Kendall Lake

Kendall Lake is a human-made reservoir in the Virginia Kendall area, known for its fishing pier and stone shelter. It works as a short lakeside stop or a one-mile walk around the water. The Lake Trail is mostly flat dirt with two sets of stairs and little elevation change; Cross Country and Salt Run trails connect nearby for a longer outing. The lake area closes at dusk. Parking is on Truxell Road, about a mile west of Akron Cleveland Road.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built the stone shelter as a bathhouse, and the pier began as a swimming pier. Today the pier is used for fishing and lake views. NPS lists picnic tables, year-round drinking water, and flush restrooms, including an accessible restroom, at the shelter. There is no food service listed at the lake, so plan on a picnic or eat elsewhere. Most anglers need a valid Ohio fishing license; children under 16 are exempt. Swimming is prohibited.

The pier is the easiest place to get a clear lake view without walking the full loop. Use its long edges to lead your eye toward the stone shelter across the water. In autumn, the colored trees and shelter can reflect in the lake; the photo depends on the water being calm.

Salt Run and another stream once met here, and seeps and springs suggest a larger headwater wetland may have covered the site. Wetlands remain at the two stream inlets. NPS notes blueberry and currant shrubs at the southern inlet that are uncommon elsewhere in the park, and beavers live around the lake.

CCC Company 576 built Kendall Lake in 1937 by damming Salt Run with an earthen dam reinforced by a concrete core. The crews also planted thousands of trees. By the 1940s, visitors used a sandy swimming beach, the pier and bathhouse; winter toboggan chutes ran down nearby hills onto the frozen lake. The park later shifted toward quieter recreation, with hiking alongside fishing and paddling. A 2003 flood compromised the dam, and NPS rebuilt it and dredged the lake to preserve this CCC project.

The Ritchie family farmed this land from the 1850s, first raising sheep and corn and later dairy cattle. Hayward Kendall, a Clevelander who sold coal during World War I, bought the farm. His 1927 will set the land aside for park purposes and named Virginia Kendall Park for his mother.