The T.H. Dearing House is the last surviving building from the lost community of Akron, a once-thriving 19th-century river port. Built ca. 1890, the entire house was moved in 1901 to Newark, whose growth was fueled by the railroad that bypassed Akron. This relocation makes the house a physical symbol of the economic shift from river to rail transport. The ornate Victorian home, which gained a second story in 1914, was built by farmer and politician Thomas Hindman Dearing. It stands today as one of Independence County’s significant Victorian structures and a tangible reminder of Newark’s origins and the ghost town of Akron.