[1] The district covers around 4.3 acres (1.7 ha) of downtown Kent on either side of the Cuyahoga River and is roughly bounded by West Main Street on the north, River Street to the west, Franklin Avenue to the east and Haymaker Parkway to the south.

The area that now comprises the historic district was attractive to early settlers due to potential power from the Cuyahoga River.

John Haymaker, the first white settler in what is now Kent, built the first gristmill along the river just north of present-day Stow Street in 1807.

[5] Development along the river did not begin to pick up until the late 1830s with the construction of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal and the hopes that the village, then known as Franklin Mills, would become a center for the production of silk.

These events led to rampant land speculation along the river and resulted in the construction of much of what is today downtown Kent.

[6] The Panic of 1837 and the area's unfavorable climate for silkworms ended any hopes for the village becoming a silk industrial center.

[7] In one of his first ventures as a businessman, Marvin Kent helped organize a group of investors to form the Franklin Mills Cotton Company in 1851.

After agreements were put in place with Marvin Kent, construction started on improvements to the building, which included a finished interior and a new water wheel for power.

[13] During the 1880s a second rail line was constructed through the current district by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,[14] known today as the "lower tracks."

In 2004 the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency declared the Cuyahoga River water quality to be too low and recommended removal of the dam.

In a compromise of environmental and historical concerns, one wall of the lock was removed and the channel was widened to allow the river to flow through it.

[23] In 2017, Treno Ristorante officially opened in the space Pufferbelly Restaurant formerly occupied on the lower floor of the Erie Depot.