I'm in Downtown Akron and this monument behind me, what it was, was the Mathews Hotel.

Opened in 1925, this was one of the only hotels in the city that catered to Black travelers.

Situated right on Howard Street, it was in the heart of Akron's jazz district around clubs like the Hi Hat and the Green Turtle.

Legends like Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald stayed right here.

And owner George Washington Mathews was one of the Rubber City's most successful and civic-minded entrepreneurs.

He liked to call his hotel "a business with a soul."

But by the late '70s as the city fell on hard times, the hotel was closed and later demolished to make way for the Innerbelt.

And we all know how that turned out.

Years later, in 2011, Akron artist Miller Horns created this monument to the hotel.

Now Mr.

Mathews' name had one T in it, but you may have noticed that the monument has two Ts in it.

That's because the spelling varied over the years on their sign.

Let's just say that the extra T is for these tires.

What are ... What are these doing here?