Correction to last year’s Spring/Summer Kent Alive visitor guide article surrounding the history of the building seen in the reflection in Emmit Kline’s market window.
hen the above photo was taken the two-story Greek Revival home was owned by Dr.Byron Henry Jacob. He purchased the structure and the adjourning building (today’s Kent Jewelry, barber shop, and Image Consultants) from Dr. Aaron M. Sherman in 1904. In 1924 Jacobs sold the Sherman house lot to a Dr. Andrews. The house was then physically cut in half… becaming two separate dwellings. The back half moved only a short distance, to the lot next door, which Dr. Jacob still owned.
Mary Lou Jacob Ritz
The front half moved
to the new Erie Street extension (Depeyster to Willow). Dr. Jacob retired to Florida in 1919… returning to Kent each summer to visit family, until his death in 1949. His son Byron “Harold” Jacob acquired the properties and the family lived on the 2nd level, above the stores on South Water. Mary Lou Jacob (Dr. Jacob’s granddaughter) is standing in front of the back half of the old Sherman house in this 1930-31 photo. Today it’s a parking lot.
Top Right: Front of Dr. Sherman’s home today.
Bottom Right: Section of 1867 Sanborn map with two halves of dwelling indicated.
Mary Lou is alive and well…memories of growing up in downtown Kent…priceless.
Before the bridge was constructed, the homes on the new Erie Street extension were well-kept-up quality homes—homes to the families of local doctors and business owners. Unfortunately, cut off from the downtown, the still standing front half of this historic structure, at 250 East Erie Street, fell victim to the same fate as the rest of the remaining homes…becoming a rental unit in a neighborhood of rental properties.
The new Esplanade restores the safe pedestrian-friendly corridor, linking Kent State University with the historic downtown…an important piece of the puzzle, towards our downtown‘s rebirth. But we surely can find a way to preserve this key piece of local history.
