Side A: In 1915, real estate developers William B. Welles and Badger C. Bowen formed the Ottawa Park Realty Company and in 1917 platted 323 residential lots near Toledo, Ohio. Named “Westmoreland” for the similarities with the rolling landscapes of Westmoreland County, Virginia, the neighborhood was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Westmoreland features 215 original homes, most representing architectural Revival styles of the early 20th century including those of the Colonial, Jacobethan/Tudor, Italianate, French, and Spanish Revivals. This marker commemorates the centennial of the founding of Westmoreland. (Continued on other side)
Side B: (Continued from other side) Construction began in in 1917. Westmoreland was originally part of Washington Township until annexed to Toledo in 1923. The area’s natural beauty and vistas in part attracted prominent Toledo families. Gideon Spieker, the builder of the Toledo Museum of Art and other city landmarks, lived in Westmoreland, as well as Dr. Elmer McKesson, path-breaking anesthetist and inventor of medical apparatus, Sherwood Pinkerton of the Pinkerton Tobacco Company, the meat packer Fred Folger, and the industrialists Herman Doehler and Frank Moburg. Westmoreland’s founders, Welles and Bowen also lived here. A century later, Westmoreland remains a thriving, diverse neighborhood.