[2] The western terminus of SR 59 is the Akron Innerbelt, a limited access highway originally meant to bypass downtown.

After crossing Cedar Avenue and Exchange Street, SR 59 exits the freeway section and is known as Martin Luther King Boulevard.

State Routes 43 and 59 are cosigned for a short distance, crossing the Cuyahoga River and two railroad lines.

Just east of the bridge, at South Water Street, southbound 43 exits the concurrency, while northbound 43 enters.

Just under 1 mile (1.6 km) east is the eastern terminus of SR 59 at a junction with State Route 5.

After passing through downtown Ravenna, the road widens back to five lanes at Linden Street east through the junction with State Routes 14 and 44.

The creation of SR 59 was part of a reroute of State Route 5 to a new southeastern bypass of Ravenna to end at Interstate 76 in Rootstown.

[10] The portion of SR 59 on Perkins Avenue was originally intended to be temporary until the northern leg of the Innerbelt was completed, and was officially designated at State Route 59T until August 2007.

[11] The section through Kent was rerouted onto the new Haymaker Parkway in 1975 after previously following West and East Main Streets through the city.

[12][13] In 1999 Akron mayor Don Plusquellic suggested ripping up the northern end of the freeway, making it a city street, and developing the surrounding land.

The idea was fostered by a trip to Milwaukee, in which Plusquellic saw the much-maligned Park East Freeway spur in that city's downtown removed in order to reuse the land.

[14] A similar plan presented in late 2014 proposed removal of the freeway north of the West Exchange Street overpass with an upgrade of the adjacent frontage roads to compensate.

[18] The idea was eventually scrapped, because in the event that the scene would have to be reshot, the time to reset all the cars in their start position would take too long.

The same article cited this, combined with the highway never being completed to its original destination in Kent, Ohio, as reasons for its gradual decommissioning through the late 2010s and early 2020s.