{"nrhp_refnum":"01000895","name":"Kent Jail","other_names":["Old Jailhouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"947 Middlebury Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Kent","county":"Portage County","state":"OH","lat":41.15012868200006,"lon":-81.36830851999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-08-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story brick village jail built in 1869 by a local builder in Kent, Portage County, Ohio. It was moved in December 1999 from West Day Street to Fred Fuller Park at 947 Middlebury Road.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the jail meets Criterion C as a rare surviving village jail, one of only three known in eastern Ohio and the only one in Portage County. It is also Kent's only surviving nineteenth-century municipal building. Despite the move, it is said to keep much of its integrity of design, materials, workmanship, feeling and association.","narrative":"Built in 1869 by a local builder, this small brick jail served Kent, Ohio, after the village was incorporated and its first mayor ordered a lockup to deal with minor offenders, including hoboes arriving by train. It was used as a jail until the 1930s, when another jail opened in the basement of City Hall. The building then housed city offices and was later vacant for several years in the 1940s. In December 1999 it was moved about six tenths of a mile to Fred Fuller Park to make way for a drugstore. Restoration in 2000 added a new foundation, a rear shed-roof addition and a deck. The one-story, side-gabled building has Italianate-influenced details, including tall narrow windows, undulating porch brackets and a corbel table under the eaves. It is regarded as one of only three surviving village lockups of its kind in eastern Ohio and Kent's only surviving nineteenth-century municipal building.","period_of_significance":"1869","architect_builder":"Unknown (built by a local builder)","architectural_style":"Late Victorian","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Moved in 1999 and renovated in 2000; now owned by the City of Kent Parks and Recreation Department, with current functions listed as recreation and culture (museum) and work in progress.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.358987-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/01000895.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000895/0619df9172-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000895/0619df9172-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"JonRidinger","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Kent_Jail.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JonRidinger</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Kent_Jail.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71990969","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Jail","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6391795"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/portage-county/kent-jail-01000895/"}