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Do IT this week: Layering
Akron’s Rubber Bowl, Derby Downs, Heisman Lodge and lots of winter fun started as B.E. ‘Shorty’ Fulton’s vision
By Mark J. Price
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 07:36 a.m. EST, Nov 30, 2009
B.E. ''Shorty'' Fulton, manager of Akron Municipal Airport, gazed up at the rugged hill overlooking his terminal in 1934.
He didn't see a hill.
He saw possibilities.
Through the trees and underbrush, Fulton imagined ''the city's finest recreation area.''
''There is the stadium,'' he pointed out to Beacon Journal reporter Harold J. Taylor during a horseback tour of the terrain.
The Civil Works Administration, a federal relief program under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, had already begun to excavate the eastern hillside for a 37,000-seat amphitheater later called the Rubber Bowl. The soil was used for fill dirt at the airport.
''That's where the shelter house goes up,'' Fulton continued, pointing to an adjacent site. ''A two-story affair. On the ground floor, there'll be a veranda in front with a wonderful view of the port.
''The toboggan slide and skiing lane will pass near there — if we ever have any winter. And there'll be a children's wading pool in the summer.''
Fulton bubbled over with ideas about the park. He proposed baseball diamonds, tennis courts and horseshoe pits.
Completed in late 1934, the shelter house was the heart of the complex. The stone structure had four fireplaces to warm skaters, skiers, sledders and tobogganers. Neighbors jokingly called it ''Shorty's Mansion.''
''We'll make this the greatest municipally operated winter sports center in this part of the United States,'' Fulton boasted.
The National Youth Administration, a New Deal agency for teens from relief families, removed tree stumps and constructed toboggan chutes, a bobsled run and three ski runs — a beginner's hill, a 10-meter jump and a 20-meter jump — in view of the airport.
Fulton installed powerful floodlights so the hill could be used during the day or night.
Touring the site while it still was being carved, Cleveland ski professional Red Washburn gushed: ''Why, man, you've got something here that Lake Placid never can have. This is the only winter sports layout I've ever seen or read about that concentrates all its activities from one takeoff place.''
Derby home
In 1936, Fulton adapted the plans to include Derby Downs, home of the All-American Soap Box Derby. He supervised construction as the Works Progress Administration, another New Deal agency, built a 1,600-foot, three-lane concrete track.
The derby hill was a thrill in the summer. In the winter, it was a real scream. Children were allowed to go sledding there.
Snow was terribly unpredictable — even in Northeast Ohio — so uniformed National Youth Administration guards sprayed water on the concrete to freeze overnight. The guards also constructed a toboggan chute down the length of the derby track and built six toboggans to rent.
Talk about a white-knuckle ride. Young adventurers raced down the slope at breakneck speed, sometimes hitting dry patches of concrete.
Fulton froze hay into the ice at the bottom of the course to slow sleds and toboggans. He also placed a large haystack at the supposed end of the track.
On a really good ride, though, kids plowed through the hay and skidded onto an ice-skating rink.
Getting a mouthful
''The hay pile at the end of the Downs' slide is one of its most amazing features,'' Beacon Journal writer Helen Waterhouse reported in January 1938. ''Here 5,000 Akronites on Sunday wallowed and spat hay from their mouths after negotiating the slide upon one kind of a sled or another. Many a somersault was turned as a sled catapulted its rider head foremost into the hay pile.''
Afterward, sledders enjoyed thawing out in front of crackling fireplaces in the shelter house.
More than 12,000 people used the recreation area that winter.
While sledding was popular, skiing didn't take off as expected. Part of the reason was that skiers had to remove their primitive gear at the bottom of the hill and climb back up a steep incline — or walk all the way around.
''We're figuring on building a towing arrangement with rope and an old automobile chassis so that the skiers can be pulled back to the top,'' Fulton told the newspaper.
Unfortunately, the project got sidetracked.
As laborers built the Rubber Bowl and improved Derby Downs, construction encroached on the winter recreation area.
Safety became a big issue, too. There wasn't enough room for sleds to stop at the bottom of the hill. Injuries were common.
Meanwhile, the cast-iron runners on the sleds gouged the surface of Akron's prized track, causing costly repairs during the Great Depression.
In the early 1940s, city officials decided to prohibit winter sports at Derby Downs. Workers dismantled the toboggan chutes and ski jumps and allowed nature to reclaim the land.
Although the winter sports facility didn't last, Shorty Fulton had the vision to turn a rugged hill into a popular stadium and national racetrack.
He managed the municipal airport for 34 years until retiring in 1962. Son Bain J. ''Bud'' Fulton succeeded him as superintendent. In 1978, the City Council renamed the airport Akron Fulton in their honor. Shorty Fulton died in 1979 at age 87.
''Shorty's Mansion,'' the former shelter house, lost its purpose when the winter recreation area closed. Over the decades, the vacant building fell prey to vandals, who smashed windows, tore out timbers, spray-painted graffiti and scattered trash.
The stone structure was a mere shell in 1988, when the city turned it over to the University of Akron. Fifty contractors and suppliers remodeled the building for $150,000 in services.
UA trustees renamed it the John W. Heisman Lodge in honor of the legendary football player who coached at Buchtel College in the 1890s. The lodge served as a pregame reception center for the Rubber Bowl and a museum and hall of fame for the Soap Box Derby.
