William Buchtel was the brother of Buchtel College founder, John R. Buchtel. William owned and operated a lumberyard at the corner of Main and Mill Streets in the early 1880s. When he announced that he was going to build a hotel on the lumberyard property, many citizens of Akron thought he was a fool. The site seemed too far from the business district at Howard and Market Streets. As the city's population grew to 17,000, Buchtel recognized a need for a first-class hotel. The city's top hotel at the time, the Empire House, which was built in 1847 at the corner of Market and Main Streets, had fallen terribly behind the times. William Buchtel hired Akron architect Frank O. Weary to draw plans for a five-story, brick & stone structure. The pricetag would be $100,000.00, (around $2.8-million today). The Hotel Buchtel, which billed itself as "The Model Hotel of Ohio," featured the latest in amenities, including incandescent lighting, a hydraulic elevator, bathrooms on each floor and call bells in each room. Rates were $2.00 to $2.50 per night. The hotel was a smash hit from the beginning. However, the hotels life would be a short one. In 1909, when educator Booker T. Washington came to Akron to give a speech, hotel manager Don Goodwin turned him away by instructing chief clerk John Sieber to refuse accommodations to the black man. Letters came in, the South praised him, the North threatened him. Over the remaining years the Buchtel Hotel became an apartment house, then was torn down in 1947 because of it's poor condition.
__________________________________________________

FROM THE AKRON CITY DIRECTORIES:

1868
William Buchtel, lumber dealer, home - E. Market St., 2nd door from Union St.

1875
William Buchtel, pres. - Citizen's Savings & Loan Assn., home - ns Market St., 3rd door east of Union St.

1878
William Buchtel, wholesale & retail lumber, shingles, lath, sash, doors, blinds & etc., office & yard - 200 Mill St., corner of Main St., home - 807 E. Market St.

1880 DIRECTORY same as 1878.

1883
William Buchtel & Sons, (William, John D. & William M. Buchtel), lumber dealers, contractors & builders, 0ffice & yeard - 200 E. Mill St., corner of Main St., & yard - 362 S. Main St., corner of Center St.

1885
William Buchtel, (William Buchtel& Sons) and vice pres. - The City National Bank, boards - Hotel Buchtel.

1890
Akron Savings Bank, William Buchtel - pres., C.R. Grant - vice pres., A Wagoner - cashier, C.J. Butler - teller, Hotel Buchtel Block, corner of Main & Mill Sts., Akron, Ohio.

1891
William Buchtel, pres. - Akron Savings Bank, treas. - the Thomas Lumber & Building Co., home - 807 E. Market St.

1895
William Buchtel, (Nora S.), pres. & treas. - Thomas Lumber & Building Co., pres. - Akron Savings Bank, treas. - Akron Building & Loan Assn., home - 714 E. Market St.

1905
William Buchtel, (Nora S.), home - 296 E. Market St.

1906
Buchtel Hotel, Don A. Goodwin, propr., corner of Main & Mill Sts.

1910
William Buchtel, (Nora), home - 339 E. Market St.
__________________________________________________