Wells Sherman House Recommended for Historic Status

The city of Kent's Committee on Design and Preservation has recommended Kent City Council grant historic status to the Kent Wells Sherman House.

The committee voted Tuesday recommending the city's top governing body grant historic status to the house as part of the effort to preserve the structure, which sits boarded up and vacant on a sliver of land at the dead end of East College Avenue.

The house remains at the center of a court battle to stop its relocation to a vacant lot at 247 N. Water St.

Roger Thurman, vice president of the Kent Wells Sherman House Inc. board, which is working to relocate the house, said they anticipate the court case will be decided in their favor.

“We’re clearing trees and getting ready to go ahead,” Thurman said. “The decision, I understand, from the court case should be imminent.”

The court case started last fall when the Kent citizens' group titled "Save the Standing Rock Garden," comprised of supporters of the Standing Rock Cultural Arts, filed a lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction to stop relocation of the house to the lot that the arts group has used informally for years.

The ongoing case is in the administrative appeal review phase, Thurman said.

The house, which originally stood on East Erie Stret, was in the path of Kent State University’s Esplanade project. In August it was relocated to stave off demolition to a sliver of land at the dead end of East College Avenue, where it sits today.

Thurman said that with the anticipation of the court case ending the house could be relocated to North Water Street this summer.

In voting to recommend historic status, Doug Fuller, a member of the preservation committee, said declaring the house historic was a “no-brainer.”

“The only question might be is that it’s not in it’s historic location,” Fuller said.

The house, which dates to the late 1800s, originally stood on South Water Street and was owned by a member of Kent’s namesake family.

Thurman said the lot on North Water Street was at one time home to a similar-style Greek Revival structure.

“So we’re restoring (what) may be a bit more imposing, taller building, to that type of lot,” he said.

Kent City Council will hold a public hearing prior to its committee meetings Wednesday at 7 p.m. to discuss the request from the Kent Wells Sherman House, Inc., board to designate the structure as historic.