cool feature of the original part of Ravenna High School is the skylights that line the hallway on the top floor.  They can be seen in the aerial picture above.  The idea was to have as much natural light as possible, so there were small class panels put in the floors to let that natural light flow down to the lower levels.  For the last few decades the skylights themselves have been covered up by the ceiling tiles in the school, a later modification used to bring heat costs down.  Unfortunately, the windows weren't exactly economical in terms of heating, so rather than modify them, they were just covered.  When I toured the building in 2010, some of the ceiling tiles were missing, so I could see the skylights.  I'm a big proponent of natural lighting (I HATE rooms that have no windows for no purpose!), so I thought that was a very cool feature.

There were two large additions to old Ravenna High, the first being the Coll Annex in 1958-59 and the other being Whittaker Hall in the late 1960s.  The Coll Annex was built north of the original building and housed a larger gym (which opened the same year that the original part of the current Roosevelt building did) and other classrooms like the band and choir rooms.  It is connected to the original building by way of a bridge on the top floor.  Whittaker Hall was a two-story addition of classrooms on the south side of the building and covered up the entrance to the original building for East Main (which is actually the school's address even though the main entrance faces Clinton Street).    

The gym in the Coll Annex, which opened in 1959.  I went to a few games in here, usually as a fan of the rival Rough Riders.  Sorry Ravens, but my best memory in here was in late 2000 or early 2001: Roosevelt 88, Ravenna 38.  What was funnier was the Record-Courier's headline the next day on the front page was simply "Roosevelt Over Ravenna, 88-38".   

Now, of course, the talk has been about the demolition of the building and why it couldn't be used for something else.  Once the new high school was approved, the old building's future was virtually sealed.  Because the state paid for most of the new building, the stipulation is that the old building cannot be renovated and used for a school, like making it a middle school.  This point was made very clear to voters at the time the bond issue was approved in 2006.  The line of thinking with that rule is that the state will help a district build a new building if the cost of renovating the old one is over a certain percentage of building new.  In the long run, it will be less costly to build new.  Since the old building is in bad enough shape to warrant replacement (verus renovation) and the district needs help to build new, then logic says there is no point keeping the old building for a school.  Included in the money the state offers are funds for demolition or the district can sell the building, which they tried to do.  While adapting an old school into something else is possible, it is also very expensive.  For a building the size of old Ravenna High, it's VERY expensive and time-consuming, so the only hope, really, is for someone to come forward that has a love of the building for whatever reasons, and more importantly, deep pockets.  You also need a person or group that needs the amount of space available in a building that size.  Remember, not only are there tons of classrooms, but two gyms and an auditorium.  Face it, large high school buildings really don't work well for anything except, well, being a high school.  Not only does the building need extensive renovation just to bring it up to code, remove asbestos, and fix other issues, but then it would need renovations to convert it to something else.  Apartments always seem to be popular re-uses for old schools, but that requires tons of new wiring and even more so plumbing.  Even using it for offices would need tons of work.

Dedication plaque

There was talk of separating the three sections of the building, but nothing came of it because even that option would require costly renovations.  On top of the logistical problems of converting a high school to something else, you also have much more of a time limit on deciding what to do with the building because it is publicly owned.  Many people were quoted as saying they didn't want old Ravenna High to become Ravenna's "old Kent Hotel".  The difference with the old hotel in Kent (which was recently sold and will finally be renovated) was that it was privately owned, so no tax dollars were being spent to maintain it even as it sat vacant and was a total eyesore.  The Ravenna Schools were spending somewhere around $12,000-$15,000 per month just to maintain a building they could no longer use.  When they tried selling it and later auctioning it off, no offers were worth anything close to the property's worth.  Basically, if they sold it for what they were being offered, they would've had to return the demolition money to the state, which was more than what they would get from the sale.  So, while it's sad from a historical perspective to lose a structure like this, it's not surprising at all, especially in an economy like we are experiencing and in a town the size of Ravenna, along with simple logistics.  If something similar happened in Kent with Roosevelt or Stanton, it's unlikely either building would be saved for a non-school use.  Bottom line is if the people of Ravenna really didn't want to lose the old high school, they wouldn't have approved a ballot issue that guaranteed it could no longer be used as a school.  There were previous bond issues that were rejected by voters that would've built a new high school and renovated the old one for use as a middle school.  In Kent, the only reason that "old" Roosevelt has been saved as a school is because Kent hasn't relied on state help for funding new buildings.  With the demolition of the old Ravenna High School building, the site will be much more marketable for redevelopment because it won't have a large three-story building on it that needs demolition or millions of dollars in renovations just to be viable.  Sometimes history has to give way to economics.

