Stow is a city in Summit County,

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 population was 34,483 at the 2020 census. It is a

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

community within the

Akron metropolitan area The Akron, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, sometimes referred to as Greater Akron, is defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget as an area consisting of two counties, Summit and Portage, in Northeast Ohio and anchored by t ...

History

Stow is named for

Joshua Stow Joshua Stow (April 22, 1762October 10, 1842) was an American lawyer, judge, and pioneer. He was the founder of Stow, Ohio, served in the Connecticut House of Representatives, and was a judge of Middlesex County, Connecticut. Biography Born in ...

, its original proprietor. Joshua Stow was a member of the party led by

Moses Cleaveland Moses Cleaveland (January 29, 1754 – November 16, 1806) was an American lawyer, politician, soldier, and surveyor from Connecticut who founded the city of Cleveland, Ohio, while surveying the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1796. During the Ame ...

to survey the lands of the

Connecticut Western Reserve The Connecticut Western Reserve was a portion of land claimed by the Colony of Connecticut and later by the state of Connecticut in what is now mostly the northeastern region of Ohio. The Reserve had been granted to the Colony under the terms of ...

around present-day

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 1796. He was a native of

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...

, however, and never lived in Stow, though he spent both time and money developing the township and is quoted as saying it was "one of the prettiest and most romantic spots in the Western Reserve." The land that would eventually be known as Stow Township was the

survey township A survey township, sometimes called a Congressional township or just township, as used by the United States Public Land Survey System, is a nominally-square area of land that is nominally six U.S. survey miles (about 9.66 km) on a side. E ...

"Town 3, Range 10" of the Western Reserve and was initially . It was purchased by Joshua Stow for $14,154. Prior to the arrival of European settlers, the area around what is now Stow was inhabited by a tribe of

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

Native Americans at a small settlement in the area that is now part of the neighboring village of

Silver Lake Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

. The first settler in Stow Township was William Walker, who arrived in 1802. Walker built a cabin just south of the land of his father Robert in Hudson Township mistakenly believing he was building in Hudson. In 1804, when Stow Township was separated from Hudson Township and surveyed into lots by Joseph Darrow, it was discovered his house was actually in Stow Township. Walker purchased the lot his home was on and continued to live there. Darrow had been hired by Joshua Stow's land agent William Wetmore, a settler also from Middletown, Connecticut, who moved to Stow in 1804 with his family and several other settlers. The Wetmores built a cabin in July 1804 near the center of Stow Township and the present-day intersection of Darrow Road and Kent Road. In 1808, the Wetmores built a home near the Seneca settlement in what is now Silver Lake. The house overlooked a small lake, known as Silver Lake since 1874, that was known earlier as Wetmore Pond or Stow Lake. Stow Township was formally organized in 1808 with the first election held in 1811. 1808 was also the year it was made part of the original Portage County. It remained as part of Portage County until it was included in the new Summit County in 1840. Most of the original township is part of the present city of Stow, but parts of the original township form all or part of three neighboring communities. Munroe Falls was settled in 1809 as "Kelsey Mills" in the southern part of Stow Township and incorporated as a village in 1838.

Cuyahoga Falls Cuyahoga Falls ( or ) is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 51,114. The second-largest city in Summit County, it is located directly north of Akron and is a suburb of the Akron metropol ...

was developed on land owned by Wetmore and Joshua Stow beginning in 1825 in the southwestern part of the township and became a town in 1837. In 1851, Cuyahoga Falls Township was created, taking the southwest corner of Stow Township along with parts of three neighboring townships. Cuyahoga Falls incorporated as a village in 1868 and later annexed additional portions of Stow Township in the 19th and 20th centuries, as did Munroe Falls. Silver Lake incorporated as a village in 1918 on land that had previously been part of Stow Township. The remainder of Stow Township incorporated in 1957 as a village and became a city following the 1960 United States Census.

Geography and climate

Stow is a suburb of Akron and is in east-central Summit County on the border with Portage County. It directly borders

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 ...

to the east, Tallmadge and Munroe Falls to the south,

Hudson Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...

to the north, and

to the west and south. On the northwest corner, it touches Boston Township, with Streetsboro on the northeast corner and Brimfield Township on the southeast. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Stow's climate is classified as a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

in the ''Dfa''

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

meaning it typically has very warm, humid summers and cold, snowy winters, with moderate and variable spring and autumn seasons. The city is not considered part of the Lake Erie

snowbelt The Snowbelt is the region near the Great Lakes in North America where heavy snowfall in the form of lake-effect snow is particularly common. Snowbelts are typically found downwind of the lakes, principally off the eastern and southern shores. Ca ...

