The township wrapped around Kent
Franklin Township was surveyed in 1796 as part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. Aaron Olmsted bought it in 1798 and named it for his son, Aaron Franklin Olmsted. John Haymaker’s family settled first, in November 1805, and the township government was set up in 1815.
Most of Kent was once part of Franklin Township. Kent and Brady Lake formally separated from it in 1993, and the township now lies along the Cuyahoga River on the western edge of Portage County, with Kent bordering it to the south and west. The abolitionist John Brown lived in the township from 1835 to 1839.
Township or city: why the line matters for a sale
Plenty of Franklin Township homes have Kent mailing addresses, but the city’s rules stop at the city limits. That matters most for landlords. Inside Kent, the Health Department licenses larger rentals with four or more unrelated tenants, and Community Development licenses 1- and 2-unit rentals. Both are city programs.
Before you sell, check your tax bill or the Portage County Auditor’s parcel record to confirm whether the property is in the city or the township. Then tell the buyer which rules apply. If you own rentals on both sides of the line, our rental property page and the Kent page cover the city side.
The township is less owner-occupied than most of rural Portage County. In the Census ACS, about 61% of homes are owner-occupied, about 59% are single-family detached, and about 6% are mobile homes. The median build year is 1973.
Brady Lake: a resort village that dissolved
Brady Lake started as an amusement park and summer resort that opened in 1891. It was incorporated as a village in 1927 and named for the lake, which in turn honors Captain Samuel Brady, who reportedly hid there around 1780 while being chased.
The village didn’t last. On May 2, 2017, voters approved dissolution 106 to 88, citing years of controversy over the village government, including high taxes. Its operations ended right after the vote, and the area went back to Franklin Township, which took full ownership of the lake in early 2018.
The houses are old. In the Census ACS, Brady Lake’s median build year is 1938, about 51% of homes date from 1939 or earlier, and about 18% of housing units are vacant. The community lines the lake’s southern and eastern shores. If you own one that needs work or has sat empty, see selling a vacant house.
Twin Lakes, Lake Rockwell and Earlville
Twin Lakes is an unincorporated residential area on both sides of State Route 43, just south of Sugar Bush Knolls. Earlville, a little to the south, was a railroad stop on the Cleveland and Pittsburgh line.
In the northeast corner, Lake Rockwell was created in 1913 and is the main drinking water source for the City of Akron. A small northwest part of the township is in the Stow-Munroe Falls City School District. Most of the township attends Kent City Schools, which merged with the Franklin Township and Brady Lake districts in 1959.
Close to Akron, and to our office
Franklin Township wraps around Kent, which is about 10 miles northeast of Akron. Our office is on East Turkeyfoot Lake Road, and Bob Donahue walks each house himself in 15 to 20 minutes. We buy as-is and give you a written offer that shows the math. For estates, the probate filing is in Ravenna, covered on our Portage County page. To start, tell us about the Franklin Township house.