Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Kent, OH

Kent was settled in November 1805 by John and Sally Haymaker as part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, and for decades the mill town on the Cuyahoga River was known as Franklin Mills.

In 1864 the town was renamed Kent in honor of Marvin Kent, whose efforts on its behalf reshaped the community; it was incorporated as a village in 1867 and became a city after the 1920 census.

Kent is the largest city in Portage County, with a population of 28,215 at the 2020 census.

Kent is best known as the home of Kent State University, founded in 1910 as a teacher-training normal school and now one of Ohio's largest public universities, with more than 25,000 students on the Kent campus.

On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four Kent State students during a protest against the Vietnam War, an event that drew worldwide attention and reshaped campus protest in America.

Kent's unofficial mascots are its black squirrels, imported from London, Ontario, in 1961 by a university grounds superintendent and a Davey Tree employee, which have since spread all over town.

Kent State is classified as an R1 research university, operates seven regional campuses across Northeast Ohio, and enrolls more than 33,000 students system-wide.

The university generates nearly $2 billion a year for the local economy and counts nearly a quarter of a million alumni worldwide.

Kent has about 10,069 households, and because of its huge student population only about 41% of its homes are owner-occupied, according to Census Bureau QuickFacts.

The median value of an owner-occupied home in Kent is about $219,900.