Goodyear co-founder F.A. Seiberling's 65-room Tudor Revival estate in Akron, Ohio, where a 'Gray Lady' — believed to be from the English manor whose woodwork was imported for the master suite — has been seen crossing the balcony during Christmas tours.
714 North Portage Path, Akron, OH 44303
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Admission charged for mansion tours and grounds; seasonal pricing. See stanhywet.org for current rates.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic mansion with mix of accessible main-floor areas and stairs to upper floors. Gardens are mostly level with some sloped paths.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1915 · National Register of Historic Places · One of the Largest Private Residences in America · American Country Place Era Architecture · Goodyear Tire Founding Family Estate · Tudor Revival — English Manor Woodwork Imported Intact
Franklin A. Seiberling co-founded the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron in 1898, and by 1911 the rubber boom had made him wealthy enough to commission an estate on the scale of an English country house. He and his wife Gertrude chose the name Stan Hywet — Welsh for 'stone quarry' — for the 65-acre property on North Portage Path. Construction ran from 1912 to 1915 under architect Charles Schneider, who designed the manor in the Tudor Revival style fashionable among American industrialists of the period.
The house contains 65 rooms, 23 fireplaces, and approximately 64,500 square feet of living space. Among the most distinctive features is the master suite, which incorporates original woodwork imported from an English manor house — paneling, carvings, and fittings brought over intact and installed in the American building. This importation of architectural elements from England is documented in the estate's historical records and is central to the Gray Lady legend.
Seiberling lost control of Goodyear in a financial reorganization in 1921 but retained the property. His family occupied Stan Hywet until 1954, when it was transferred to the Stan Hywet Hall Foundation. The property opened as a museum in 1957 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It receives over 100,000 visitors annually and is considered one of the finest examples of the American Country Place era.
Sources
The Gray Lady is Stan Hywet's best-documented paranormal account, and its specificity — a ghost attributed to English architectural salvage — sets it apart from the generic apparition stories that circulate around most historic houses. The theory holds that when the Seiberlings imported paneling and woodwork from an English country house, they brought along whoever haunted it. The entity is described consistently as a woman in period dress, seen crossing or standing near the master suite balcony.
Staff and volunteers at the estate have reported these sightings most frequently during the Christmas at Stan Hywet touring season, when the house is decorated and open on extended hours. The Ohio Exploration paranormal compendium for Summit County includes Stan Hywet Hall with the Gray Lady as the primary reported entity. No formal paranormal investigation documentation is publicly available for the property.
Other reported activity at the estate — unexplained sounds in unoccupied rooms, objects found displaced — is more diffuse and consistent with the general ambient reports that attach to any large historic house with centuries of accumulated human presence, even one only a century old.
Notable Entities
Guided tours through the 65-room Tudor Revival mansion, including the master suite where the Gray Lady is reported to appear, the great hall, and original Seiberling-era furnishings. Tours run throughout the year.
Self-guided exploration of the 70-acre English landscape garden, designed by landscape architects Warren Manning and Ellen Biddle Shipman. Includes the walled garden, cutting garden, and Japanese garden.
Seasonal holiday tours where the Gray Lady apparition is most frequently reported — staff and volunteers have described seeing her cross the master suite balcony during the Christmas decorating period.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Macon, GA
Built between 1855 and 1859 for businessman William Butler Johnston at a cost of approximately $100,000, the Italian Renaissance Revival mansion at 934 Georgia Avenue has been called the 'Palace of the South' and is a National Historic Landmark. The Felton family held it through the Civil War period; Confederate general Henry Gray Felton occupied it during the war. The Hay family acquired the house in 1926 and donated it to The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in 1977.
Indianapolis, IN
Hannah House is an 1858 Italianate mansion at 3801 Madison Avenue on the south side of Indianapolis, built by Alexander Hannah, an Indiana businessman who returned wealthy from the California Gold Rush. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Charles City, VA
Benjamin Harrison IV built the current mansion at Berkeley Plantation in 1726, making it the oldest three-story brick structure in Virginia. The plantation became the birthplace of President William Henry Harrison in 1773 and the ancestral seat of a family that produced a signer of the Declaration of Independence and two U.S. Presidents. During the Civil War, General McClellan used the mansion as his headquarters and the cellar held Confederate prisoners.