Kent, Ohio

The Kent Industrial District is a historic district in Kent, Ohio, United States, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district covers around 4.3 acres (1.7 ha) of downtown Kent on either side of the Cuyahoga River and is roughly bounded by West Main Street on the north, River Street to the west, Franklin Avenue to the east and Haymaker Parkway to the south. Within the district are three buildings and two stone structures of historical significance. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Kent namesake Marvin Kent was involved in several aspects of the district's development and the area would play a key role in the development of Kent during much of the 19th century. The earliest structures in the district date to the 1830s with the most recent historic structure, the livery and carriage shop building, dating to 1910. The area today is occupied mostly by the city of Kent's Franklin Mills Riveredge Park, Heritage Park, and various private landowners.

Kent is a former station for the Erie Railroad in Kent, Ohio, on the Erie main line (Kent Division) between Chicago and Jersey City. Along the main line, the next station west towards Chicago’s Dearborn Station was Tallmadge, while east towards Jersey City’s Pavonia Terminal was Ravenna. The station was located 615.9 miles (991.2 km) from Pavonia Terminal and 382.6 miles (615.7 km) from Dearborn Station. The city of Kent was the headquarters of the Kent Division, with car shops and a large yard maintained just south of the station until 1930. About one mile (1.6 km) north of the station were the Erie Railroad's Breakneck Yards, which operated into the 1960s. The station, located in Kent's downtown area overlooking the Cuyahoga River, dates to 1864, one year after the opening of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad through Kent in 1863, while the depot, described as being in the Tuscan Revival style, opened in 1875. Kent station consisted of two platform extending along the outside of each of the two tracks south from West Main Street to Stow Street. The depot was toward the northern end of the platforms on Franklin Avenue. Kent station closed in 1970 and the depot was nearly demolished in the 1970s. Its potential demise was one of the main catalysts in establishing the Kent Historical Society in 1971, who purchased the depot in 1975 and later restored and renovated it for use as a restaurant and office space.

The Kent Free Library is a public library located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The oldest part of its current building is a Carnegie library that opened in 1903. The library is part of the Portage Library Consortium, which includes the Portage County Library District and Reed Memorial Library in nearby Ravenna, and is a school district library associated with the Kent City School District. Kent Free Library was established in 1892 as the first use of an 1892 Ohio law that allowed municipalities under 5,000 residents to tax residents for library support. Initially, the library was housed in a downtown Kent business block. Pittsburgh steel industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie offered the then-village of Kent $11,500 for construction of a permanent home for the library in 1901, contingent on a suitable location and voter approval of a tax levy for maintenance. Kent voters approved the measure and town namesake Marvin Kent donated the land, a lot at the southwest corner of West Main and South River Streets. The library opened at its new location on September 26, 1903. Since 1903, the library has undergone several expansions, with the latest expansion occurring in 2004–2006. During the 2004–2006 expansion, the three previous additions to the original Carnegie library were demolished and a new three-story addition was built in their places while the original Carnegie library was renovated and restored. The addition tripled available space by adding approximately 55,000 square feet (5,100 m2) to the original Carnegie building. During construction, the library was temporarily housed in Kent's University Plaza shopping center. The current building and the renovated Carnegie portion opened on September 26, 2006, exactly 103 years after the Carnegie library first opened.

The Masonic Temple in Kent, Ohio is a historic building which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built between 1880 and 1882 in the Italianate style, it was originally the home of Kent namesake Marvin Kent and his family. Construction was performed partially by locals and partly by master craftsmen from afar: the architect was Isaac Tuttle of neighboring Ravenna, but interior woodworking was performed by woodworkers brought from New York City. Members of Kent's family lived at the house for slightly more than forty years before selling it to a Masonic lodge in 1923. Due to Marvin Kent's national prominence in the Republican Party, many political leaders visited his house, including Presidents Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding; the guest room in which every president slept has been named the "President's Room" and preserved in its late nineteenth-century condition.Built of brick on a foundation of sandstone, the Masonic Temple features miscellaneous elements of wood and sandstone placed under a slate roof. A brick wall is placed in front of the house, which features a wrap-around porch with a small pediment. The house's walls rise two and a half stories, with a taller tower at the center of the facade; the eaves under the tall pointed roof are supported by a cornice composed of dentilling.It was listed on the National Register in 1974 and is also a contributing structure of the West Main Street District, listed on the NRHP in 1977.

