Built in 1875, the Erie Train Depot served as a hub of commerce for the City of Kent until service was halted after 95 years. The building was then purchased by the newly formed Kent Historical Society in 1975 and subsequently saved from demolition. 1981 brought renovation to the depot and marked the opening of the Pufferbelly Restaurant which occupied the space until 2016. Beginning in 2017, a second transformation updated the historic building including a completely updated kitchen, dining room and bar. This remodel also revealed the original terrazzo flooring in the main dining room.

And, like many locations with a long history, the Pufferbelly Restaurant is believed to be haunted! In an article from the Kent Daily Star about Kent's Haunted Pub Crawl, two ghosts are mentioned. The first is simply that of a train conductor 'who loved the station so much he refused ever to leave,' even in death. The second ghost is that of a young woman who died on the nearby train tracks. She and her boyfriend had been out drinking one night, and stopped their car on the tracks. The girl fell asleep, and unable to be woken up, was hit and killed by a passing train. Somehow she made her way to the Pufferbelly restaurant.

In a recent interview with TV2, the owner and manager of the Pufferbelly claim that the most haunted hot spot of the building seems to be the dungeon-like basement, where the ghost or ghosts like to play harmless pranks on unsuspecting employees. There's even mention of an apparition wearing a hat...

Cheryl Cone, a volunteer to the Kent Stage, led our group to the farthest back room inside the Pufferbelly, where the Spiritual Insight Ghost Hunting Team had a computer and a storyteller waiting, along with Octoberfest beer samples.

An employee wrote out the story of a girl who was killed by a train. She was parked on the tracks with her boyfriend, drinking. She fell asleep and was unable to be woken up by the train’s horn or by her boyfriend, who jumped out of the car and fell into the river. The train instantly killed the girl, and her ghost haunts the Pufferbelly.

An old train conductor is said to haunt the restaurant, too, as he loved the station so much he refuses to ever leave.