Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1978. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“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.”
Wikipedia article Charles Kent House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 42 National Register listings in Portage County · listed in 1978 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.78002174- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The ground it stands on
3,758 words
The chapter on Kent City in A Visitation of the County of Kent, published 1906 names Kent. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
Stowe MS. 621 in the British Museum, formerly the property of John Holland, is described in the catalogue : « Original Pedigrees of Kentish Families to 1663 (in which year Bysshe made a Visitation of the County), with the signatures of members of the several families, f. 2," and on the title page is written " A peice of the Visitation of Kent." This manuscript contains sixteen pedigrees in the same handwriting as the Heralds' College copy, and all signed by the heads of the families or their representatives, whereas the pedigrees of the same families lare not signed in the College copy, so it would seem that some of the original pages had been mislaid and a copy substituted for them in the official copy in the College. These pedigrees are marked (Stowe MS. 621) in the reference.
These complaints were delivered to Sir Edward Bysshe by his own request by Sir Edward Walker, Garter King of Arms.* He appaiently disregarded them, for at fo. 100 we find that an order was made by James, Earl of Suffolk, deputy to the Earl Marshal, prohibiting Sir Edward Bysshe to make airy new Visitations until he had rectified the errors and defects of the books of his Visitation of Kent (among others). There is in Add. MS. 22,883 a summary of the alleged errors in this Visitation, as follows : - have been done." It is curious to note that these complaints were mostly made between 1670 and 1674, whereas the Visitation is said to have been finished in 1668, but there is no further reference to them in the correspondence. Sir Edward Bysshe died in 1679.f
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 770 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Kent, Charles House between 1883 and
1975: 498 Animalia, 232 Plantae, 33 Fungi, 5 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. D. Huryn, A. F. Clewell, A. K. Wyatt and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
12 workings within 5 miles of Kent, Charles House: 5 past producers, 5 producers, 2 plants.
7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Kent, the town this property stands in, in 34 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 25 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 1 flash flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A thunderstorm downburst with winds estimated at 85 to 95 mph hit the west side of Kent. The area affected by the downburst was one quarter wide mile and approximately a mile in length. Several hundred trees and 40 power poles were downed. A total of 25 homes were damaged including four that were declared unhabitable. In addition, a camper and over a dozen automobiles were crushed by fallen trees. Widespread power outages occurred and a state of emergency was put in effect because of the widespread and severe damage.
Widespread flash flooding in Kent and Ravenna. Several roads flooded and impassable with several feet of standing water, including OH-59 between downtown Ravenna and OH-44. Dispatch received 30 calls to assist motorists stranded in flood waters. Widespread basement flooding reported. Radar estimates and gauge measurements indicate 3 to 3.25 inches of rainfall in a two hour period.
Thunderstorm winds downed between 15 and 20 trees in Kent and surrounding Franklin Township. Two houses in Kent were damaged by fallen trees. Both houses sustained roof damage with one also having a wall knocked down.
Members of the public and social media indicated tree damage in Kent. Two trees were downed on Riverbend Trail and three trees were downed in Artemis Drive Park.
Trained spotter's personal weather station recorded a peak convective gust of 80 mph about 1.5-miles southwest of Kent. Numerous large trees were snapped in the area.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
2,545 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The Kent residence is a wood frame, Early Gothic Revival structure. It has a steeply gabled roof, wide eaves, and gingerbread bargeboards in rectangular and curvilinear cludes an open staircase with white wooden spindles, a walnut bannister, and a newel post star pattern. The casings in the hall, parlor, and library are fluted in the same pegged frame of 4" x 4" wood studs. The only alterations have been the modernization of the dining room and kitchen, the enlargement of a woodshed into a recreation room, and the addition of bathrooms CONDITION UNEXPOSED EXCELLENT XALTERED RUINS UNALTERED and closets in the upstairs bedrooms.
is repeated in the fleur-de-lis decoration along the projecting cornice of the bay window.The facade is symmetrical with a central entrance and gable, flanked by CHECK ONE with a pearl inset.The frosted sidelights by the front door are etched in a miniature ORIGINAL SITE paneled door has a'transom and sidelights separated by fluted moldings and corner manner as the entrance moldings. The beams are ax hewn, supporting a nailed and _DETERIORATED porch has a gently curved roof and a broken entablature with a segmentally-arched DATE 1909 cut to accommodate the present shutters on the front and side elevations. The front The interior has nine rooms. They are arranged around a central hallway that in- bosses representing the earlier Greek Revival style.
XMOVED one and one-half story wings.The hoodmolds over the full length windows have been *AREAS OF
Statement of significance
The Kent residence is significant both architecturally for its juxtaposition of the Greek Revival and "Carpenter Gothic" styles and historically for its connections.with the of the areas early settlers and landowners, commissioned Clark to design the house for his youngest son, Charles, and his wife, Mary Burrett. In 1843, it was the only structure on County Road, later West Main Street, in what was then called Franklin If the house is typical of the architecture of its period, it is a unique remnant of Kent's 1600-1699 1500-1599 1700-1799 LAW COMMERCE POLITICS/GOVERNMENT TRANSPORTATION THEATER ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC COMMUNICATIONS XARCHITECTURE ART EDUCATION PERIOD SIGNIFICANCE ECONOMICS RELIGION EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT ENGINEERING LITERATURE MILITARY SCIENCE Village.
X1800-1899 AGRICULTURE SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN SCULPTURE OTHER(SPECIFY) MUSIC _CONSERVATION the house to M.B. Spellman, who operated a wholesale ice business and was related after the late Governor Martin Davey persuaded him not to demolish it.Green sold past having sheltered some of its leading citizens. 1900- The house was built in 1843 by James Clark.Considered one of the best architects Baptist Church as well as several Early Gothic Revival residences. Zenas Kent, one _PHILOSOPHY early founders and craftsmen of Kent. In l863, before Charles started his dry goods business and his career as the mayor of Kent, he and his brothers Marvin and Henry sold the house and 4-l/2 acres to Phillip the structure in 1940 and began its restoration and remodeling in 1943.
1916 toA.N.Lawson.Lawson had purchased the local newspaper, The Kent Courier, his heirs sold the house to Henry Green, who moved it l50'to its present location Boosinger.Boosinger established a boot and shoe business in Kent that year.In 1909, -1400-1499 local history *COMMUNITY PLANNING BUILDER/ARCHITECT James Clark practicing in the area in the early 19th Century , Clark is best known for his Streetsboro to the wife of John D. Rockefeller.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 78002174, 15 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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