, though

lake-effect snow Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water. The lower layer of air, heated up by the lake water, picks up water vapor from the lake and rises up through ...

does occur at times. Stow is in the "secondary snowbelt," meaning it will receive heavier snowfalls from lake-effect snow when certain wind directions are more prevalent, but typically sees far less snow than areas to the north closer to

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

Demographics

As of economic data accessed in 2013, those living under the poverty level in Stow has increased from 4.0% in 2007 to 7.5%. The employment status is 71% in the labor force, with an unemployment rate of 5.8%. There are 23.4% of the population receiving a mean Social Security income of $16,235 per year. Of the city's population over age 25, 40.6% hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

2010 census

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 2010, there were 34,837 people, 14,226 households, and 9,436 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

was . There were 15,141 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 93.0%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 2.7%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.1% Native American, 2.4%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 0.3% from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 1.4% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race were 1.5% of the population. There were 14,226 households, of which 30.9% had children under age 18 living with them, 53.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 9.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 33.7% were non-families. 27.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.42, and the average family size was 2.97. The median age in the city was 39.7 years. 22.7% of residents were under age 18; 8.1% were between 18 and 24; 26.8% were from 25 to 44; 28.6% were from 45 to 64; and 13.8% were 65 or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.2% male and 51.8% female.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 32,139 people, 12,317 households, and 8,745 families residing in the city. The

was 1,878.1 people per square mile (725.2/km²). There were 12,852 housing units at an average density of 751.0 per square mile (290.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 95.20%

, 1.54%

, 0.11% Native American, 1.91%

, 0.01%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

, 0.30% from

, and 0.93% from two or more races.

of any race were 0.91% of the population. There were 12,317 households, out of which 35.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.8% were

living together, 8.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.0% were non-families. 23.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.08. In the city the population was spread out, with 26.0% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 31.1% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.8 males.

Parks and recreation

Stow has several community parks including Adell Durbin Park, Meadowbrook Lake Park, Silver Springs Park, and Oregon Trail Park. Stow also owns Fox Den Golf Course. Stow Parks and Recreation allows children and teenagers to participate in sports such as baseball and basketball. The tennis courts at Stow's parks are free to the public. The tennis courts at Adel Durbin Park are also lit for nighttime play. Stow is also home to the Roses Run Country Club, which overlooks a section of the Cuyahoga River. In 2006 it was ranked the 18th most challenging 18-hole golf course in Northeast Ohio by the Northern Ohio Golf Association. Fox Den Golf Course is another 18 hole 72 par golf course located in the eastern part of Stow and is owned and operated by the city of Stow. In 2009 it was named as one of the top-ten golf courses in Northeast Ohio by the ''

Akron Beacon Journal The ''Akron Beacon Journal'' is a morning newspaper in Akron, Ohio, United States. Owned by Gannett, it is the sole daily newspaper in Akron and is distributed throughout Northeast Ohio. The paper's coverage focuses on local news. The Beacon J ...

''. The Summit County MetroParks Bike and Hike trail runs through Stow beginning near the Pambi Farm Estates and Roses Run Country Club. The paved Bike & Hike Trail parallels a scenic section of the Cuyahoga River where great blue herons, Canada geese, ducks, turtles and white-tailed deer can be seen. The trail continues west through the neighboring cities of Munroe Falls and Silver Lake then continues north to Brandywine Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in Ohio. All 33.5 miles of the trail are paved and can be used for hiking, biking and rollerblading as well as cross-country skiing. Picnic areas can be found at numerous places along the trail.

Education

Stow is served by the Stow–Munroe Falls City School District, along with most of neighboring Munroe Falls. The district includes six elementary schools (Echo Hills, Fishcreek, Highland, Indian Trail, Riverview and Woodland), Lakeview Intermediate School, Kimpton Middle School and Stow-Munroe Falls High School. All of the district schools are in Stow except Riverview Elementary and Kimpton Middle School, which are in Munroe Falls. Stow is served by Holy Family School for those wishing a Grade 1-8 Catholic education.

Media

Stow is served by a local newspaper — the ''Stow Sentry'' — published weekly by Record Publishing Co. Maintained by the area division of

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...

, Stow also sponsors a

Government-access television Government-access television (GATV) is a type of specialty television channel created by government entities (generally local governments) and broadcast over cable TV systems or, in some cases, over-the-air broadcast television stations. GATV pr ...

(GATV) station on

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

— Stow Community Channel 15. The station broadcasts live audio from city council meetings, and regular announcements relating to: city and school functions; maintenance work; area businesses; and any upcoming local events.

Transportation

Three Ohio state routes run through Stow:

Ohio State Route 8 State Route 8 (SR 8) is a road in the U.S. state of Ohio. SR 8 stretches from the eastern junction of Interstate 76 (I-76) and I-77 in Akron to Public Square in Cleveland. It is one of nine routes to enter downtown Cleveland at Public Square. Th ...

, a limited-access highway;

Ohio State Route 59 State Route 59 (SR 59) is an east–west state highway in the U.S. state of Ohio, serving the Akron metropolitan area. The western terminus of State Route 59 is in downtown Akron at a partial interchange with the Interstate 76/Interstate 77 co ...

