Posted January 9, 201114 yr Here's the third and final part of my Toledo trip from April 29-May 2, 2010, this has pictures from the Toledo Zoo, Old West Side and a few others. Commemorative Plaque for the Toledo Zoo Area around the Zoo... (just to give a sense of what the neighborhood looks like) Front Gate to the Zoo... Aquarium Building... Fishes and other sea creatures... Toledo Zoo Amphitheater, where concerts and exhibitions are held... Park in the middle of the zoo... Orangutans... Greenhouse Two Cheetahs, sleeping... Toledo Science Center @ the Zoo... Amazing Amphibians Exhibit Frogs and Toads Meerkats... These guys have hard-nosed attitudes... Elephants... Hippos indoors, for now... Reptilia Exhibit... Turtles... A "Golden" Frog... An Alligator... A reptile of some sort.. Snakes... \ Two birds recovering from accidents... in the Raptor barn... Black Bear... Penguins... not from Pittsburgh... Aviary Male Northern Red Cardinal I didn't see one Mud Hen in the zoo, was a bit disappointed, but I guess it isn't really a ZOO animal... Baboons... Cool Fountain.. Toledo Skyline from the Zoo bridge... Seal Underwater in the Arctic Exhibit... Polar Bears African Park Entrance Giraffes... Zebras... I think these are Oxes... American Bald Eagles... That Eagle looked at me like, "What are doing in our country? Go back to your own land." Back downtown I went... Close up of the Pizza Papalis restaurant... AT&T and the new Table Forty... Buildings around the stadium and warehouse district... Perfect opportunity for Lofts... An old building converted to lofts recently... Toledo Fire Department Station 5 Buildings along Washington Street Salvation Army... Cute Little Playhouse, the Repertoir Theater It looks a lot more livable than some cities... Old Commercial block boarded up on Monroe St. Backstreets... Perfect opportunity for an auto business on Monroe Street Toledo Museum of Art Glenwood Lutheran Church Old West Side Homes... Henehan-Breynan House, built 1894 Old West Commons Park... Murray-Willys House, built 1901 A manor-like place... International Institute... Libbey-Tschudy-Perkins House, built in 1885 for Edward Libbey, founder of Libbey Glass Museum of Art Front Entrance... Toledo Glass Pavilion Downtown From Monroe Street Tony Packo's at the Park (where I ate my supper).. Inside... The food was killer, a mean hot dog and potato skins, especially... also chili soup and fries... I'll make it to the original Tony Packo's location next time... Hope you all enjoyed my tour of the GLASS CITY!
January 9, 201114 yr thanks, that was great. those homes are absolutely beautiful. http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
January 9, 201114 yr Good to see the Old West End homes are still in good shape. The architecture in the Toledo Zoo is just great!
January 9, 201114 yr Great stuff! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
January 9, 201114 yr Wow! Thanks for sharing, the zoo looks really nice and I so does the art museum and those houses are amazing.
January 9, 201114 yr Wow, a lot has changed in the warehouse district since I lived in Toledo 10 years ago. All due to the stadium relocating downtown, for sure. I'm gonna have to go to that new Tony Packo's the next time I'm up there visiting family!
January 10, 201114 yr Generally speaking, I like the direction downtown Toledo is going in. With Fifth Third Field and Huntington Center added as destinations down there, along with an influx of stores and restaurants in the warehouse district. Only things it needs is more people to live downtown. I hope something gets done with the former Owens-Corning Tower soon. That zoo was amazing, one of the best I have ever been to, some even think it's better than the Detroit Zoo and the other Ohio zoos.
January 10, 201114 yr Downtown Toledo is beautiful, and contains what I think is the state's best urban intersection at Madison-Huron. There are some sections of downtown that look straight out of 1905. The riverfront is great too, and I don't think any city pulled off the urban sports stadia better than Toledo did. Architecturally, it's pretty obvious that Toledo was one hell of a place back in its day. Enough of the core survives to maintain that feeling of "potential" (one of the most overused words here, but it's true). There are some real gems in Toledo that can hang with any city, both on the commercial and housing fronts. Nowhere else in America can you get Victorian mansions for the prices you see in Toledo. But there's a reason for that... The numbers downtown are still disturbing. Vacancy is high, and the core has lost a lot of workers. Thankfully, everything seems to have leveled off and downtown did much better than the rest of the city's neighborhoods during the recession. But there is a real feeling of despair in this city. It's one thing to see it, it's quite another to feel it. Toledo is still struggling to survive. It can be a very brutal place in terms of finding a job and happiness. This is one of the toughest places in the country to be a kid or young adult. If you're over 30, your perspective is probably quite different- "Oh my God, this city is so affordable!" Toledo has been beaten down into the gutter, but luckily the people are so gritty, they've managed to preserve a lot more of the city than you'd expect. But time is ticking fast. A lot of the city's best buildings are nearing the point of no return (and a lot have fell victim to arson). If things don't turn around in five years, it's going to be a far less impressive place...I pray to God this city recaptures its glory, because it's really a place worth saving.
