Kent Historical Society Historic Kent Town Tour Honoring the 200th Birthday of Marvin Kent September 17 & 18, 2016 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday East Side Tour Sites West Side Tour Sites Clapp-Woodward House/Kent Patton House Historical Society Museum Charles H. Kent Home Erie Depot Marvin Kent House/ Marvin Kent Train Car Kent Masonic Center Erie Car Shops * All sites are open and can be visited Wells-Sherman House on either Saturday or Sunday. * Interior accessible only during guided This tour booklet is your ticket and tours at 1 p.m. & 2 p.m. each day will be marked at each stop. East Side Tour Sites 1 2 Clapp-Woodward House (Now Kent Historical Society Museum) 237 E. Main St. Built in 1883 In 1883, either Harriet Kent Clapp, eldest of Zenas Kent’s 13 children, or her son Charles began building the house on land Harriet inherited from her father. Harriet had married Charles Clapp, but when he joined the Shaker religious community, she chose to leave him behind, living alternately in Kent with her son, Charles, or in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her brother, Henry Kent. Charles lived here with his wife, Mary Eliza Wood, and their four sons, Charles, Frank, Leon and Harold. Leon’s initials were scrolled on the plaster wall in the front parlor, where they remain. The Victorian house features high ceilings, large rooms trimmed with carved cherry woodwork, three sets of pocket doors and a large entryway with an elaborate staircase. It also has four unique fireplaces and sits atop the hill on East Main Street with dignity and beauty. In 1912, the Clapps sold their home to John and Jeanette (Greenshield) Woodward, who lived here with their son Paul, 6, and daughter, Josephine “Jo,” for just 19 months. Woodward owned the Woodward Coal Co. Jo was in the first kindergarten class at Kent Normal School and later at- tended both Kent State University and the Cleveland School of Arts. She studied Russian ballet with the famous Nijinsky in New York City, but her father’s illness brought her back to Kent, where she married John Solem. They operated Solem Jewelry at the corner of Main and DePeyster streets until May 1970. The home was sold to Keller Electric in 1956, but Jo built a duplex on the Columbus Street end of the property, where she lived until her death at age 96 in 2007. In December 2010, the Kent Historical Society purchased the home from its fourth owner, Mary and Bob Paton, who had already done some restoration. The society’s historic remodeling will continue to preserve this building as its home for generations. It is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays or by appointment for group tours or research by calling 330-678-2712. 3 Erie Railroad Depot Second Floor 152 Franklin Ave. Built in 1875 The first railroad depot in Kent was simply a large wooden box of a building for people to wait for trains and where freight could be depos- ited or picked up. By 1874, the citizens of Kent asked the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad to build a better depot for their growing community. The railroad agreed, provided the town would pay $4,000 of the estimated $10,000 cost. Under the direction of Marvin Kent, townspeople oversub- scribed and this second depot opened in 1875. Constructed of local brick in classic Tuscan design, it was second only to Cleveland’s in size. Inside the depot’s first floor was a large waiting room for passengers, a lunch counter and space for freight shipments. It has three large towers. The central tower contained living quarters to house the agent; later this space was given over to the people who worked at the downstairs lunch counter, such as the Elgin family, who had two daughters born there. The south tower contained beds where train crews could rest and sleep on their layovers. The railroad’s agent, George Hinds, placed books in the north tower for the crewman to borrow and read. As the number of crewmen increased, they could not all sleep in the depot tower and the Erie Railroad decided it was not in the library business. The books became part of Kent’s Carnegie Library built in 1902. The depot was the place where news came first via telegraph, where pas- sengers got their first vivid impressions of Kent, where soldiers and sailors left their families on their way to war and finally how countless students arrived to study at Kent Normal School, and later at Kent Sate University. In January 1970, the last trains departed Kent. Over the next 10 years, the new Kent Historical Society purchased and restored the station, utilizing plans by Cleveland architect Robert Gaede. It is still owned and preserved by the Kent Historical Society. 4 Marvin Kent Train Car 152 Franklin Ave. Built in 1922 The railroad coach “Marvin Kent” was manufactured by the American Car and Foundry Co. in 1922 for use by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The car known as Coach 6125 saw service west of Chicago until acquired by the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society in 1969. It was stored in Ashtabula, Ohio, until purchased by the Kent Jaycees in the summer of 1976 for use as a meeting hall for both Jaycees and community use. When the car was moved to Kent in August of that year, the Jaycees leased the parcel of land south of the Erie Depot from the Kent Historical Society. The Jaycees completely refurbished the car over the next four years. With an original seating capacity of 83, the coach measures 75 feet in length and 10 feet in width and stands 14 feet above the ground. It weighs 82 tons. The Erie Railroad had dedicated a sleeping car here in Kent in 1951 to the memory of Marvin Kent, the Ohio president of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad. The Jaycees felt that their car would be a fitting tribute to the memory of Marvin Kent and his importance to the railroad industry in Kent. The Jaycees’ car is painted to resemble that sleeping car. The car is still used by the Jaycees and is connected to all city services and is air con- ditioned for summer use. It was recently repainted in its original colors. Young professionals age 18 to 40 interested in the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) can attend a monthly membership meeting on the second Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. Email [email protected] for more information. 5 Erie Car Shops 200 W. Williams St. Built in 1863 Interior accessible only during guided tours at 1 p.m. & 2 p.m. each day When the Atlantic & Great Western Rail- road opened in 1863, the company established shops in Franklin Mills (Kent). Marvin Kent’s influence as the railroad’s president — and his gift of land valued at $15,000 — brought a complex of buildings that would be the center of the town’s economy for nearly 60 years. Built by some of the same German-American masons who had built the canal lock here 20 years earlier and constructed of local stone, the shops were impressive. The main building was two stories high with three cupolas. The employment of several hundred men — including at times more than half of all working men in the town — increased the population dramatically, adding many new homes on Kent’s south side. By 1918, some 800 workers worked for A & GW’s successor, the Erie Railroad. The shops turned out hundreds of cars. While some locomotives were manufactured in the 1870s, the majority were wooden passenger and freight cars for the Erie. Workers were highly skilled mechanics and artisans as well as unskilled laborers. The grounds were full of lumber, barrels of nails and screws, wheel sets and supplies like paint and glass. The passenger cars in particular were real works of beauty, while the box cars, gondolas, cabooses and others were built solidly enough to last for decades. The work was hard, injuries were common and, in the winter, it was cold. A 12-hour workday was normal with no overtime. The car shops also functioned as a sort of public square and the community often gathered there to hear a band concert or see fireworks on holidays. There were some labor struggles along with the Erie’s perpetual financial crises. After a major strike in 1922, the car shops closed in 1930. The Davey Compressor Co., started by Paul Davey, purchased what re- mained of the shops in 1943. After several changes over the ensuing years, Tom Myers, Paul Davey’s grandson, started leasing space in the building in 1981. His company, Davey Drill Division of Davey, Kent, Inc., continues the drill operations of its predecessor, Davey Compressor Co. 6 Kent Wells Sherman House 247 N. Water St. Built in 1858 The Greek Revival-styled Kent Wells Sherman House was built on the northeast corner of South Water and Erie streets in 1858 for Frances Kent Wells, sister of city namesake Marvin Kent, and her husband George. George Wells was a business partner of Zenas Kent in the Wells and Kent Glassworks. After the Wells family sold the house and moved to Brownsville, Pa., in 1863, it was eventually acquired in 1868 by Dr. Aaron M. Sherman. He was a Civil War surgeon, prominent civic promoter, state representative, and one of the founders in 1866 of the Kent Unitarian-Universalist Church.