Tony Packo’s is famous. The Mud Hens and Libbey glass company are iconic. And the Toledo Zoo and Toledo Museum of Art enjoy stellar reputations nationwide.
But there’s much more to Toledo than chili dogs, baseball, glass, and those two cultural institutions, say a pair of local historians.
Tedd Long, a board member of the Toledo History Museum and a Leadership Toledo volunteer who provides tours of the region to the Leadership Toledo class and area organizations, and Dave Schlaudecker, the recently retired executive director of Leadership Toledo, suggested several sites in and around Toledo that likely aren’t on the must-visit lists of tourists and residents but should be.
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Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve, east of the Toledo Express Airport along Crissey Road, south of State Rt. 2, in Swanton. Named for a well-known Toledo naturalist and outdoors writer, the preserve is 211 acres of the “botanically significant” Oak Openings region in northwest Ohio.
577 Foundation, 577 E. Front St., Perrysburg. Founded by Virginia Secor Stranahan, the 577 Foundation is dedicated to preserving the 12-acre river-front property she purchased with her husband in 1935 and features the couple’s 577 house, a cottage, a cow barn and dairy, a log cabin, gardens, a geodesic biodome, a river walk, and much more.
Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, 2535 Collingwood Blvd. Measuring 285 feet long and 215 feet wide with a ceiling rising 90 feet above the floor, the cathedral is an architectural and artistic treasure near downtown built nearly a century ago at a cost of what would now be about $90 million.
First Congregational Church, 2315 Collingwood Blvd. Founded in 1833, the church is Toledo’s oldest congregation, and its present-day building incorporates the 16 stained-glass windows Louis Tiffany created and helped install as well as the original church pews.
The Toledo Police Museum, 2201 Kenwood Blvd. in Ottawa Park. This museum’s collection of law enforcement artifacts from the 1830s to near present includes an electric chair, a Tommy gun from the prohibition era, a jail cell where visitors can be locked up, police motorcycles and cars, and much more.
The Casey-Pomeroy House Bed & Breakfast, 802 N. Huron St. Built in 1870 in what is now the Vistula Historic District, this three-story, 8,000-square-foot Italian villa-style brick home was an impressive site that later fell into disrepair — until a local couple purchased the home and turned it into a bed and breakfast to help fund its renovations.
The J.H. Fentress Antique Popcorn Museum, 7922 Hill Ave., Holland. This 1,800-square-foot museum features an extensive and varied collection of popcorn-related memorabilia, including dozens of original popcorn machines and peanut roasters, two Kistwich sandwich carts, hundreds of classic popcorn boxes, and more.
Woodlawn Cemetery, 1502 W. Central Ave. Founded in 1876 and recognized as a National Historic Site more than a century later, the cemetery is home to 300 species of trees and a diverse variety of nesting birds as well as architectural landmarks and postcard-worthy beauty.
Contact Kirk Baird at: kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.
First Published April 7, 2018, 11:19 p.m.
