Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens

Akron rose to wealth on rubber. In 1898 F. A. Seiberling founded the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and as the automobile transformed the country, the demand for tires made Akron a boomtown and Seiberling one of its leading industrialists. The city became known as the rubber capital of the world, its factories drawing workers from across the country and abroad.

With their fortune, F. A. and Gertrude Seiberling set out to build a family home worthy of an English lord, but shaped to American life. Construction of the manor was carried out in the 1910s, and the family moved into a house designed for both grand entertaining and everyday living. The estate stands as a monument to that brief, dazzling era when tires built cities and industrialists built palaces.

The house is a Tudor Revival design of stone and timber, its exterior modeled on the great English manor houses, its interior filled with carved wood, tapestries, leaded glass, and antiques the Seiberlings gathered on their travels. The great hall, the music room, the library, and the many bedrooms unfold one after another, and the sheer scale of the place, one of the largest historic homes in the nation, is part of the wonder of a visit.

What sets Stan Hywet apart from many restored mansions is how much is original. A great deal of the family's own furniture, art, and belongings remained with the house, so the rooms feel lived in rather than staged. Walking through them, you get an unusually direct sense of how a wealthy industrial-age Ohio family actually lived a century ago.

The Seiberlings hired the noted landscape architect Warren Manning to shape the grounds, and the estate blends formal gardens with more naturalistic landscapes designed to frame long views. The English Garden, tucked into a sheltered space, is a favorite, and a striking allee of white birches leads the eye across the property in one of its signature vistas.

Around the formal plantings, the grounds roll away in lawns, woods, and meadows, with the old quarries that gave the estate its name hidden among them. The gardens change through the seasons, with spring bulbs, summer perennials, and fall color each giving the grounds a different character, so the landscape is as much a reason to visit as the house.

Spring brings the gardens alive with bulbs and blossoms, and the birch allee and the English Garden are at their freshest. Summer fills the grounds with perennials in full bloom, ideal for a slow walk before touring the cool interior of the manor.

Fall turns the wooded grounds gold and red and pairs beautifully with the stone and timber of the house. Winter is quiet, and the estate is known for elaborate seasonal displays that transform the manor and grounds during the holidays. Because offerings shift with the calendar, it is worth checking what is on before a visit.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.