Toledo Olde Towne Historic District

Toledo Olde Towne is a residential neighborhood in Toledo's West End, a few miles northwest of downtown. It spans roughly ninety-five blocks and contains 1,181 contributing buildings and 442 noncontributing resources. Development began along the streetcar route up Collingwood Avenue, first as large estates with deep setbacks and later as denser streets of smaller lots. The housing includes Italianate, Stick, Queen Anne, Shingle, Colonial Revival, Neoclassical, Tudor, Prairie and Craftsman examples, along with small early twentieth century apartment buildings and several churches. Commercial activity is mostly limited to Ashland Avenue and West Bancroft Street. Delaware Avenue divides a north section from a south section. The south area lost many homes to urban renewal demolition in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Across the district, neglect, vandalism and arson have taken a toll, yet the variety of architecture, repeated house types, tree-lined streets and original street pattern preserve its early twentieth century character.