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Ellet's Eastgate shops are still going strong
Published on Monday, Feb 11, 2008
Akron developer Francis E. Rottmayer changed the way Summit County residents shopped in the early 1950s. On Canton Road in Ellet, he built Eastgate shopping center, the first such plaza in the county and one of the earliest in Ohio.
''My dad was kind of an innovator,'' daughter Susan Suthers said. ''He did things before other people did them.''
Born in Germany in 1904, Rottmayer emigrated with his family when he was a boy and had to learn a trade when he grew up. He started out as a handyman, going door to door with a toolbox and working small jobs. He learned carpentry, plumbing and drafting without any formal schooling.
''He could really do anything,'' Suthers said. ''He became a general contractor and then he became a developer.''
As president of Rottmayer Construction Co. in the late 1940s, he began to study the concept of ''the shopping center.'' It was a revolutionary idea to build a self-sustaining retail complex on the outskirts of the city — far from downtown — where parking would be free and plentiful.
Rottmayer chose a site in Ellet on the west side of Canton Road between present-day Leland Avenue and Wedgewood Drive. He called it Eastgate, a gateway to East Akron.
Through his company Eastgate Realty, he bought the block and requested a zone change. The Akron City Council approved the project in 1950 and workers began clearing the land.
Rottmayer hired Akron architect E. Vance Florence to draw up plans for a $2 million center with 20 stores, shops and offices.
Florence designed a colonial-style, brick-and-steel building 558 feet wide and 125 feet deep. It had 150,000 square feet of floor space, including an arcade, basement and upstairs offices.
The front parking lot had spaces for 400 cars. Hundreds more could park in the back.
Rottmayer lined up an impressive assortment of retailers. Acme, Kroger, Gray Drug and F.W. Woolworth agreed to open stores at Eastgate. The J.C. Penney Co. selected Eastgate as the site of its first Akron store.
Other tenants included W.E. Wright Co., Shulan's Jewelers, Carter Shoe Co., Rosen's Bake Shop, Moore Auto, Tip-Top Laundry and Evans Savings. Eastgate Bowling, a 20-lane alley, rumbled in the basement.
Eastgate opened Feb. 12, 1952.
''Folks all over the country are talking about the new trend towards 'shopping centers' . . . but you'll never see one more beautiful or complete than Akron's own Eastgate,'' the ad said.
Customers walked through ''an electric-eye door'' into the Acme, gleaming with white-and-chrome equipment. The grocery store boasted six frozen-food cases and the 100-foot ''Food-O-Mat,'' a wall of canned goods that slid down chutes.
At the other end of the plaza, ultra-modern Kroger's promised shopping convenience with ''automatic conveyor-type checkouts.'' The first 1,500 women to visit the store received a ''beautiful useful plastic salad server.''
Shoppers could grab a bite at Woolworth's luncheonette or the Gray Drug soda fountain.
Suthers, who grew up in the 1950s, had fun at the stores with her brothers Edmund and James Rottmayer. She recalls buying trinkets at the five-and-dime and sliding down the rail at Penney's.
''It was kind of nice running around,'' she said. ''Everybody knew who I was. . . . Sometimes I would get free ice cream at Gray Drug, or they'd give me a free Coke or something over at Woolworth's.''
Lifelong Ellet resident Glenn Young, 66, who taught at Ellet High for 40 years, has fond memories of the center. He recalls when it was built. Shoppers didn't have to get as dressed up as they did downtown.
''Finally, we had a place to go,'' he said. ''It was really novel. You didn't have to ride a bus or you didn't have to pay parking.''
He remembers eating cheeseburgers at the bowling alley, opening an account at Evans Savings, buying a 3-speed English Racer bicycle at W.E. Wright and plunking down $49 at Shulan's for an RCA transistor radio, which he still owns.
''I went to school and all the people gathered around me,'' he said. ''They wanted to see this thing. It had an earphone. They couldn't believe it was that small.''
