The Kent Industrial District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The district covers around of downtown Kent on either side of the

Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River ( , or ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so mu ...

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

in 1974. Kent namesake

Marvin Kent Marvin Kent (September 21, 1816 – December 10, 1908) was a railroad president, politician, and businessman from Portage County, Ohio, United States, best known as the namesake of the city of Kent, Ohio, which was previously known as Franklin ...

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.

History

Early development

The area that now comprises the historic district was attractive to early settlers due to potential power from the

John Haymaker John Haymaker was an early settler of Ohio and the founder of Franklin Township and what would become the city of Kent, Ohio. Haymaker and his family, who were of German descent, moved west from Pittsburgh to Franklin Township in the Connecticut W ...

, the first white settler in what is now Kent, built the first

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

along the river just north of present-day Stow Street in 1807. Development along the river did not begin to pick up until the late 1830s with the construction of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal and the hopes that the village, then known as Franklin Mills, would become a center for the production of

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

. These events led to rampant land speculation along the river and resulted in the construction of much of what is today downtown Kent. The

Panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...

and the area's unfavorable climate for

silkworms The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...

ended any hopes for the village becoming a silk industrial center. It was during this time, however, that the first parts of today's historical district were constructed. As part of the canal, a 19-foot stone arch dam was constructed with an attached lock in 1836. Zenas Kent, father of Kent namesake

, built a flour mill in 1837 on the site of the Haymaker's first mill, just south of the current district's boundaries. He also built a tannery across the street from the mill which he operated with

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

for a short time.

Alpaca Mill

In one of his first ventures as a businessman,

helped organize a group of investors to form the Franklin Mills Cotton Company in 1851.Grismer, pp. 27-28 The group set out building a factory on the site of the silk mill, which had only been excavated in the 1830s before being abandoned. The exterior of the building was completed by the summer of 1852, but shortly thereafter the main investors pulled out and the company collapsed. Only the outside of the five-story building was completed while the inside remained unfinished for over twenty years. In 1878, James Turner came from

Jamestown, New York Jamestown is a city in southern Chautauqua County, in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 28,712 at the 2020 census. Situated between Lake Erie to the north and the Allegheny National Forest to the south, Jamestown is the largest pop ...

to seek a new location for an alpaca mill. After agreements were put in place with Marvin Kent, construction started on improvements to the building, which included a finished interior and a new water wheel for power. The mill opened September 4, 1879 and later included

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, for ...

goods. It would operate there for 10 years before moving to

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

in 1889. Later, from 1914 to 1928, the building served as a factory for the manufacturing of

shirtwaist From the early 19th century through the Edwardian period, the word ''waist'' was a term common in the United States for the bodice of a dress or for a blouse or woman's shirt. A shirtwaist was originally a separate blouse constructed like a shirt; ...

s by the Cleveland-based L.N. Gross Company, operating as "The L.N. Gross Co. Shirt Waist Factory". By 1928, the factory employed 150 women and girls and the company was looking to expand. They eventually built their own building down the street.

Railroad and bridge

Another venture of

was the establishment of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad and his role in having Franklin Mills selected not only as a stop on the line, but also as the location for the railroad shops. This led to construction of railroad tracks through what is now the eastern edge of the historic district beginning in 1853 and later the construction of a train station, which would open June 1, 1875. Soon after, in 1876, construction began on a replacement of the Main Street bridge, which previously had been a wooden covered bridge built in 1837. A stone arch bridge was built, which was completed in 1877. During the 1880s a second rail line was constructed through the current district by the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

, known today as the "lower tracks."

Later history

After the departure of the alpaca-worsted mill in 1889, the area which now comprises the historic district slowly declined in importance. The lock and dam were heavily damaged in 1913 during a flood that affected much of

. The damage was heavy enough to cause residents to debate whether or not the dam and lock should be repaired or removed. Ultimately, they were repaired in 1925 due to their historic value. The Kent flour mill and Kent tannery (also known as the John Brown tannery) fell into disuse. The mill was torn down in the 1930s while the tannery lasted until 1976 when it was torn down as part of an environmental cleanup project. Also during the 1930s, land was donated to the city to create Franklin Mills Riveredge Park, which covers much of the current historical district along with Tannery Park, which occupies the site of tannery. The park features a

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of bridge ...

along the Cuyahoga River which closely follows the path of the

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a mi ...

which originally ran from the dam to the flour and alpaca mills downstream. Around 1910, a livery and carriage shop was built at the southeast corner of West Main and River Streets. This building would later serve as an automobile dealership in the 1970s and is today home to several offices. The Atlantic and Great Western Rail Depot, later known as the Erie Depot, continued to be used as a train depot until January 6, 1970. At that point it was abandoned and boarded up. Its potential demolition in the early 1970s was one of the first major projects of the Kent Historical Society, formed in 1971, which purchased the building in 1975 and renovated it, occupying the second floor along with the Kent Chamber of Commerce until 2006. Just prior to purchasing the building, the historic district was formed which included the depot, being listed on the

on December 30, 1974. In 1981, the Pufferbelly Restaurant moved into the lower floor of the old depot, and operated until 2017. Also during the early 1970s, Haymaker Parkway was constructed. The main bridge of the parkway, known as the Redmond Greer Memorial Bridge, essentially forms the southern boundary of the district, immediately south of the former alpaca mill. KentOhioCanal

In 2002, the former alpaca-worsted mill, known locally as the silk mill, was purchased by a developer and renovated into several loft apartments. The building had previously been used as a warehouse. In 2004 the Ohio

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

declared the

water quality to be too low and recommended removal of the dam. In a compromise of environmental and historical concerns, one wall of the lock was removed and the channel was widened to allow the river to flow through it. Behind the dam, a small park known as Heritage Park was constructed which included a large pump to allow water to be pumped over the dam during warm-weather months. It was dedicated in May 2005. In 2017, Treno Ristorante officially opened in the space Pufferbelly Restaurant formerly occupied on the lower floor of the Erie Depot.

Contributing structures

*Stone arch dam and canal lock, built 1836 *Alpaca-worsted mill (also known as the Silk Mill), built 1851 *Atlantic and Great Western Rail Depot (also known as the Erie Depot), built 1875 *Main Street Bridge, built 1877 *Livery and carriage shop, built ca. 1910

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio History of Kent, Ohio Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Portage County, Ohio Silk production