By James V. Banta, Technical Preservation Specialist/Project Manager
Chambers, Murphy & Burge Historical Architecture

John Brown House in Akron, Ohio

For this recent Conditions Assessment and Preservation Master Plan project at the John Brown House in Akron, Ohio, Chambers, Murphy & Burge (CMB) used TPAS® to identify exterior conditions for the purpose of evaluating the building envelope and generating a prioritized list of repair items. After preparing photo elevations, our TPAS assessment was conducted efficiently in the course of one day. The John Brown House in Akron was originally a 1.5-story Greek Revival Cottage that has undergone significant additions and modifications altering its appearance and creating challenges for cyclical maintenance as well as interpretation and presentation. With TPAS CMB documented observed conditions based on severity, extent, location, and priority.

Photo elevation with TPAS annotations

John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut. In 1805, he moved with his family to Hudson, Ohio. In 1844, Brown moved his family to Akron where they lived in a two room cottage that came to be known as the John Brown House. Brown rented the House from Colonel Simon Perkins with whom he was in business at the time. John Brown infamously went on to lead attacks against pro-slavery forces in Kansas in 1856 and to stage a raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in 1859. For his actions, Brown and some of his followers were hanged for treason. The John Brown House remained in the Perkins family until 1942 when it was bequeathed to The Summit County Historical Society who remains its steward today.