January 11, 201114 yr ^ Amen to all that. I was amazed how well-kept Toledo's downtown was when I went there.
January 12, 201114 yr http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Toledo,+OH&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Toledo,+Lucas,+Ohio&gl=us&ll=41.647589,-83.541758&spn=0.001656,0.002806&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=41.647697,-83.542207&panoid=PJl5WrLJz-bxs0kK-xE3Tg&cbp=12,326.47,,0,-25.63 Great photos! Question, is the building in the above link begun renovations? I remember seeing them prep it. I did a project in architecture school back in 2005 where I renovated this building, and also constructed a new one next to it. I have a yellow "R" from the sign visible that had fallen and was in the road.
January 13, 201114 yr Nice-looking residential, and it was good to see the zoo; it's been a long time since I've visited it. The Toledo Art Museum is first-rate. I've been there a few times, and it's an easy place to lose track of time because there's so much remarkable material there.
January 24, 201114 yr http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Toledo,+OH&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Toledo,+Lucas,+Ohio&gl=us&ll=41.647589,-83.541758&spn=0.001656,0.002806&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=41.647697,-83.542207&panoid=PJl5WrLJz-bxs0kK-xE3Tg&cbp=12,326.47,,0,-25.63 Great photos! Question, is the building in the above link begun renovations? I remember seeing them prep it. I did a project in architecture school back in 2005 where I renovated this building, and also constructed a new one next to it. I have a yellow "R" from the sign visible that had fallen and was in the road. Work got started on the Triangle Building, and then stopped. I have no idea what the status is, but I suspect it's another victim of the economy. There have been a lot of start-stops in this city (the entire metro area). I believe the developer was from out of state. A very large chunk of Toledo investment is coming from Michigan, especially the Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Lansing areas. As Michigan goes, Toledo goes. It really is all economy now (obviously somebody believes in the city or else there wouldn't be start-stops at all, just demolitions). Toledo cannot catch a break. It's just hope and pray arsonists don't torch the best buildings. So far, they've been really successful at clearing neighborhoods of smaller single-family homes. Luckily the better architecture hasn't been hit as hard. The Victorian is surviving pretty well, and not too many commercial buildings are being hit in this wave. Serial arsonists are targeting foreclosed homes more than anything else, and the wood-frame gets hit before the brick, though fires spread... The problem in Toledo is that attitudes are changing more than reality is changing. You hear a lot of "I'd love to live downtown, but my lifestyle won't improve as much as it would if I moved to another city with more urban action." Toledo has the bones, but not the muscle. It is a beautiful city, but the economic problems are massive.
January 24, 201114 yr I must say it looked better this year than last. We saw a very small part - Secor to Bancroft to 75, but it looked better (more activity, less vacant storefronts, some remodeling) than it has in a couple years.
January 24, 201114 yr ^You've got to go to the North End, Old South End, Uptown, Five Points, ONYX, and East Toledo to get the full taste. Most of the urban city looks the same or worse. Vacancies and arson have gone up in most of the core neighborhoods (though downtown is holding steady). Downtown looks better, but man, everything around it is struggling. Far West Side Toledo doesn't have much in common with the rest of the city. The areas with the most urban potential are the ones that seem to be hurting the most. That's what is so frustrating. The urban gentrification movement in this city has nearly stopped in its tracks. It's nothing like the boom of the late 90's to mid-2000's when things were really starting to turn around in urban Toledo (Vistula, Lagrange, and Uptown were seeing a good number of rehabs and saves). Even the Warehouse District seems to have hit a wall, and that had the most renovation in the city. I'd use the Triangle and Berdan buildings as evidence of this. But thank God they're still standing. Toledo just needs to get through the next five years without any big losses or Detroit-level Devil's Nights. People are doing their best to save the good buildings. Even the abandoned churches have preservation groups: http://www.stanthonytoledo.com/history.aspx What's most encouraging to see in Toledo is that the preservation movement seems to have grown larger in recent years. A lot of people have changed their attitudes towards older buildings. People are coming out and protesting demolitions of the prettiest buildings (the schoolhouse preservation movement has grown a ton now that the full damage of Rebuilding Ohio Schools is being seen in all its destructive glory). Libbey High School has a strong movement now. If Toledo goes down, it's going down swinging. Historic buildings are no longer torn down without a fight. There is controversy wherever there is a demolition plan. Somebody on city council steps up to the plate or residents of the city do. Watching this made me realize that attitudes are changing here: http://www.toledoonthemove.com/news/story.aspx?id=570593
Create an account or sign in to comment