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Toledo State Hospital opened in January 1888 as the Toledo Asylum for the Insane. Originally located immediately south of this cemetery, the hospital was designed to function as a self-contained community for 650 people. Patients lived in large cottages, surrounded by a post office, church, library, male and female hospital, strong wards, bakery, and dining hall. People were admitted with mild to severe forms of mental illness, and a variety of other disabling conditions, including developmental, medical or neurological, as well as for addictions, injuries, and old age. Work became a form of treatment, with patients involved in construction, farming, laundry, and other jobs to help maintain the hospital. Patients could also participate in recreational activities from gardening to playing in the hospital band. The State Hospital became home for many, as hospitalization could last a lifetime, often spanning decades. (continued on other side)
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Toledo State Hospital opened in January 1888 as the Toledo Asylum for the Insane. People were admitted with mild to severe forms of mental illness, and a variety of developmental, medical and neurological conditions, as well as for addictions, injuries, and old age. Originally built to house 650 people, by the 1950s its campus had grown to accommodate over 3,000. Growing access to new medications and treatments then began a gradual decline in patient population. Eventually, most of the buildings were razed, and much of the hospital’s property was transferred, later becoming the site of The Medical College of Ohio. This transfer included the two Toledo State Hospital cemeteries, with documented burials (as of 2009) totaling 1,994 persons. Toledo State Hospital New Cemetery was opened in 1922, when the Old Cemetery (1888-1922), located .5 miles to the northeast, reached capacity. (continued on other side)
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Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927) had a dream that young women could be independent, help others in need, and be responsible leaders in their communities. Low founded Girl Scouts of the United States of America with 18 girls on March 12, 1912 in her native Savannah, Georgia. On May 6, 1917, Low signed the charter making the Toledo Council the first official Girl Scout Council in the nation. There were about 550 Girl Scouts in Toledo at that time. Over 50 million girls, women, and men have been members of Girl Scouts of the USA in the last century.
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On the night of January 3, 1894, Toledo’s largest fire broke out in the massive King-Quale grain elevators. A westward wind from Maumee River drove flames toward the center of Toledo’s business district. The blaze destroyed several buildings including the Chamber of Commerce and the West and Truaz building. Despite the best efforts of city firefighters using horse-drawn steam pumpers, the fire continued until a serendipitous shift in the winds allowed the firefighters to contain the conflagration.
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In 1886, thirty-six members from Toledo’s downtown Lutheran church, St. Paul’s, met to form a German-speaking Lutheran congregation for immigrants from Pommern, Mecklenburg and Hanover. Initially worshipping at St. Stephen’s at the corner of Harrison and Oliver Street, the congregation built a frame church on this site in 1887. That same year St. Lucas pioneered an early form of health insurance, The Mutual Sick Benefit Society, that later became a larger fraternal organization called The Mutual Sick Benefit Society for Ohio and Other States. In 1999, after joining a program called Reconciling in Christ, St. Lucas became the first Lutheran congregation in northern Ohio to publicaly welcome the LGBT communities. Named after Saint Luke, the patron saint of physicians, the church’s history is one of healing.
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Edward Drummond Libbey High School . Edward Drummond Libbey High School – “the castle on the hill” – opened in 1923 to serve the growing number of students in Toledo Public Schools. The school offered a curriculum of manual and academic training, reflecting a progressive movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to democratize education. Libbey High School was named for Edward D. Libbey (1854-1925), a local businessman, civic leader, and philanthropist who founded the Libbey Glass Company and Toledo Museum of Art. Libbey’s successful business ventures earned Toledo the nickname “The Glass Capital of the World.” Much of his fortune was spent on providing cultural and educational institutions that still serve the public as of 2018. (Continued on other side)
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Willys-Overland Finishing Plant. Since 2004, the building at 14th and Adams Streets has been the home of the Toledo School for the Arts. The Willys-Overland Corporation erected the building c. 1916 to finish, ship, and sell the company’s cars. The popular Whippet and other models were delivered here to a second story loading dock from the Willys plant along what became Jeep Parkway. Vehicles were displayed behind floor-to-ceiling windows in a first floor showroom. The firm of Mills, Rhines, Bellman, and Nordoff designed the building and others in Toledo during the first third of the 20th century. In 1908, John North Willys (1873-1935) consolidated his company’s automobile production in Toledo. By 1912, Willys-Overland sales were second only to the Ford Motor Company’s. The company’s most famous product is the Jeep, which transported Allied service members from WWII to the 1980s and was a precursor to the sports utility vehicle.
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The Rotary Club of Toledo founded the “Toledo Society for Crippled Children” in 1920 to care for and treat children with disabilities, primarily those with polio. After a decade of fundraising and a substantial bequest from Edward Drummond Libbey, the Society opened a convalescent home in 1931 and moved to its own state-of-the-art facility in 1938. As the 1950s Salk vaccine reduced the prevalence of polio and the needs of Toledo’s disabled changed, the Society shifted focus to offer preschool care, adult rehabilitation, and independent living. The Society relocated to the 17-acre Monroe Street Campus in 1980 and adopted the name “The Ability Center of Greater Toledo” in 1990. The Ability Center proudly celebrated 100 years of “service above self” in 2020 and continues to create a disability-friendly Toledo.
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