Ohio State Normal College at Kent

The Ohio State Normal College at Kent is a historic district in Kent, Ohio, United States. It consists of the five original buildings on the main campus of Kent State University, with the first, Merrill Hall, opening in 1913 and the last, Moulton Hall, opening in 1917. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The name of the district comes from the working name of what would later be named the Kent State Normal School in 1911 and ultimately Kent State University by 1935.

On May 19, 1910, Ohio Governor Judson Harmon signed into law the Lowry bill to establish two normal schools in northern Ohio, one in the northwest and one in the northeast. A five-member search commission was formed to examine the bids from each community interested in hosting the schools. After eliminating several communities in two rounds of applications and presentations, the commission arrived in Kent September 27 and examined two sites in Kent including the 52.89-acre William S. Kent farm at the corner of East Main and South Lincoln and the Engelhart Farm on the southeast side of the village. The commission returned for a surprise visit November 11 to again examine the Kent farm with final hearings November 19. News officially reached Kent November 25 via a telegram to William S. Kent from the Normal Schools Commission. Governor Judson Harmon announced that Kent had been selected as the site of the normal school for northeast Ohio on December 1. It was initially known as the "Ohio State Normal College at Kent" until July 17, 1911 when the school was formally named by the new Board of Trustees. They agreed to name the school after William S. Kent as the Kent State Normal School making it the only public university in Ohio named for an individual. It was at the same time the Board hired John Edward McGilvrey as the school's first president and chose architect George F. Hammond to design the first two buildings and draft a campus master plan.

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