The two-story nature center with a million-dollar view of the lake is the beginning of a series of actions designed to bring Summit Lake residents the programming and services the neighborhood has long been denied, he said, and to connect them to the lake as an amenity.
“Metro Parks doesn't just open the building,” he said. “They bring naturalists and people to talk about astronomy and people to do finger-painting and people to do bird watching. And all that is now going to be offered in one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in the state of Ohio. Right in the heart of it.”
The center will offer interpretive exhibits, wildlife education and urban gardening. Metro Parks naturalists will also focus on different types of water-based recreation. The large, open, second floor is designed as programming space.
“Activating this pump house, this nature center now, is the first in a line of things that are going to start really happening for Summit Lake,” Kutuchief said.
Since 2017, as part of Reimagining the Civic Commons, the lake has been a focus for the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, Knight Foundation, Summit Metro Parks, the city of Akron and other groups who began a process to reinvest in Summit Lake.
The lake was once a vibrant destination, with an amusement park, swimming and dancing and retail. But over time, manufacturing polluted the waters, and in the late 1960s a highway severed the neighborhood from the city. Investment disappeared and the Summit Lake neighborhood became the most disenfranchised community in Akron.
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a partnership between the JPB Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Akron was selected among several cities awarded $5 million to revitalize key public spaces. A part of that, the “Summit lake Vision Plan” was developed based on resident input.
During community meetings for the vision plan, residents often spoke about neighborhood children having nothing to do, even with baseball and soccer fields nearby and the Reach Community Center, said Summit Metro Parks Chief of Community Engagement Demetrius Lambert-Falconer.
“Even though all of those amenities are physically here, there are no programs in the neighborhood,” she said. That’s because the amenities offered were paid for, usually by people who came from outside Summit lake.
Based on the feedback, in 2017, Metro Parks created a pop-up nature center at Summit Lake. The center became so popular, Metro Parks kept it going, said Lambert-Falconer, who heads up the center
During that time the pump house was eyed by a few groups interested in turning it into something useful for the community, but the amount of work and costs were prohibitive.
The first floor of the building was made entirely of metal pumps, with one giant pipe leading toward the pier at the lake, with the floor underneath hollow, Kutuchief said.
“This was a very complicated building and I think the only reason it didn't get knocked down was because it would have been too expensive,” he said. “If it weren't for Metro Parks, I don't think there's any way it would have happened.”
Like the pop-up center, the new nature center’s offerings were designed based on Summit Lake resident input, Lambert-Falconer said, keeping it “relevant and authentic.”
“I mean, everything from a sewing class for kids to arts, to this program called ‘Nature Club’ that I'm so proud of because I'm creating my own little workforce of future naturalists,” she said.
Metro Parks modelled Nature Club after a popular after-school program at the pop up, in which kids learned basic science concepts.
“It was important for me to have them understand that you don't have to go somewhere else,” she said. “You know, you have a valuable place where you are.”
And the offerings at Summit lake are only increasing.
On the North Shore, the Knight Foundation is investing $4 million toward a $10 million project to create Summit Lake Park, featuring a trail all the way around the lake, about 2.25 miles, with concessions and a shelter. The city of Akron has pledged $3 million toward that project.
The North Shore will be shaped to accommodate a boat dock and a boat house for a canoe and kayak share program, Kutuchief said.
One of the most exciting things about the work at the lake is it opens up all the offerings of the Cuyahoga Valley to Summit Lake residents, Kutuchief said. Summit Metro Parks, the Towpath Trail and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and beyond are all now in their back yard.