File:A. Polsky Co. Department Store, Akron, OH (27953502817).jpg

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Description This large edifice takes up the entire block bounded by Main Street, State Street, High Street, and University Avenue in downtown Akron, Ohio. Initially constructed in 1929-30, the large, ornate Art Deco building was once home to Polsky’s Department Store, which was founded by Polish immigrant Abram Polsky, who had moved to Akron in the 1885, founding the store with his brother-in-law Samuel Myers, before taking over entirely in 1892 upon Myers’s retirement. The building was built to compete with the city’s other major department store, the M. O’Neil Company, which was located in the building across Main Street and arrived at this end of downtown a few years prior. The building has ornate exterior terra cotta detailing, with Art Deco motifs present throughout and covering almost the entire facade. The building was expanded with a fifth floor in 1941, leading to its present appearance. Polsky’s remained open through the mid-20th Century, but went into decline like many urban department stores across the nation, as they struggled to compete with suburban stores with more ample parking and easier automobile access, finally closing a few days before Christmas in 1978. The building was, for a time, planned to be converted into a hotel, an apartment building, or a jail, but these plans did not pan out. In 1987, the Prudential Insurance Company, whom owned the building, donated it to the University of Akron, whom undertook an extensive renovation of the structure, which reopened as a classroom building and administrative offices in 1994, a function that it continues to this day. The building is a contributing structure in the South Main Street Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
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Source A. Polsky Co. Department Store, Akron, OH
Author Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States

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Creative Commons CC-Zero This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

This image was originally posted to Flickr by w_lemay at https://flickr.com/photos/59081381@N03/27953502817 (archive). It was reviewed on 3 June 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-zero.

3 June 2019

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current10:42, 13 April 2019Thumbnail for version as of 10:42, 13 April 20192,448 × 3,264 (1.64 MB)Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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