It stands there today on a hill overlooking Fulton's airport, a rustic reminder of when Akron was a winter sports capital.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
B.E. ''Shorty'' Fulton, manager of Akron Municipal Airport, gazed up at the rugged hill overlooking his terminal in 1934.
He didn't see a hill.
He saw possibilities.
Through the trees and underbrush, Fulton imagined ''the city's finest recreation area.''
''There is the stadium,'' he pointed out to Beacon Journal reporter Harold J. Taylor during a horseback tour of the terrain.
The Civil Works Administration, a federal relief program under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, had already begun to excavate the eastern hillside for a 37,000-seat amphitheater later called the Rubber Bowl. The soil was used for fill dirt at the airport.
''That's where the shelter house goes up,'' Fulton continued, pointing to an adjacent site. ''A two-story affair. On the ground floor, there'll be a veranda in front with a wonderful view of the port.
''The toboggan slide and skiing lane will pass near there — if we ever have any winter. And there'll be a children's wading pool in the summer.''
Fulton bubbled over with ideas about the park. He proposed baseball diamonds, tennis courts and horseshoe pits.
Completed in late 1934, the shelter house was the heart of the complex. The stone structure had four fireplaces to warm skaters, skiers, sledders and tobogganers. Neighbors jokingly called it ''Shorty's Mansion.''
''We'll make this the greatest municipally operated winter sports center in this part of the United States,'' Fulton boasted.
The National Youth Administration, a New Deal agency for teens from relief families, removed tree stumps and constructed toboggan chutes, a bobsled run and three ski runs — a beginner's hill, a 10-meter jump and a 20-meter jump — in view of the airport.
Fulton installed powerful floodlights so the hill could be used during the day or night.
Touring the site while it still was being carved, Cleveland ski professional Red Washburn gushed: ''Why, man, you've got something here that Lake Placid never can have. This is the only winter sports layout I've ever seen or read about that concentrates all its activities from one takeoff place.''
Derby home
In 1936, Fulton adapted the plans to include Derby Downs, home of the All-American Soap Box Derby. He supervised construction as the Works Progress Administration, another New Deal agency, built a 1,600-foot, three-lane concrete track.
The derby hill was a thrill in the summer. In the winter, it was a real scream. Children were allowed to go sledding there.
Snow was terribly unpredictable — even in Northeast Ohio — so uniformed National Youth Administration guards sprayed water on the concrete to freeze overnight. The guards also constructed a toboggan chute down the length of the derby track and built six toboggans to rent.
Talk about a white-knuckle ride. Young adventurers raced down the slope at breakneck speed, sometimes hitting dry patches of concrete.
Fulton froze hay into the ice at the bottom of the course to slow sleds and toboggans. He also placed a large haystack at the supposed end of the track.
On a really good ride, though, kids plowed through the hay and skidded onto an ice-skating rink.
Getting a mouthful
''The hay pile at the end of the Downs' slide is one of its most amazing features,'' Beacon Journal writer Helen Waterhouse reported in January 1938. ''Here 5,000 Akronites on Sunday wallowed and spat hay from their mouths after negotiating the slide upon one kind of a sled or another. Many a somersault was turned as a sled catapulted its rider head foremost into the hay pile.''
Afterward, sledders enjoyed thawing out in front of crackling fireplaces in the shelter house.
More than 12,000 people used the recreation area that winter.
While sledding was popular, skiing didn't take off as expected. Part of the reason was that skiers had to remove their primitive gear at the bottom of the hill and climb back up a steep incline — or walk all the way around.
''We're figuring on building a towing arrangement with rope and an old automobile chassis so that the skiers can be pulled back to the top,'' Fulton told the newspaper.
Unfortunately, the project got sidetracked.
As laborers built the Rubber Bowl and improved Derby Downs, construction encroached on the winter recreation area.
Safety became a big issue, too. There wasn't enough room for sleds to stop at the bottom of the hill. Injuries were common.
Meanwhile, the cast-iron runners on the sleds gouged the surface of Akron's prized track, causing costly repairs during the Great Depression.
In the early 1940s, city officials decided to prohibit winter sports at Derby Downs. Workers dismantled the toboggan chutes and ski jumps and allowed nature to reclaim the land.
Although the winter sports facility didn't last, Shorty Fulton had the vision to turn a rugged hill into a popular stadium and national racetrack.
He managed the municipal airport for 34 years until retiring in 1962. Son Bain J. ''Bud'' Fulton succeeded him as superintendent. In 1978, the City Council renamed the airport Akron Fulton in their honor. Shorty Fulton died in 1979 at age 87.
''Shorty's Mansion,'' the former shelter house, lost its purpose when the winter recreation area closed. Over the decades, the vacant building fell prey to vandals, who smashed windows, tore out timbers, spray-painted graffiti and scattered trash.
The stone structure was a mere shell in 1988, when the city turned it over to the University of Akron. Fifty contractors and suppliers remodeled the building for $150,000 in services.
UA trustees renamed it the John W. Heisman Lodge in honor of the legendary football player who coached at Buchtel College in the 1890s. The lodge served as a pregame reception center for the Rubber Bowl and a museum and hall of fame for the Soap Box Derby.
It stands there today on a hill overlooking Fulton's airport, a rustic reminder of when Akron was a winter sports capital.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
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