The Franklin Township Hall, also referred to historically as the "Town Hall", is a town hall located in Kent, Ohio, United States, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building, located along Gougler Avenue in central Kent near the Cuyahoga River, was built in 1837 and has served as the seat of government for Franklin Township since 1840. It is best known for being the location where James A. Garfield was nominated for his first political office in 1859.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent, Ohio is a Unitarian Universalist ("UU") church in Kent, Ohio. Founded in 1866, the current building was completed by builder Joseph Gridley (1820-1902) in 1868 on land donated by philanthropist Marvin Kent and rests on a bedrock of sandstone. Its 19 founding members were among the major movers and shakers of the then Village of Franklin Mills, and included abolitionists and Civil War veterans. They were: Dr. Aaron M. Sherman, M.D., who served as a Civil War surgeon (“contract surgeon” for the 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and who was stationed at “Lincoln General Hospital” in Washington, D.C.), a prominent civic promoter, served many terms on the local school board, co-founded the Rockton Masonic Lodge that occupies the historic 1883 summer home of Marvin Kent on West Main Street, served as a State Representative in the Ohio State House of Representatives and whose 1858 home first built by Zenas Kent (father of Marvin) for his daughter Frances and her husband George Wells was recently saved, moved and restored by local historic preservation activists, Arvin Olin, Ransom Olin, Nelson Olin, Joseph Stratton, who, in 1882, donated the large bell that is in the church belfry, Phillip Boosinger, Mary Boosinger, Rhoda Boosinger, James D. Haymaker (son of Frederick Haymaker, member of a family who had strong abolitionist leanings and a business partner of abolitionist John Brown, who resided in Kent for a time) and Mary Rosetta Olin Haymaker, J.G. Whitcomb, T.H. Marshall, Eliza Wright, A. Merrell, Almund Russell (a member of a prominent Franklin Mills abolitionist family), Sybil Bradley, Effie Parsons, Mary J. Parsons and Mary A. Furry. These 19 men and women gathered on May 27, 1866, to write and sign the church's constitution in the historic 1836 Village Hall that would serve as an early place of worship before the church building was completed next door in 1868. It is the only church still using its original 19th century building in the city of Kent and in 1976 the site was designed as a "significant restored building site". In the early and middle twentieth century when there were few women clergy anywhere in the United States, the church is notable for having several women ministers: Abbie Danforth in 1889, Carlotta Crosley in 1903, and Violet Kochendoerfer in 1972. Membership is between 140 and 200 full-time adults as well as 100 children in its religious education programs. The church runs a summer camp called Kent Hogwarts which is a Harry Potter-themed camp for young kids, which emphasizes chemistry, poetry, singing and community service. The church advocates social justice, environmental awareness, democracy and acceptance of diverse peoples including all religions. The Kent church follows the seven basic principles of Unitarian Universalism.The church hosts funeral and memorial services, concerts including classical and jazz music, public meetings on local issues, speeches advocating democracy, and other community events. It holds an annual book sale. In 2016, Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer led the church on a course of structural expansion, seeking variances to expand its physical size. As part of a renovation project, the ceiling of the sanctuary will be removed to expose the vaulted beams from the earlier roof as well as a stained glass window.Reverend Carvill-Ziemer was appointed chief minister in 2005. In 2010, the church ordained Rev. Renee Ruchotzke and appointed her as its Affiliated Community Minister. Unitarian Universalists are accepting of all who come to worship ... There's room here for theological diversity ... There's room here for people who don't really know what they believe and what is hold for them and want to explore that. Church leaders have advocated against racism, and marched with other interfaith leaders for racial justice. According to a demographic analysis by Google, the city of Kent is the "most racist" in northeastern Ohio. Carvill-Ziemer advocated against white privilege. In 2010, Ziemer and fellow Unitarian Universalists from Kent traveled to Arizona to protest the state's immigration legislation; she was arrested in Phoenix for allegedly blocking traffic in front of a sheriff's office. A judge later found her not guilty and she was released.The church has a long history of social action. In 1900, minister Abbie Danforth created and led the Portage County suffrage association and chaired a two-day conference on women's suffrage. Danforth had studied at Canton Theological School and had been ordained in 1878, just 15 years after suffragist Olympia Brown, who was the first woman ever to be ordained in the United States. In the late 1960s, the church served as a site for a local food co-op that later became the Kent Natural Foods Co-op.In the 1960s and 1970s, the church was active in the anti-war movement. After the May 4, 1970 shootings on the Kent State University campus, the church: refused to pay its telephone tax. defied Mayor Leroy Satrom and County Prosecutor Ron Kane's order forbidding more than five people to meet by holding a memorial service for the slain students. passed resolutions censuring President Nixon, demanding civil liberties from the mayor and county prosecutor, and demanding the immediate withdrawal of troops from Southeast Asia.

The West Main Street District is a historic district in Kent, Ohio, United States, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district encompasses 25 buildings, most of which are houses, on both sides of West Main Street from its intersection with North and South Mantua Streets on the east to the intersection with North and South Chestnut Streets. It was listed June 17, 1977. Included in the district is the Kent Masonic Center, itself listed on the register in 1974, as well as the home of Martin L. Davey, who served as Governor of Ohio from 1935–1939. Architectural styles represented in the district include Commercial style, Eastlake, Gothic Revival, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne style.

