Summit

Formed March 3, 1840 (77^th county)

Summit County (540,436), Akron (190,416)

The yellow masonry Second Renaissance Revival courthouse was erected in 1908 and is on Broadway between Church and High streets.  Ohio State Highway 261 passes in front of the courthouse.  John Milton Dyer is the architect.  The courthouse was enlarged in 1922 and remodeled in 1928 and 1987.  An Annex was built in 2005.  A complex of government buildings surrounds the courthouse.  There was an 1842 version earlier also in Akron, the only county seat.  The county was created on March 3, 1840 from parts of Medina, Portage, and Stark counties as the 77^th county.  Summit County is a geographical term for the highest location on the Ohio and Erie Canal.  The county seat name is a derivative for the Greek word for “high.” 

Summit County government consists of an auditor, a sheriff, an attorney, and a coroner (executive).  It has 9 Council Members (legislative.)  Fourteen Common Pleas Court Judges and a court clerk serve Summit County (judicial.)  Summit County is in northeast Ohio.  Cleveland, Ohio is directly north and Youngstown, Ohio is east of the county.  The county center is in Akron 1 mile North-Northwest of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Cuyahoga, Geauga, Portage, Stark, Wayne, and Medina counties. 

The area of the county is 419.4 square miles.  It is 55 out of 88 in the state.  It ranks 4 out of 88 in population in the state.  It has a density of 1288.6 persons per square mile making it 4 out of 88 in the state.  Summit County has 85.8% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 76 crosses east to west in the county from Portage County to Medina County.  Interstate Highway 77 enters from the north, Cuyahoga County and exits to the south, Stark County.  Interstate Highway 80 comes from Portage County, east, and goes to Cuyahoga County, north.  United States Highway 224 goes east to west from Portage County and joins Interstate Highway 76 into Medina County.  Summit County is a tall rectangle with the northwest corner cut away.  Akron is located in the southern third of the county.  Akron is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 35.2% of the county population.  The county seat is pronounced AK-RON.  This county is in the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Tallmadge