A township wrapped around the south side of Canton
Canton Township is a separate place from the city of Canton, even though the city takes up much of the township’s northern part. The township had 12,477 residents in 2020 across about 25 square miles, and it’s the only township named Canton in Ohio.
It has its own government: three trustees elected to four-year terms and an elected fiscal officer. A small part of the village of Meyers Lake lies in the northwest, North Industry is an unincorporated community in the south, and Waco is in the middle.
The area has been settled a long time. An 1833 description of the township listed five gristmills, nine sawmills, four fulling mills, six tanneries, 19 stores, an oil mill and a blast furnace.
Canton South schools
Canton Local School District, called Canton South, serves Canton Township and neighboring Pike Township. It now runs three buildings: Faircrest Elementary, Canton South Middle and Canton South High.
The district has closed and sold a string of older schools over the years:
| Former school | What happened |
|---|---|
| Walker Elementary | Former middle school until 1984, later an elementary |
| Waco Elementary | Sold to a private owner |
| Trump Elementary | Now a child development center |
| Amos McDannel Elementary | Sold to the township fire department |
| Prairie College Elementary | Demolished in 2014 |
| North Industry Elementary | Closed |
Because one district serves the whole unincorporated township, the bigger price factors for a seller are condition, lot size and street.
North Industry and a vacant-building case
The old North Industry Elementary School shows how a neglected property gets handled in a township. The three-story 1923 building on Wiseland Avenue SE had been empty since 1984 when the Canton Repository reported on it in December 2022.
- Its owner of record had a Cleveland address and had not been in contact with officials.
- Back taxes stood at $26,392, and a county foreclosure sale was expected.
- Township officials estimated demolition at close to $200,000, with an appraised value of only $30,000.
- The Stark County Land Bank said the township would need ownership or legal authority, through nuisance abatement or condemnation, before it could help fund demolition.
A house is rarely that far gone, but the steps are the same: unpaid taxes, a nuisance finding, then a county foreclosure. If a vacant Canton Township house is drifting that way, selling a vacant house and the Stark County Land Bank guide are good next reads.
Older ranches, mobile homes and septic
Canton Township’s housing is mostly midcentury and mostly single-family:
- Median year built: 1959.
- About 12% of homes were built before 1940.
- About 86% are detached houses, and about 3% are mobile homes.
- Owners occupy about 78%.
Mobile homes add a title question, because the home may be titled separately from the land; our page on selling a mobile home in Ohio explains it. Homes outside sewer service rely on septic, which brings in the Stark County Health Department’s property transfer inspection.
Is listing or a direct sale better here?
A tidy Canton Township ranch on a good lot can do well with an agent, and if yours is one, that’s what we’d recommend.
For houses with deferred repairs, a mobile home on owned land, an estate, or tax trouble, a direct sale can be simpler. County-level rules for those situations are on our Stark County page, and how it works explains our three steps.