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Ottawa Park, the largest city park, was developed in the early 1890s on the 280-acre farm of John B. Ketcham. Based on a design by the famous landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, Ottawa Park was intended to be central to a vast park and boulevard system. By 1920 the Toledo Park movement had provided fifteen parks totaling nearly 1400 acres.
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The Toledo Blade is the city’s oldest continuing business. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835, during the Ohio-Michigan boundary dispute known as the “Toledo War.” The name is derived from that conflict and the famous swords of Toledo, Spain. A copy of the first edition and two gift swords from that Spanish city are displayed inside the Blade Building.
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The first canal boat arrived in Toledo from Indiana in 1843 via the Wabash & Erie Canal. The Miami & Erie Canal from Cincinnati was completed in 1845. It joined the W & E Canal near Defiance and they shared the same course along the Maumee River. The final section of the canal from Toledo’s Swan Creek Side Cut to Manhattan and passed across the present courthouse square.
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Lucas County was named for Governor Robert Lucas who championed Ohio’s cause in the “Toledo War,” a boundary dispute arising when both Ohio and the Michigan Territory claimed this area. The Ohio legislature created Lucas County on June 20, 1835. The first court session convened in a Toledo schoolhouse during the pre-dawn hours of September 7 to avoid the Michigan militia.
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Founded in 1833, this is the oldest congregation organized within Toledo’s original boundaries. From 1844 to 1913 the church occupied a succession of three meeting houses on St. Clair Street. In 1913 First Church merged with Central Congregational Church. The pews and eight stained glass windows from the 1878 church were incorporated into this meeting house which was dedicated in 1916.
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State interest in medical education for northwest Ohio became a reality when the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo was established in December, 1964. Located initially at South Detroit and Arlington on Lucas County property, MCO moved to the present 350-acre campus starting in 1972. It is the area’s first medical school since the closing of the Toledo Medical College (1882-1914).
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The original northernmost lock in a canal system which linked Lake Erie with the Ohio River was located near the foot of LaSalle Street. Indiana’s Wabash & Erie Canal (1843-1874) joined Ohio’s Miami & Erie Canal (1845-1913) near Defiance and shared the same course to this location. Toledo’s Swan Creek side cut became the northern terminus in 1864.
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The Toledo University of Arts and Trades was established in 1872 with an endowment of 160 acres of land from Jesup W. Scott, local pioneer, publisher, and real estate broker. Scott envisioned Toledo as the “Future Great City of the World” and wanted an institution to train young people to fulfill their roles in the city’s bright future.