(Kent Road); and

Ohio State Route 91 State Route 91 (SR 91), formerly known as Inter-county Highway 91 until 1921 and State Highway 91 in 1922, is a north–south state highway in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. Its southern terminus is at U.S. Route 224 ( ...

(Darrow Road). Both the Akron Metropolitan Regional Transit Authority (METRO RTA) and

Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority The Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority, commonly referred to as PARTA, is a transit agency serving Portage County, Ohio. It is headquartered in Franklin Township just outside the Kent city limits. PARTA was formed in 1975 from an ag ...

(PARTA) have bus lines that stop in Stow, * and the city is also home to

Kent State University Airport Kent State University Airport is a public airport in Stow, Ohio, United States owned by Kent State University. The airport is located along State Route 59 (Kent Road) approximately three miles (5 km) west of the central business district ...

Notable people

Haley Bennett Haley Loraine Keeling (born January 7, 1988), known professionally as Haley Bennett, is an American actress. She made her film debut in the romantic comedy '' Music and Lyrics'' (2007) and has since appeared in films such as '' The Equalizer'' ( ...

- singer, songwriter and actress *

Richard Cooey Richard Wade Cooey II (June 9, 1967 – October 14, 2008) was an American murderer. With Clinton Dickens, he was responsible for the murders of 21-year-old Wendy Offredo and 20-year-old Dawn McCreery in Akron, Ohio, on September 1, 1986. He becam ...

- convicted murderer and rapist; executed in 2008 *

Larry Csonka Larry Richard Csonka (; born December 25, 1946) is a former professional American football fullback who played for the Miami Dolphins for the majority of his career, along with the New York Giants for three years, and a short stint with the Mem ...

- former professional football player in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL);

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

inductee * Ben Curtis - professional golfer and winner of the 2003

British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

; lived in Stow for several years *

Ed Donatell Ed Donatell (born February 4, 1957 in Akron, Ohio) is an American football coach who is the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). Donatell has 42 years of coaching experience, including 31 seasons ...

- professional football player in the NFL * Joe Ebanks - champion poker player * Leona Farris - educator and volunteer * Mark Gangloff - 2008 Olympian and gold medal winner *

Jim Graner James R. Graner (February 21, 1919 – January 15, 1976) was the weeknight sports anchor for Cleveland NBC affiliate KYW-TV (later WKYC) beginning in 1957. He also served as color commentator for the Cleveland Browns Radio Network, most notab ...

- former weeknight

sports anchor In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

for

WKYC WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's longti ...

;

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and t ...

for

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

radio network *

Dave Jamerson John David Jamerson (born August 13, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player who was selected by the Miami Heat in the first round (15th pick overall) of the 1990 NBA draft. Jamerson played for the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz a ...

- professional basketball player in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) *

Neel Kashkari Neel Tushar Kashkari

- Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability; led effort to purchase troubled financial assets under the

Troubled Asset Relief Program The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President G ...

(TARP) *

Shawn Porter Shawn Christian Porter (born October 27, 1987) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2008 to 2021. He is a two-time former welterweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 2013 to 2014 and the WBC title from 2018 ...

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

* Erick Purkhiser - better known as Lux Interior, lead singer and founding member of

The Cramps The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. T ...

Jennifer Rohn Jennifer Leigh Rohn (born 1967 in Stow, Ohio) is a British-American scientist and novelist. She is a cell biologist at University College London, editor of the webzine ''LabLit.com'' and founder of the ''Science is Vital'' organization that campa ...

- scientist and novelist *

Rob Senderoff Robert Andrew Senderoff (born July 25, 1973) is the head men's basketball coach at Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball, Kent State University. The winningest and longest-tenured coach in program history, he has led the Flashes to a Mid-Amer ...

- college basketball coach *

Mike Vrabel Michael George Vrabel (; born August 14, 1975) is an American football coach and former linebacker who is the head coach of the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State, where he earned con ...

- professional football player in the NFL * David Walker - professional basketball player in

Liga ACB The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system. Administrated by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, wi ...

George Younce George Wilson Younce (February 22, 1930 – April 11, 2005) was an American bass singer, known for performing with Southern gospel quartets, especially The Cathedrals. Biography Born in Patterson, North Carolina, Younce ( ) was the youngest ...

- Gospel Music Hall of Fame member, bass singer, and founding member of

The Cathedrals The Cathedral Quartet, also known as the Cathedrals, was an American southern gospel quartet who performed from 1964 to December 1999. The group's final lineup consisted of Glen Payne (lead), George Younce (bass), Ernie Haase (tenor), Scott ...

; moved to Stow in 1964

References

External links

City of StowStow-Munroe Falls Chamber of CommerceStow Historical Society
{{authority control Cities in Summit County, Ohio Populated places established in 1804 English-American culture in Ohio 1804 establishments in Ohio Cities in Ohio