Local history: After losing Goodyear, Seiberling brothers made big comeback in Barberton

The broken bricks, shattered glass and smashed concrete pay silent tribute to a former industrial giant.

The former Seiberling Rubber Co. office building is disappearing from Barberton’s skyline. Demolition began in January on the 80-year-old structure along 15th Street Northwest. By late April, there won’t be much left.

Once upon a time, this complex produced “America’s Finest Tires.”

Akron brothers F.A. Seiberling and C.W. Seiberling made the most of their second chance in 1921 after losing control of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the business they co-founded in 1898.

Goodyear had overextended itself and was unable to meet its bills during the 1920-1921 recession following World War I. Dillon, Read & Co., an investment bank in New York, assumed control of the Akron company.

The new owners asked F.A. Seiberling to stay on as manager, but he politely showed himself the door.

“I was out in the streets without a dollar to my name,” he recalled years later. “So I had to do something.”

He and C.W. secured financing from friend Edgar B. Davis, a Texas oilman who had struck it rich after borrowing $57,000 from the Seiberlings during lean times. Davis gave them a $500,000 advance for a new venture.

Seiberling Rubber Co. opened in 1921

They purchased the Portage Rubber Co., a 10-year-old factory in Barberton, and reopened it as Seiberling Rubber Co. on Nov. 21, 1921. Laborer George Green built the company’s first tire.

Inviting company officials to his Akron home, Stan Hywet, for dinner, F.A. Seiberling told guests: “Gentlemen, we are going to make the name Seiberling on rubber mean as much as the word Sterling on silver.”

With Seiberling’s sterling reputation in the automobile industry, the new enterprise assembled a network of tire dealers across the country. In six remarkable years, Seiberling jumped from the 330th largest rubber company — some sources say 364th — to the seventh.

“America’s Finest Tires,” it boasted in ads.

The Barberton plant manufactured tires and tubes for automobiles, trucks, buses, tractors and earthmoving machines. It also produced floor mats, rubber heels, soles and other goods.

“We organized this company and we’ve got along pretty well,” F.A. Seiberling said.

The business endured the tough times of the Great Depression and prospered in the years to follow. J. Penfield Seiberling succeeded his father as president in 1938 while F.A. remained as chairman. The company introduced heat vents, saw-tooth treads and other innovations, and branched out into chemicals, plastics and synthetic rubber.

The plant grew to more than 1,300 workers by 1941. During World War II, the company built bullet-resistant tires and rubber pontoons for the military. Stockholders approved a $1.5 million expansion in 1943.

Rather than build a new plant, Seiberling converted old offices into manufacturing. Seiberling constructed an administration complex in 1944 that freed up 35,000 square feet for the factory.

Office complex opened in 1945

Made of reinforced concrete and brick, the three-level building cost $450,000 (over $8 million today). Seiberling hailed the complex as “the most modern and attractive in the Akron area.”

“It gives the Barberton rubber company a complete testing laboratory and engineering building, housing the latest devices for experimenting with synthetic rubber,” Beacon Journal reporter Matt Hall wrote in 1945. “It is equipped with baby banburies, mills and curing ovens. Here can be performed on a miniature scale all the operations of tire manufacture.

“Housed in another section of the building is a new company hospital. It will provide Seiberling employees with complete hospital service, with the exception of major operations. The 10-room hospital is equipped with eight beds, instruments for treatment of ailments and injuries, for X-rays and minor operations.”

The building also featured Seiberling’s sales offices for Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and parts of New York, Pennsylvania and Indiana. The giant basement contained two cafeterias: One for office personnel, seating 201, and the other for factory workers, seating 270.

When the office building opened in January 1945, a parade of competitors arrived to congratulate F.A. and C.W. Seiberling. Among the visitors were John W. Thomas, chairman and chief executive of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.; Harvey S. Firestone Jr., president of Firestone; William F. O’Neil, president of General Tire & Rubber Co.; and Paul W. Litchfield, chairman of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

The Seiberling brothers raised a toast to Clara Bingham, the first stenographer at Goodyear in 1898, who stopped by the Barberton complex to congratulate her former bosses.

