Akron residents are invited to a rededication and remembrance ceremony Wednesday, October 28, at 10:30 a.m. honoring the hundreds of people buried in unmarked graves at Schneider Memorial Park, 370 Schneider Park Drive in West Akron, the city announced in an October 23 press release reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. The program will include several speakers and conclude with a laying of flowers, and all are welcome to attend.
The park sits on land that once belonged to the Summit County Infirmary, where hundreds of indigent residents were buried in unmarked graves, the city said in its release, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. That history resurfaced in 2017, when archaeological work revealed the extent of the forgotten burial ground beneath a park generations of Akron families had used without knowing what lay below it.
Community members, led by neighbor Jane Greenland, pushed for the site to be formally recognized, according to the city’s release. In early 2026, Akron City Council passed a resolution urging the name change, and Mayor Shammas Malik announced the park would officially be renamed Schneider Memorial Park to honor those who rest there.
Speakers expected at Wednesday’s ceremony include Ward 4 Councilwoman Jan Davis, University of Akron Anthropology Professor Emerita Carolyn Behrman, Wendy Duke and Jane Greenland, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Behrman’s field, anthropology, is closely tied to the research that documented the burial ground, and Greenland’s advocacy is credited by the city with driving the recognition effort.
The rededication is also getting a companion event the same evening. The Richfield Branch Library will host “What Remains: Untold Stories from Akron’s Schneider Park” on Wednesday, October 28, from 6 to 7 p.m., the Akron Beacon Journal reported, giving residents a second chance to hear the park’s history; the library event is free, with registration through the library.
For West Akron neighbors, the renamed park formalizes something residents have argued for years: that the men and women buried there — Summit County’s poorest residents, interred by the infirmary without markers — deserve to be remembered by name and place. The city’s release frames Wednesday’s ceremony as a rededication of the grounds themselves, not just a sign change.
The ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the park, 370 Schneider Park Drive. Residents who cannot attend can visit the grounds afterward; the park remains open as a neighborhood park, now carrying a name that tells visitors why the ground matters.
Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA