Hower House was completed in 1871 by John Henry Hower, a leading Akron industrialist who was active in the milling, reaping and cereal industries. Hower and architect Jacob Snyder designed this house in the Second Empire Italianate style. The floor plan, known as the "Akron Sunday School Plan", features rooms radiating from a large octagonal center hall. The plan was used for churches across the United States. This 28-room mansion is capped with a mansard roof and soaring tower, and is filled with hundreds of treasures and furnishings the Hower family collected from around the world.