Neither could the Ellet teacher who confiscated the radio until Young promised never to bring it back to school.
He also has a vivid memory of going to Carter Shoes to try out the shoe-fitting machine. Nobody considered the possible danger of radiation.
''We would put our feet underneath this machine — more like a fluoroscope, but it was basically an X-ray machine,'' he said. ''Then you could see where your toes were in your shoes, and you'd stand there and wiggle your toes.''
Two years after Eastgate opened, Rottmayer came up with a surefire way to expand the customer base. He built Eastgate Heights, a 118-acre residential development in 1954. Two of the streets — Edmund Avenue and Lynn Drive — are named for his children. Lynn is Suthers' middle name.
Akron Public Schools retiree Joan Maty, who has lived in the same Ellet house since the 1950s, said her family always went to Eastgate and sometimes even walked there.
''That was the only place we really shopped,'' she said. ''It was close and they were friendly and we knew everyone.''
Eastgate had lots of specialty shops — a women's boutique, a men's clothing store, a florist, an automotive place.
''It was just like as if you would go downtown,'' she said. ''Everything was there.''
Eastgate was the first of a dozen local plazas built in the 1950s. It was where Santa Claus arrived by helicopter at Christmas. It was where Richard Nixon stopped to campaign.
In the mid-1960s, Rottmayer predicted the next trend in retail would be ''the shopping mall.'' He proposed building a $40 million complex called Ellet Hills Mall, but City Council refused to approve zoning changes. He championed the cause for eight years, challenging the city in court, but he dropped the idea after the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 1974.
''I feel it would have taken the place of Belden Village,'' he later said. ''It would have been very good for Akron.''
Over the decades, Maty witnessed many changes at Eastgate. Acme moved out. Bisson's moved in. Penney's moved out. Wayside Furniture moved in. Stores changed and changed.
In 1982, Rottmayer filed for bankruptcy after a bank and title company foreclosed on his property. He sold Eastgate to Constantine Corpas and William Pastis for $650,000 in 1983.
Francis E. Rottmayer, developer of Akron's first shopping center, died in 1989 at age 84.
Canton Road drivers might not realize the historical significance of Eastgate Ellet Plaza. Although it has two or three empty storefronts, its occupancy is still high for a city filled with retail plazas. There's a grocery store, restaurants, a bank, a bakery, a video store.
Of course, a lot has changed since 1952. About the only constant is the rumble of bowling balls in the basement.
Still, Maty has been going to Eastgate for 50 years.
The first plaza always was a good place to shop.
''And it still is,'' Maty said.
Eastgate tenants in 1952
Abbey's Men Store, Acme Supermarket, Carter Shoe Co., Eastgate Bowling Center, Evans Savings Association, R.L. Gordon Florists, Gray Drug, Kroger Co., J.C. Penney Co., Moore Auto Accessories & Appliance, Panda Bar, Rosen's Bake Shop, Shulan's Jewelers, Tiffany's Tip-Top Laundry, F.W. Woolworth Co. and W.E. Wright Co.
Eastgate tenants in 2008
Army & Navy Union, Bill's Eastgate Plaza Barber Shop, Check Into Cash, Eastgate Lanes, Ellet Closeout & Fabric, Ellet Hearing Aids, Flea Market Connection, H & R Block, KeyBank, Kremer Realty, Molly Brown's Kitchen, Mr. Hero, New Ming Home Restaurant, Nic-Mor-Der Inc., Ohio Catholic Credit Union, Pyramid, Save-a-Lot Foods, Sigma Electronics, Smokers Outlet, Tats by Wes, Taylor Band & Orchestra, Titan Auto Insurance, Video Theatre and Wonder Hostess Bakery Outlet.
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.
Akron developer Francis E. Rottmayer changed the way Summit County residents shopped in the early 1950s. On Canton Road in Ellet, he built Eastgate shopping center, the first such plaza in the county and one of the earliest in Ohio.
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