St. Clair Street Historic District (Boundary Increase-Decrease)

St. Clair Street in downtown Toledo preserves a row of brick commercial buildings from the mid and late nineteenth century, standing two blocks from the Maumee River. Most have altered ground-floor facades, but upper stories keep Italianate bracketed cornices, arched windows with brick hoodmolds, corbelled brickwork and cast iron columns. The west side of the street is nearly complete, while the east side has largely been demolished and turned into parking. Notable buildings include Martin Evoy's Saloon, opened around 1866, the Dixon Building, a saloon and hotel from 1885, and the Grand Hotel block, dating from 1872 and later used as a mission and a charitable headquarters. The district was listed because it is the only group of commercial buildings remaining near the old dock area, where canal trade, railroads, gas and oil refining made Toledo prosperous. The buildings reflect the city's commercial vigor in the 1870s and 1880s.