2010 view of the front entrance

The Evolution of Roosevelt High School Part 2

I hadn't intended to do another post on the evolution of the current Roosevelt High School, but I noticed that the Portage County Auditor's website has added additional aerial photos of the entire county from various years, so you can get a view of how a property has changed over the decades.  Previously the only years were 1937, 1951, 1959, 1966, 2006, and 2010.  Now 1964, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, and 2000 have all been added.  Google Earth has a similar feature, but the aerial images only go back to 1994.  While the aerial pictures aren't always totally in line with the other overlays (like the streets and parcel lines) and the picture itself isn't super clear (especially compared to the more recent aerials), they are clear enough to get the idea of how things have changed, particularly for a place like Roosevelt that has just had tons of changes on the building and the campus itself.  I put a montage together of each year available, starting with 1951, which is before there was anything on the campus at all.  The only years available I didn't include were 1995 and 2006 because the differences from 1990 to 1995 and 2000 to 2006 weren't that significant. The street labels on each year are the current center-lines of the roads.  So, for instance, River Bend Boulevard is labeled on the right side of every year's picture, but it wasn't built until 1990.

The large diagonal line visible in most of the pictures is the path of the main water line that connects Lake Rockwell (Akron's main water supply) to the city of Akron.  I was told by my history teacher at Roosevelt (Bruce Dzeda) that the school was able to use the water from that line to water the athletic fields for free in lieu of future problems that might occur with the line needing serviced.  I haven't been able to verify that, but I do know up until the completion of the Kent Water Treatment Plant and wells along SR 261 in the mid 1970s, Kent did get water from Akron to supplement their own supply.  Now, I don't believe they do, outside of possibly having an emergency hookup.  Another point to make is that the campus has obviously expanded.  Initially, it was 31 acres.  Over time, adjacent parcels were added.  The scope of the original campus is pretty clear in the 1959, 1964, and 1966 pictures.  The most recent additions to the campus itself were done in the 1990s for the construction of Stanton Middle School.  Best I could gather on the Portage County Auditor's website, the entire campus is now around 88 acres.  The county doesn't consolidate the parcels on the map, so that total comes from adding up the 18 or so contiguous parcels owned by the Kent City Schools (which is listed by several variant names). 

The Portage County Auditor's website is a great tool for history, but obviously that wasn't its main purpose.  It's mainly to provide a fairly accurate map of all properties in the county, plus it includes data on virtually all of them, like how much they are worth, how much each property is assessed in property taxes, who owns them, what school district they're in, and even has sketches of buildings on the property (showing outside measurements).  There is a search tool by address or last name (or even parcel number), but even better is the map tool which allows you to click on a parcel and it will tell you who owns it and have a link to the details available.  I've found it very convenient in discussions that have involved property values and taxes as well as just being a way to be informed about who really owns a particular piece of land or building.  Check it out if you live in Portage County.  It can be found at www.portagecountyauditor.org. 

If the picture is not displaying large enough for you, go to https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/uO6bClUfYN7ydnxKR6TMXtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink and click on the small magnifying class just above the picture to use the zoom feature.

The Evolution of Roosevelt High School

Cover of the 1959 Roosevelt dedication program showing the original school with the "future" auditorium in dotted lines.  The rooms on the left with the vertical windows are the choir and band rooms.  

Continuing with my Kent Schools-related posts, I figured I'd post about the "evolution" of the building that houses Theodore Roosevelt High School on North Mantua Street in Kent, a building I have spent an incalculable amount of time in as a student, community member, and employee.  Most locals know that the building has had several additions, but I have found most don't realize just how many it's had in its history.  As I've been going through old yearbooks and dedication programs, I've been able to mostly piece together how it all came together.

The building first opened in September 1959.  It replaced the previous home of Roosevelt, which became Davey Junior High School.  The new school was built with growth in mind as it was built on a concrete slab (no excavation required) and had walls that were designed to be removed easily for additions.  It was also built on a 31-acre piece of land, three times the size of the previous high school campus.  Despite the extra room, football wouldn't be played at the "new" campus for 11 more years.  The new building also lacked an auditorium as the budget wouldn't allow for one at the time.  Plans were in the works for an auditorium at the time the school opened, but there wouldn't be an auditorium until 1972.  What I found interesting about the original building is that it was divided into sections.  Music was almost a completely separate building, vocational was on its own end, and the remainder of the school was another end.  This was done so that things like band  and wood shop wouldn't disturb other classes.  What's ironic about that is the fact that less than 10 years later, the first addition to the building added a new library that bordered the band room on two sides. Even today, though, the sound is kept out of the library pretty well!

Original front entrance of Roosevelt High School as seen in the 1959 dedication program.  The room on the left is the band room and the doors in the center are now the entrance to the library from the cafeteria. 

