Remarkable Ohio

Results for: women-leadership
Toledo

, OH

Now ranked among the country’s finest, the zoo began in 1900 with one large woodchuck in a box at Walbridge Park. After the organization of the Toledo Zoological Society, 1905-10, the zoo began its steady growth, particularly after 1923 under the leadership of Percy C. Jones. An ambitious federal construction program during the Great Depression of the 1930s provided several major structures.

7875 N Crescent Rd/OH 48
Covington

, OH

On February 15, 2005, Senate Bill 156 designated Ohio State Route 48 as USAF PARARESCUE MEMORIAL PARKWAY. The Parkway honors the memory of all Pararescuemen who perished in the performance of their duties. It is also a tribute to the Air Rescue men and women who died so “That Others May Live.” They made the ultimate sacrifice while attempting to save lives and provide aid to the injured, whether on training, civilian or combat missions. This selfless devotion is the finest example of Air Force Core Values: ” Integrity first, Service before self, and Excellence in all we do.” Pararescuemen Sgt. Jim Locker, MSgt. Bill McDaniel, SSgt Bill Pitsenbarger and AIC Jim Pleiman were all killed in action while trying to save their fellow man. Remarkably, they all hail from this general area of Ohio, the heart of America. They, and the others, will never be forgotten.

14588 W Park Street
Burton

, OH

This Queen Anne style building with segmental-arched windows and steep hipped roof was Burton’s second high school. Completed in 1885 at a cost of $12,500, it is wood framed with a brick and stone exterior, modeled after an academy in River Falls, Wisconsin. Its basement and two upper floors contained 12,720 square feet of space, enough for all twelve grades. There were two separate entrances; girls entered on the left and boys on the right. Electricity was installed in 1921 by the superintendent and students. Classes met here until 1936. During its history, the building housed various organizations, including the Red Cross, Opportunity School of Geauga County (later Metzenbaum), Geauga County Historical Society, American Legion, and County Extension Office. In 1937, it became the home of the Burton Public Library and in 1983 was expanded with a north wing designed to be architecturally consistent with the original 1885 structure.

11100 Springfield Pike
Cincinnati

, OH

A group of concerned Cincinnati women organized, in 1855, The Protestant Home for the Friendless and Female Guardian Society as a private, not-for-profit maternity home for destitute women and children. These public minded social leaders were aware that Cincinnati had grown beyond the time when the poor or unfortunate were cared for by their neighbors. The Home, which was funded through bequests and personal donations, was founded to care for poor mothers and babies, unmarried pregnant women, wanderers and strangers in the city, and to promote adoptions. (Continued on other side)

20 West Vine Street
Oberlin

, OH

Reverend John Jay Shipherd and Philo Penfield Stewart envisioned an educational institution and colony dedicated to the glory of God and named in honor of John Frederick Oberlin, a pastor in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. Early colonists signed a covenant pledging themselves to the plainest living and highest thinking. Oberlin (known as the Oberlin Collegiate Institute until 1850 when it was renamed Oberlin College) was the first coeducational institution to grant bachelor’s degrees to women and historically has been a leader in the education of African Americans. In fact, African American and white children studied together in the town’s one-room schoolhouse, in defiance of Ohio’s “Black laws” forbidding this practice. The schoolhouse, built 1836-1837, is part of the Oberlin Heritage Center.

2445 Monroe Street
Toledo

, OH

Founded in 1901 under the leadership of Edward Drummond Libbey, who established the glass industry in Toledo, the Museum building was designed by the architect Edward Green. It was completed in three stages in 1912, 1926, and 1933. From the outset the Museum has aimed to be a community and educational resource in the visual and performing arts.

20860 SR 251
St. Martin

, OH

On July 21, 1845, eleven Ursuline sisters from Boulogne-sur-Mer and Beaulieu, France, arrived in St. Martin, Brown County, Ohio. A Catholic order of sisters known for providing quality education to young women, the Ursulines were invited by Cincinnati Archbishop John Baptist Purcell (1800-1883) to establish a school in the diocese and granted approximately 400 acres in St. Martin for that purpose. Led by Mother Julia Chatfield (1808-1878), the sisters quickly established their convent, a day school, and, within the year, admitted their first boarders. Originally known as The Saint Ursula Literary Institute, the school operated for the next 136 years. The Ursulines educated local students from their adopted Brown County as well as many who came from across the U.S. and farther abroad to board on campus. (Continued on other side)

3398 Old Weymouth Rd
Medina

, OH

On January 19, 1835, Reverend Steven Barnes led sixteen men and women to establish the Weymouth Congregational Church at the home of Lathrop Seymour. From its beginnings, the congregation opposed slavery. In 1848, it adopted resolutions condemning the “peculiar institution” and asserting that Black people are “our brother[s] ‘made one blood’ with us.” In 1853, the church hosted public meetings featuring the crusading abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. A notable example of Greek Revival architecture, the “meetinghouse” itself was built in 1835-’36 and has become the oldest extant church building in Medina County. The porch with Doric columns was added in 1854. The Historical American Building Survey documented the building in 1936. Struggling as a Congregational denomination, the sactuary became the home of the non-denominational Weymouth Community Church in 1920, remaining so until 2018.