{"nrhp_refnum":"76001533","name":"Werner Company Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"109 N. Union","address_restricted":false,"city":"Akron","county":"Summit County","state":"OH","lat":41.084118180000075,"lon":-81.50557002699998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-12-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick administration building at 109 North Union in Akron, Summit County, Ohio, erected in 1895 for the Werner Company book factory, designed in an eclectic German medieval style.","why_significant":"The building served as the administration headquarters of a publishing firm that claimed in 1900 to be the largest and most complete book factory in the United States. It is considered an excellent and unusually elaborate example of eclectic architecture in the German idiom for a publishing house of its date and place. It is also tied to Paul E. Werner, a German immigrant publisher.","narrative":"Built in 1895 at 109 North Union in Akron, this three-story brick building housed the administration offices of the Werner Company, a printing and publishing firm. Its design draws on German medieval models, with steep gabled roofs, large stepped gables at five places, bands of sandstone running through the brickwork, and a square corner tower set at an angle, topped with turrets. Inside, an entrance hall is ringed by an arcade of round and elliptical arches on fluted columns, with a wide staircase lit by a skylight. Paul E. Werner, born in Germany in 1850, built the business from newspapers and printing into a large book factory that claimed by 1900 to be the largest and most complete in the country. The firm issued an unauthorized edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, faced legal battles and heavy losses, and failed in 1909. The building is valued as an unusually elaborate commercial design and as a reminder of that enterprise.","period_of_significance":"1895-1909","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Eclectic German medieval","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as vacant and unoccupied at the time of nomination; condition marked good, with minor alterations noted.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.368625-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/76001533.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001533/33a0bec35b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001533/33a0bec35b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Nola Bev","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Werner_Company_Building_from_Union_Street.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Nola Bev</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Werner_Company_Building_from_Union_Street.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991557","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Company_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7983368"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/summit-county/werner-company-building-76001533/"}