Remarkable Ohio

Counties

Below is a complete listing of all Ohio Historical Markers. To find a detailed marker listing including text, photographs, and locations, click on a county below. Our listing is updated by the markers program as new markers are installed and older markers are reported damaged or missing.

ALERT (August 2023): Marker reported missing. If you have information about this marker please contact us.

18-48 Toledo’s Park System

Side A: 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.
Side B: Sylvanus P. Jermain (1859-1935), the “Father of Toledo Parks,” fought for a park system as an essential part of the new City Beautiful ideal of reformers during the Progressive Era. Jermain emphasized the social value of exercise and recreation. At his urging Ottawa Park became the site of the first municipal golf course west of New York City in 1899.
Sponsors: Mercy Hospital of Toledo, Toledo Sesquicentennial Commission, and The Ohio Historical Society
Toledo, 
OH, 
43606
Location: Near the Bancroft Street entrance to Ottawa Park
Latitude: 41.6687268
Longitude: -83.5973642