A planned factory town, nicknamed the Magic City
Barberton was built on purpose, and fast. Industrialist O.C. Barber founded and incorporated it in 1891 with about 1,800 residents. In 1894 he moved Diamond Match Company production here from Akron, and the plant soon turned out 250 million matches a day.
A Beacon Journal reporter wrote in 1893 that the town seemed to have grown by magic, and the “Magic City” name stuck. The original village grew up around Lake Anna, a 10-acre glacial kettle lake named for Barber’s daughter, now the center of a 21-acre park.
That early growth is why Barberton’s housing is old:
- The median house was built in 1955.
- About 34% of homes date from 1939 or earlier, the same share as Akron.
- In 2020, about 7.5% of the city’s 11,844 housing units were vacant.
The Anna-Dean Farm became postwar subdivisions
Barberton’s east side has a second layer of housing. Starting in 1908, Barber built the Anna-Dean Farm, an experimental estate of about 3,500 acres with a 52-room mansion and 35 matching buildings. After World War II, most of the estate was split up for suburban housing, and the mansion was torn down in 1965.
So a Barberton seller might own a 1900s worker’s house near downtown or a 1950s house on former farm land. They’re different sales:
- Older homes near the original village more often need electrical, plumbing and foundation work.
- Postwar homes tend to be simpler and in better shape, but by now they’re 70 years old.
The Barberton Historical Society still owns five of the farm’s eight main buildings.
Rental permits for Barberton landlords
Barberton has no point-of-sale inspection, but it does require rental permits, according to a 2025 Summit County title-agency list. With about 38% of homes rented, that affects a lot of sellers.
If you’re selling a Barberton rental:
- Find your rental permit and any inspection records.
- Decide whether the tenant stays through the sale. A sale with a tenant in place transfers the lease to the buyer.
- Gather the lease, deposit amount and rent history.
The pages on selling a rental property and selling a house with tenants go further. The city’s building department is at 576 W Park Ave, 330-848-6730.
Barberton City Schools and the city’s comeback
The Barberton City School District serves the whole city, with a primary school, an intermediate school, a middle school and Barberton High School, which was built on reclaimed land in the northwest part of town.
Heavy industry left hard in the 1980s. The Barberton Community Development Corporation, formed in 1985, reports creating over 2,000 jobs since then. A 2011 county estimate put Summit County’s vacant and abandoned homes at 2,600 to 3,500, mostly in Akron and Barberton. That figure is old, but empty houses are still part of the picture here, and selling a vacant house covers what owners of one should know.
Barberton is also known for Barberton chicken, the Serbian-American fried chicken served in several local restaurants.
Selling an older Barberton house without fixing it
When a Barberton house needs major work, the repair bill can be large next to the home’s value. The median owner estimate is about $135,200. A new roof, a furnace and a sewer line can easily take a big bite out of that.
That’s the case where a direct sale makes sense: you skip the repairs, the cleanout and the showings. If the house is already updated, a listing will probably get you more. The page on selling a house that needs work walks through the math.
County items, including the $4 per $1,000 conveyance fee and the septic and well inspection, are on the Summit County page. When you’re ready, ask for a written offer.