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From the 1890s to the 1930s, interurban railways were an important form of travel in the Midwest. Beach Park Station had an interurban carhouse, where repairs were performed and passengers boarded. The Lorain & Cleveland Railway (L&C) built the 65½ by 200 foot brick station in 1897. By 1901, the L&C became part of the Lake Shore Electric Railway (LSE) and Beach Park became stop 65 on a line that ran from Cleveland to Toledo and then to Detroit. Requiring power and water, the LSE built an electric plant and water tower at Avon Lake. This infrastructure spurred the community’s development and growth. (Continued on other side
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The Lima and Toledo Traction Company Bridge was construted in 1907 by the National Bridge Company of Indianapolis, and it was considered to be a revolutionary type of bridge construction. The Old Electric Bridge, as it was called, was built of steel reinforced concrete and filled with earth. In fact, for this period some considered the bridge to be the longest such railroad bridge in the world. Twelve spans of Roman aqueduct architectural design anchor the 1220-foot bridge in solid river bedrock. The bridge linked Lucas and Wood counties and connected a busy Toledo with points south by means of an electric trolley. This Interurban Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
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Toledo’s first fire station was built in November 1837 one city block due north of this site at the southwest corner of Cherry Street and Eagle Lane at 519 Cherry on what is now the driveway for the Goodwill Industries Building. It was a small non-descript, wooden building, built by contractors Hoisington and Manning for $78. It was replaced by a two-story brick building with tin-clad window sills and trim in December 1854. With fire trucks becoming larger and heavier, it was necessary to construct a new building in 1872 at a cost of $7000. Designated Station No. 2, it remained in service until 1953 when the new headquarters station at Huron and Orange streets was dedicated. It disappeared for good during the Urban Renewal projects of the late 1950s and 1960s.
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Founded in 1876 by a group of Toledo businessmen, Woodlawn Cemetery was designed in the tradition of the country’s “rural cemetery” movement, which was first popularized in Europe in the 1830s. This movement reflects the change in American burial practices in the nineteenth century as attitudes of death changed from grim to sentimental. The cemetery’s landscape emphasizes nature and art. Besides being a burial place, the cemetery is an arboretum, bird sanctuary, outdoor museum, and historical archive. Woodlawn also became a fashionable park for Toledo’s residents to escape the commotion of the city. The cemetery chronicles the growth of Toledo and northwest Ohio, and is an important cultural and historic landmark in regards to community planning and development, and landscape and building architecture. Historic Woodlawn Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
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Born in Rhode Island, John Pray (1783-1872) moved to the Maumee River Valley from New York shortly after serving in the War of 1812 and completing a prospecting tour in Ohio. He built a dam across the river to Granger Island and in 1821 constructed a water-powered gristmill, the first on the lower Maumee. In 1831, he laid out the Village of Waterville with the first 50 lots. The Columbian House, a stagecoach inn constructed by Pray in 1828 and expanded in 1837, was for years the commercial and social center of Waterville and accommodated travelers from cities such as Detroit and Cincinnati. From this building, he operated the village’s post office. When Wood County was organized in 1820, Pray became a commissioner until Lucas County was formed from part of Wood in 1835. For nine years he served as Justice of the Peace in Waterville. He and his wife Lucy raised eleven children to adulthood. Circa 1854 he constructed his home, which today overlooks Pray Park.
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Art Tatum was born in Toledo on October 13, 1909, the son of Arthur Tatum, Sr. and Mildred Hoskins Tatum. Despite being blind in one eye and only partially sighted in the other, he became one of the greatest jazz pianists of his era. To deal with his sight disability, he attended the Ohio State School for the Blind in Columbus from 1918-1920. He came from a musical family and had some formal training at the Toledo School of Music, but was largely self-taught. Influenced by famed Fats Waller, Tatum began playing his music on a local radio station at age 18 and then lived in Chicago, New York City, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, playing and recording extensively both as a soloist and in small groups. His ability to improvise set him apart as a musical genius. Tatum died in November 1956 and was named to the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1983.
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The Hindu Temple of Toledo was established in 1981 for the growing Hindu and Jain communities in northwest Ohio. Religious functions were initially held in a house located on a 15-acre property purchased in 1983. The Temple, designed in a Hindu-American style, was dedicated in August 1989. In 2000, the Temple underwent an expansion of 6000 square feet to the Heritage Hall area. Deities, Ganesh, Krishna, Radha, Vishnu, Laxmi, Rama, Sita, and Mahavir, are housed in the Temple. The holy structure is a living legacy of peaceful co-existence among religions and cultures.
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Founded in 1842, Salem Lutheran Church is Toledo’s first and oldest Lutheran congregation. Located in Toledo’s oldest neighborhood, Vistula, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the church was originally composed of German immigrants and incorporated as “Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Congregation” under the guidance of Reverend George Cronenwett. The first sanctuary was erected in 1844. Ten years later, a Lutheran constitution was accepted and the name “Salem” was chosen. The current church structure was built in 1871at a total cost of $12,000. Major renovations occurred in 1889, 1916, and the mid 1960s. A Wicks pipe organ was installed in 1967. (continued on other side)
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