Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainAkron's 1915 commercial block stands where Henry Clark's Tavern hosted the city's first mayoral election in 1836
333 S. Main Street, Akron, OH 44308
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Accessible as part of the Ashes of Akron ghost tour; tour ticket required
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved downtown sidewalks
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1915 · Site of Akron's first mayoral election (1836) · Location of Henry Clark's Tavern, early civic gathering place
Long before the Evans Building rose here in 1915, this corner of South Main Street held one of Akron's earliest public gathering places: Henry Clark's Tavern. The tavern served as an informal civic center in the town's earliest decades, and on June 14, 1836, it became the site of Akron's first mayoral election, when voters chose Seth Iredell as the city's inaugural mayor. A commemorative plaque facing Exchange Street still marks the event.
The Evans Building that replaced earlier structures on the site has housed financial institutions since 1915, a nondescript commercial block that gives no outward hint of its deeper civic history. The Downtown Akron Partnership documents the tavern's significance as part of its ongoing effort to preserve the story of Main Street's earliest uses.
The Ashes of Akron ghost tour routes visitors past the building, citing reports of lingering presences from the tavern era — an unsettled energy that guides attribute to the site's long history as a place where the public gathered, drank, argued, and decided the city's future.
Sources
The Ashes of Akron ghost tour stops at the Evans Building to recount what guides describe as residual energy from the site's 19th-century past. The specific accounts center on the tavern era — a period of heavy public use, political activity, and the ordinary transactional life of a frontier Ohio town.
No individual apparitions are named, and the paranormal claims rest primarily on the tour's accumulated oral tradition rather than independent investigation records. The site's appeal lies in the documented history layered beneath the 1915 façade: a place where real people made real decisions, and where the tour operator argues that energy has not entirely dissipated.
The Evans Building is a stop on the Ashes of Akron ghost tour, which covers the paranormal history of downtown Akron's most storied addresses. Guides recount the 19th-century tavern activity at the site and the reported lingering presences from that era.
A commemorative plaque facing Exchange Street marks the spot where Akron's first mayoral election took place on June 14, 1836. The Evans Building exterior and the historical marker are viewable from the public sidewalk any time.
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