History Exhibit
The Lock 3 Akron History Exhibit and the American Toy & Marble Museum opened in 2003, is free of charge, and operated by volunteers in cooperation with the Summit County Historical Society. It provides space in which community organizations have been able to tell the stories of Akron's industrial and social history.
When the city demolished a strip of buildings along South Main St. between O'Neil's and the Civic Theatre in 2001, it re-opened a view at Lock 3 of the Ohio-Erie canal that had not been seen in a hundred years. Excavation of the site revealed thousands of small ceramic toys and pottery shards from two companies that helped put Akron on the map in the late 19th century as the manufacturing center of America's quality clay products:
- The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Co., whose founder Samuel Dyke was truly the founder of the American toy industry. His vision put a simple manufactured toy in the hands of every child who had a penny — a handful of ceramic marbles. The company made a million marbles every day, six days a week.
- On the site of the former M. O'Neil Department Store was Merrill Pottery which manufactured most of the clay smoking pipes which we see hanging from the lips of union soldiers in Matthew Brady's famous Civil War photographs.
Akron History Exhibit Founding Partners
- City of Akron
- Summit County Historical Society
- American Toy Marble Museum
- Akron-Summit County Public Library
- University of Akron's Archival Services
- Stan Hywet Hall Foundation
- TV Dinner Club Museum
- Lighter-Than-Air Society
- Motor Carrier Museum
The Exhibit Area
The Akron History Exhibit is separated from the rest of the O'Neil Commons space by ornamental iron gates which were in storage for decades at the Summit County Historical Society. They were restored by Akron artists P.R. Miller and John Communale prior to the museum's opening in 2003.
On Exhibit
Akron-made pottery; televisions and games courtesy of the TV Dinner Club Museum; Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens items; fishing equipment from Fred Arbogast Company and Enterprise Manufacturing Company, a.k.a. Pflueger Corporation; Akron Police Museum items; Marbles & Toys; Quaker Oats Display; Saalfield Books; rubber toys by Sun Rubber, Rempel, Seiberling Latex and General Tire; items from the Lighter-Than-Air Society; and a canal display.