Roosevelt High School in 1959

When Roosevelt opened in 1959, Kent was in the midst of its greatest period of population growth in its history.  From 1950-1970, Kent grew from about 11,000 to over 28,000.  Because of this, Roosevelt was in what must've seemed like a perpetual state of construction.  As I mentioned, the first addition was made in 1965-66.  It involved adding what is now known as the "history hallway" (or wing), doubling the size of the cafeteria and central lobby (a room often incorrectly referred to as the "atrium"), and expanding the locker rooms.  Some of the rooms in the original building were altered to fit where the new hallway had to be.  It looks as if one classroom was lost from that.  The current library was also part of that addition.  Prior to that time, the doors to what is now the library that open to the cafeteria were the main entrance to the school and were simply a "glass hallway" of sorts that connected the music wing to the rest of the school.  The old library was converted into what are now the Principal's office and the guidance offices.

The next major addition was the largest.  It was actually 2 parts, but it effectively doubled the size of the school.  On one side was the end of the building known as the "vocational wing" or now as the "Career Ed Wing" and sometimes as the "500s wing" (since all the rooms there are numbered beginning at 500).  The other side was the auditorium and scene shop addition, which included a lobby (also incorrectly referred to as an "atrium").  The auditorium lobby provided a new front entrance facing North Mantua Street and created a courtyard, connecting the music wing with the history hallway.  This addition was started in 1971 and opened in the fall of 1972.

Today this is the main entrance to the library.  On the right
is the hallway to the band and choir rooms and the
auditorium. Originally, it was the main entrance
to the school!

The pool addition followed in 1975, opening in 1976, and included three classrooms, storage areas, and locker rooms.  It also resulted in the modification of the original art room as part of the room had to be used for the hallway that connected the pool wing with the rest of the school.  Just one year later, construction started on the last major addition to the building, a second floor addition above the history wing.  This addition is now referred to as the "foreign language hallway" (since all of the foreign language rooms are there) and included the construction of an elevator and two staircases.  Completion of the addition allowed the district to move 9th graders back to Roosevelt beginning in the fall of 1978.  Prior to that, 9th graders had been housed at Davey Junior High School since 1959.  The 1978 addition also included a slight extension of the library into the courtyard and an expansion of the industrial technology room (added the extra classroom and back lab area) and creation of the photography room.

Band room as it originally appeared in 1959

The last addition happened while I was a student at Roosevelt in the late 1990s.  This addition in 1997 involved expanding the cafeteria, creating the curved glass wall that is there now, building a new teacher's lounge, and opening the cafeteria to the lobby.  Previously, the cafeteria and gym lobby were separate rooms.  A new music storage room was added and the entrance was redone.  An expansion of the second art room was also part of the project, which also funded renovations in other parts of the building.  In particular, every room was wired for high-speed Internet, additional electrical outlets were added, and a school phone system was installed. The band room was totally renovated during this time, adding a second entrance from the hall, removing the tiers in the floor, and improving the lighting.  The choir room also had a new floor put in, new lighting, and new risers, plus a permanent office was built in place of the old cubicle that had previously served as the vocal music office. 

Diagram of the current layout of Roosevelt High School with each section colored by when it was added.  The second floor is on the right (shaped like a "T")

The only changes since the 1997 additions and renovations have been remodelings.  The library was remodeled around 2003 with new lighting, carpet, and some wall changes which included a computer area and a larger computer lab that can be a separate room if needed.  The room that was previously the audio/visual storage area (and had the main copy machine) was turned into a second computer lab, now known as "Computer Lab II" (it is also room 108).  Old room 109 was divided into three parts and the front part is the copy room while the middle and back parts are storage areas for things like the TVs and VCRs.

What's next for the school?  That remains to be seen.  About 2 years ago the district did a survey of parents to gauge what appeared to be the possibility of a levy or bond issue.  Among the questions asked were two about Roosevelt: one regarding the addition of a second gym and the other about addressing the nightmare that is parking.  I've long wanted to see Roosevelt get the existing gym expanded or replaced and/or a field house building similar to what the new Ravenna High School has, which includes an area that can be divided into 2 basketball courts, but also has an elevated track and a separate physical education room for other classes.  I saw a larger version of this under construction at Avon Lake High School in 2001 that I really liked.  Seeing it at Ravenna has me liking it even more!  Roosevelt really needs some additional space for physical education.  I've subbed several times for PE and one of the classes we have is dance class.  More often than not it's held in the auditorium lobby, which is absolutely freezing this time of year.  If not there, it's held in the "wrestling room", which is the old weight room in the back of the boys locker room.  The gym itself is the same size as it was when the school opened in 1959; when the school had 550 students.  Same size gym now for about 1,400 students and a larger community.  For the sake of tradition, I'd love to see the gym expanded instead of replaced, but money will determine that!  The whole layout of the parking area is an entirely different topic!  What a mess!

Original campus map in 1959 with "future" plans for athletic fields.  Below is the campus in 2006.  Stanton Middle School is on the far left.

