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.
History
Early development
The area that now comprises the historic district was attractive to early settlers due to potential power from the Cuyahoga River. John Haymaker, the first white settler in what is now Kent, built the first gristmill 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. 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 and the area's unfavorable climate for silkworms 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 Marvin Kent, 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 for a short time.
Alpaca Mill
In one of his first ventures as a businessman, Marvin Kent helped organize a group of investors to form the Franklin Mills Cotton Company in 1851. 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, 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 goods. It would operate there for 10 years before moving to Cleveland in 1889. Later, from 1914 to 1928, the building served as a factory for the manufacturing of shirtwaists 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 Marvin Kent 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, known today as the "lower tracks."
Later history
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