The Barberton plant went full throttle as the Allied forces made their final push overseas. The factory happily switched to peacetime industries by the end of the year.

In 1946, the company mourned the loss of co-founder C.W. Seiberling, who died at age 85. His brother F.A. Seiberling retired as chairman in 1950 and passed away in 1955 at age 95.

“The strength of Seiberling Rubber Co. has always been a joy and a source of pride to me,” F.A. Seiberling said upon retiring. “I know that it will become stronger in the years to come.”

A year after Seiberling’s death, Toledo industrialist Edward Lamb began to buy Seiberling Rubber Co. stock. For six years, he battled for control of the company, owning 25% of its stock by 1961 and over 50% by 1962.

“I am in Seiberling to stay,” he insisted.

J. Penfield Seiberling, president and chairman, declined a seat on the board just as his father had in 1921. He thanked employees, dealers, customers and shareholders.

“We have endeavored honestly, sincerely and energetically to ‘fight the good fight’ for their best interests at all times,” he said.

Lamb pledged he would lead the company “from an era of losses to the much more pleasant path of profitability.”

He gave up two years later, unloading his stock in 1964. Goodyear and Firestone battled to acquire Seiberling, but Firestone won the bidding war in 1965 after agreeing to pay $31.5 million in cash (over $314 million today).

Firestone closed Barberton plant

Firestone invested $10 million on renovations and equipment in Barberton. By the late 1970s, the factory employed 700 production workers and 265 salaried workers.

Firestone briefly merged Seiberling into Dayton Tire before giving up.

In March 1980, Firestone announced it would lay off 8,500 workers nationwide, including 1,415 in Akron and Barberton. It closed its Barberton and Dayton plants as well as factories in California and Pennsylvania.

“The realignment is intended to meet changing market conditions by eliminating unneeded capacity that has been used mainly for the production of bias ply tires,” Firestone Chairman and CEO Richard A. Riley said.

Shock waves rolled through Barberton.

“My God, this is going to disrupt lives,” Mayor William Judge said. “It’s very sad. There’s just no place in Barberton that this many can get work.”

Esau Sims built Seiberling’s final tire before the factory emptied.

Richard Ley, a 30-year employee, installed locks and chains on doors as the last workers departed May 30.

“I took one last look back when we left and I still couldn’t believe it was happening,” Ley said.

Joe Albanese, president of United Rubber Workers Local 18, delivered a final eulogy: “We made a good brand of tire and the people were proud of where they worked and the product they turned out.”

B & C Industries, a manufacturer of aluminum wheels, operated at the factory for 27 years beginning in 1981. It employed as many as 200 workers, but closed with about 70 in 2008.

The vacant plant fell into disrepair.

In early 2012, the nonprofit Barberton Community Development Corp., through its Barberton Land and Improvement Co. subsidiary, bought the complex for $700,000 with a grant from Barberton Community Foundation.

The group invested over $2.7 million in redevelopment. Today, 15 businesses operate in the warehouse, said Scott Wagner, executive director of Barberton Community Development Corp.

The administration building was a harder sell. The property was marketed as office space, but there was little interest from companies since so many people continued to work from home after the pandemic, Wagner said.

The nonprofit received a $450,000 state grant through the Summit County Land Bank to tear down the blighted structure. Eslich workers are razing 40,000 square feet of the former Seiberling complex. Another 12,000 square feet will remain.

Wagner said the plan is to construct a building where the offices stood.

“It will be for manufacturing,” he said. “I don’t have a time frame on that. I’m just trying to get with builders now to get some costs in mind. I’m already working with a possible tenant.”

“America’s Finest Tires” are a fading memory. Barberton is waiting to see what comes next at the historic site.

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Seiberling Rubber Co. enjoyed a good run in Barberton