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( or , but not "tall") is a city in Summit and Portage counties in Ohio, United States. It is also a suburb of Akron and part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 16,390 at the 2000 census. Tallmadge was founded in 1807 and is the second-oldest city in Summit County, following Hudson, which was founded in 1799.
Historically, Tallmadge was a part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, which was a three million acre plot of land in Northeast Ohio. Prior to it being named Tallmadge (after Benjamin Tallmadge), it was part of Town 2, Range 10 in the Western Reserve. In 1807, the Rev. David Bacon founded and organized Tallmadge, placing a roundabout in the center of town, modeled after New England designs of the time period. Early development of Tallmadge focused about the roundabout, named the "Tallmadge Circle" (or simply "the Circle"). The Circle also physically represents New England's role in the settlement of the Ohio Western Reserve.
While two separate Ohio state routes meet at the intersection (SR 91 and SR 261; at one point SR 18 and SR 532 also met there), the Circle can and regularly does accommodate several dozen vehicles at a time without congestion. The eight roads that meet at the Circle form a spoke design (
) that, as they lead away from the Circle, travel in the cardinal and ordinal directions. The roads are named according to the respective directions they travel away from the Circle; these names are not preserved by the neighboring municipalities into which the eight roads run. Out-of-town drivers can often be uncomfortable with the intersection because of the lack of stop signs or traffic lights.
No alcohol could be bought or consumed in public in Tallmadge until the early 1990s, when the law was amended to allow the retail sale of alcohol in stores, but public consumption was still illegal. In 2001, the law was repealed and alcohol could be sold and consumed in restaurants, provided that alcohol not account for more than 30% of any establishment's revenue. The first restaurant to offer alcohol in Tallmadge was Delanie's on West Avenue.
Tallmadge lies within two counties. While the vast majority of the city lies in Summit County, portions on the east side protrude into neighboring Portage County. This phenomenon resulted from the annexation of small portions of a neighboring township, Brimfield.