FirstMerit Tower, also known as the First National Bank Building or the First Central Trust Building, is a skyscraper in Akron, Ohio that has remained the tallest building in that city since its completion in 1931. The building is art deco in style and is covered in glazed architectural terra-cotta. It sits at the corner of South Main Street and East Mill Street. It rises 27 stories to a height of 330 feet (100 m). It is the centerpiece of downtown Akron. The building headquarters the eponymous FirstMerit Corp. and others. The lobby is built with Tennessee marble, white brick, and terra cotta, and features a large banking hall with arched windows. The tower was built on the former site of the Hamilton Building, completed in 1900 in the neo-gothic style. Near the turn of the millennium the tower was given a $2.5 million facelift, including a $1.8 million restoration of the tower's terra-cotta, brick and limestone. The painstaking process involved the removal of some 450 blocks weighing up to 75 pounds each for cleaning and reassembly. Over 1,100 other pieces of the masonry and tilework were repaired on site. In 2007, the tower was again undergoing a restoration. Completed by Cleveland-based VIP Restorations, it includes repointing of all masonry and terra-cotta joints, repairs to the windows, structural restoration, and a restoration of the 13th floor parapet. VIP Restorations also helped to get the building placed within the Nation Register of Historic Places upon the completion of the project.
The top of the building has a television broadcast tower, formerly used by WAKR-TV (now WVPX-TV) and WAKR-AM. The antenna reaches 134.7 metres (442 ft).
Famous quotes containing the words merit and/or tower:
“O that estates, degrees, and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It is not their bones or hide or tallow that I love most. It is the living spirit of the tree, not its spirit of turpentine, with which I sympathize, and which heals my cuts. It is as immortal as I am, and perchance will go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)