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.