Building and School Histories

Roosevelt High School (now Davey Elementary School) in 1928

Lately I've been doing sporadic research on the history of the Kent City Schools, the Davey building in particular.  I've also done quite a bit of research on Roosevelt High School as well (which was housed in the Davey building for 37 years), touching on the elementary buildings along the way.  I've found that there are many people interested in what I'm finding out about the history of our school buildings, but I've also found it's somewhat difficult to explain the histories, especially some of the older schools.  That's because there are two histories: the history of the school building and the history of the school organization.  The Davey building is a prime example of this.  The building history goes from 1921 (when construction started) to now.  During the 89 years since it opened in 1922, it has housed three different schools: Theodore Roosevelt High School, Davey Junior High School (later called Davey Middle School), and Davey Elementary School.  Each school organization, however, has its own history independent of the building itself.  For instance, Roosevelt High School dates back to 1868, Davey Junior High is now Stanton Middle School, and Davey Elementary is the continuation of Central Elementary School.  It's really confusing when you have a mixture of schools that have moved and kept their name (like Roosevelt) and schools that have moved but changed names (Davey Middle School to Stanton Middle School).  

The Union School, later known as "old" Central

Another building that has a somewhat complicated history is the old Union School, which was Kent's first consolidated school.  It opened in 1869 and was a K-12 school.  By the 1880s it was known as Central School because of the opening of South School in 1880 and DePeyster School in 1888.  A "union school" was a generic name given to any school that was a consolidation of local schoolhouses and was part of a national movement in school consolidation.  Ravenna also had its own "Union School", which opened 10 years before Kent's.  The building itself existed from 1867 (construction started) until it was torn down in 1953.  The majority of its existence it was known as "Central", but the school that replaced it was also named "Central", so it's often referred to as "Old Central".  I tend to refer to it by its original name of "Union School" to avoid ambiguity with the current Central building.  Because the building housed Kent High School, it was often referred to as such even though KHS only occupied a portion of the building.  Even better is that many contemporary sources from the early 20th century refer to Kent High School as "Kent Central High School" or even "Central High" even though officially, the school was never anything but "Kent High School" until it was renamed for Theodore Roosevelt in 1922. 

Most buildings in the district have only had one tenant, so it's somewhat easier.  But even then, we have successions of buildings that sometimes are very clear and sometimes aren't.  Holden Elementary, for instance, is a continuation of the old South School, which was located across the street from where Holden is now.  I haven't really dived into the history of Holden, but my guess is that it was likely originally planned to be the new South School and during construction or just before it opened the board decided to name it for Belle Holden, a former teacher and principal at South School.  Roosevelt High School was named after the building (now Davey Elementary) was finished.  All the construction information simply refers to it as the "new" Kent High School.  The decision to name it after Theodore Roosevelt didn't come until just a month or so before the building was dedicated.  Stanton Middle School was named in the early stages of construction.  At the time I was hoping they would carry the Davey name to the new building, but the Board opted to keep the Davey name at the current building because of that building and property's historical ties to the Davey family (John Davey, founder of Davey Tree, owned part of the land it was built on and the old Davey estate is adjacent to the school).

DePeyster School, now home of the administrative offices for the district

DePeyster School is one I would really like to get a lot more information about.  It's history is very random and unclear at this point.  Even though Walls School covers basically the same area DePeyster covered, I don't consider Walls a continuation of DePeyster because it wasn't a case of Walls opening (1966) and replacing DePeyster (like the students and staff were all moved to Walls from DePeyster) like Holden replaced South or Stanton replaced Davey.  Walls took in all of DePeyster's old territory, but also included a large chunk of Franklin Elementary's territory.  It was not only a new school building but also a new school organization.  DePeyster had ceased being used as an elementary school years before Walls opened and was instead being used for overflow from a variety of schools.  I know my aunt went to kindergarten at DePeyster even as my dad and uncle went to their elementary grades at Franklin in the years right before Walls opened.  Soon after Walls opened, DePeyster was used as the "Davey Extension" and housed several classes from Davey Junior High School until a new addition to Davey opened in 1967.  I'm not exactly when DePeyster stopped being used as its own elementary school and instead used for extra space for other schools.  I know the gym was added in the early 1950s (1953?), so it would make sense that the building be used a few years after that, at least to the early 1960s, even though the middle portion of the building dates to 1888 and the front was added around 1920.  Why it was used for extra space is not clear either, especially with Kent growing throughout the 50s and 60s.  In any case, by the late 60s and early 70s it's vacant until the Board renovates it in 1977 and it becomes what it's used for today: the district offices.

To help make sense of the two histories, I created two graphics to illustrate them.  One is a history of each school organization and the other is a history of each school building.  They are both works in progress as I find more information about each building through my research.  Each picture contains basic information about the years a particular building was known by a certain name and when any additions or major renovations happened.

School organization history

School building history