The Charles Kent House, also known as the Palmer House, is a historic structure in Kent, Ohio, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since February 23, 1978. An example of Gothic Revival architecture, the house also features elements of the Greek Revival and Carpenter Gothic architectural styles. It is at 125 North Pearl Street in central Kent, immediately north of the West Main Street District. It was built in 1843 as the home of Charles Kent, son of Zenas Kent and brother of Marvin Kent, the namesake of the city of Kent. In 1909 it was moved by owner Henry Green 150 feet (46 m) north of its original location along West Main Street to the site on North Pearl Street. Martin L. Davey, who would later serve as mayor of Kent, followed by U.S. Representative, and eventually as Governor of Ohio, persuaded the owner to move the house to avoid demolition. Owned for many years by Dr. Maurice and Louisa Palmer, it also was known as Palmer House when it was listed on the National Register. It was painted white with blue shutters. The present color scheme was changed following its sale by the Palmer estate in the early 2000s.

The Kent City School District is a public school district based in Kent, Ohio, United States. It serves approximately 3,100 students living in Kent, Franklin Township, Brady Lake, and Sugar Bush Knolls, as well as a small portion of southern Streetsboro. The district has seven schools including four elementary schools housing kindergarten through fifth grade with preschool housed at one elementary school; Stanton Middle School for grades 6–8; and Theodore Roosevelt High School, which houses grades 9–12. The superintendent is Tom Larkin, who began his tenure August 1, 2023. Larkin previously served as assistant superintendent and has been with the district since 1996.

The Kent Jail, also known as the Old Jailhouse, is a historic structure located in Kent, Ohio, in the United States. It was first added to the National Register of Historic Places August 10, 1978, while still located at its original location of 124 West Day Street, near downtown Kent immediately south of Haymaker Parkway. In December 1999 the building was moved to 497 Middlebury Road to make way for a Walgreens drug store, and was subsequently delisted from the register July 20, 2000. It was re-added on August 22, 2001 after undergoing an extensive US$120,000 restoration. It is owned by and adjacent to the offices of the Kent Parks and Recreation Department and is used by the department as a rental location for small gatherings. It was originally built in 1869, just two years after Kent incorporated as a village. It is an example of late Victorian architecture and is one of three known remaining small town jail buildings in eastern Ohio. The jail was used for incarceration until the 1930s and later served as home of the city's service director and engineer until the 1940s. After a period of vacancy, it was purchased in 1950 and used as a private home by various owners until it was moved in 1999.

The John Davey House is a historic structure located in Kent, Ohio, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since May 29, 1975. An example of Second Empire architecture, the house is best known for being the home of John Davey, a pioneer in the science of tree surgery and the founder of the Davey Tree Expert Company. It is located on a hill at 338 Woodard Avenue in northwest Kent and was built around 1880. Davey called the house "Birdmount."

Wills Gymnasium, often referred to as Wills Gym, was a multi-purpose athletic facility on the campus of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, United States. Construction started in 1924 and the building was dedicated in 1925. It was the first dedicated gymnasium on the KSU campus, which had opened in 1913. Before the opening of Wills Gym, physical education classes and the intercollegiate and intramural sports teams used a variety of spaces for games and classes, both on campus in other buildings and off campus. The main gym seated approximately 4,000 people and the basement level included an indoor pool, locker rooms, and bowling alley. At the time, its capacity made it one of the largest facilities in the region. The building served as the primary home of the university's athletic teams and physical education department until 1950, when the Men's Physical Education Building opened. Wills Gym was the first permanent home of the Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball team, and was also the original home venue for wrestling, men's swimming, men's and women's gymnastics, women's volleyball, and women's basketball. Even after being replaced as the primary athletic venue and physical education facility, Wills Gym continued to be used as the home venue for men's gymnastics, later joined by women's gymnastics in 1959, and women's volleyball and basketball in 1975. It was also used for women's physical education, intramural sports, class registration, and other activities for nearly 30 years. By the 1970s, structural and maintenance issues along with the passage and implementation of Title IX resulted in plans to build a replacement for Wills. Women's basketball and volleyball left Wills after their respective 1977 seasons and moved to Memorial Gym, while both gymnastics teams played part of their home schedules at Wills until 1979. The building was condemned by the state of Ohio in the mid-1970s. Physical education classes and offices were moved to the new Memorial Gym Annex, completed in mid-1979. In August 1979, the gymnasium and pool were razed, though the portion of the building which had housed the physical education offices remained as Wills Hall and housed the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program from 1983 to 2000. A parking lot was built on the site of the gym and pool. In the early 2000s, Wills Hall was torn down and replaced with a lobby area as part of the renovation of the adjacent University Auditorium, which was renamed Cartwright Hall in 2006.