Rubber Worker and Tire

Akron, Ohio

Akron, the one-time "Rubber Capital of the World," unveiled a 12-foot-tall bronze statue of a rubber worker in May 2021. Better late than never, although the statue is modeled on a photo taken a hundred years ago, and Akron's rubber workforce peaked back in World War II.

The statue, by Ohio sculptor Alan Cottrill, depicts a 1920s tire plant worker wearing tall rubber boots and a long rubber apron as he wraps a big truck tire in paper (Fresh-made rubber tires were paper-wrapped to keep them from sticking to whatever they touched). At one time all four major tire manufacturers -- Firestone, General, Goodrich, Goodyear -- were headquartered in Akron. The tire factories, notoriously noisy, often hired people who could not hear, giving the city the additional title, "Crossroads of the Deaf."

The rubber worker statue stands on a two-tiered granite base, one cut into in the map-outline shape of Akron, and the other in the shape of surrounding Summit County.