Northwest Ohio is home to many lovely cities and towns that all posses spectacular programs, events, activities and tourist attractions. Sylvania, Ohio is one such location. The city and township boasts almost 45,000 people who call the area home and are proud of their history, legacy and location.

Over the years, Sylvania has developed into a first class destination for recreation, nature, history, and events. The area is blessed with abundant natural resources, is known as the “Tree City” and its residents can be best described as trendy, cosmopolitan and committed.

Fine dining, outstanding services and delightful boutique shopping are abundant in the Sylvania Area. Visitors can certainly find enough activities and events to last a day or a week. Let’s explore the Sylvania Area. 

 Sylvania Area Chamber Directory and Community Guide
 City of Sylvania     
 Sylvania Township
 

Area Attractions

Sylvania Historical Village – The village is made up of a Heritage Museum and log homes and businesses relevant to the area’s history including a Train Depot that dates back to 1858 and was in service until 1956. Gardens and a variety of retail shops are available for visits, group tours and programs. New additions will the construction of an authentic replica of the train depot with two train cars.

Sylvania Historical Village

Lathrop House – The historic Lathrop House was recently moved to the City of Sylvania's Harroun Park. The building is one of the few homes left in northwest Ohio with strong connections to the Underground Railroad.
The Lathrop family, abolitionists for generations, moved to Sylvania prior to the American Civil War. There, they carried on their anti-slavery activities by acting as conductors on the northwest Ohio route of the Underground Railroad.

Through a partnership with the City of Sylvania, Metroparks has agreed to restore the home and provide future public programming.

LathropHouse

Fossil Park - Travel back 375 million years ago when Northwest Ohio was a great sea teeming with life.
You can experience that reality today with a visit to The Fossil Park at Sylvania, Ohio. Fossil Park is one of just three parks of its type in the entire nation and is one of only two prime Devonian Era fossil sites on the entire planet.
Dig for your own unique brand of buried treasures as you hunt for these world renown fossils in a five-acre rock quarry. The Devonian fossils come from Hanson Aggregate Midwest's large working quarries a mile to the south of Fossil Park, where you and your family or group can hunt for these fossils in a safe and controlled environment.

Fossil Park

Sylvania Parks System

Sylvania has seventeen beautiful parks with a total of 250 acres. There are parks with pools, nature preserves, floral displays, war memorials and recreation.
Pacesetter Park is a premier destination for soccer and ball field’s home to Pacesetter’s Soccer and Maverick’s Baseball. This destination park serves over 450,000 thousand athletes annually from all over the Midwest and eastern states.

Olander Park features a lake, water sports and a shelter lodge and Centennial Park features a swimming area, water slide and an outdoor venue for summer events.

The Olander Park System

Sylvania Recreation

Metroparks – Wildwood and Secor Metroparks

Metroparks preserves many of Lucas County’s most unique natural and historical features, from Ohio’s only “moving” sand dunes to the 35-room Georgian colonial home of an auto baron.
Eleven Metroparks and two trail corridors make up the 9,000-acre park system and additional land is being acquired for future parks. Two Metroparks reside in the Sylvania geographical area.
Each Metropark is located in at least one of the county’s primary natural regions: The Great Black Swamp, Oak Openings, the Maumee River, The Ottawa River and Swan Creek. But no two Metroparks are alike. Each has unique gems that set it apart.

Secor Metropark

10000 W. Central Avenue (six miles west of US 23/I-475), Berkey, OH
(Entrances on W. Central Avenue and Bancroft Street)
The contrasts of tall timber, rolling, sandy hills and wet lowlands make Secor an interesting Metropark to explore. The towering tulip trees and northwest Ohio's largest concentration of dogwoods bloom in spring, when wildflowers blanket the moist forest floor.

A focal point at Secor for people and wildlife alike is a pond stained brown by the tannic acid in the oak leaves that drop into it each fall. In spring, the pond is covered by duckweed, which shades the water, keeping it cool.
The trunks of many of the trees in Secor's swamp forest widen at the base, an adaptation called buttressing that gives the trees added support in the wet, unstable soil.

Wolfinger Cemetery, located inside the park, is the burial site of many of Richfield Township's earliest settlers.

National Center for Nature Photography

The center, opened in spring 2003 inside Secor, displays the works of some of the country's best-known nature photographers. The one-of-a-kind center is open from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays, Memorial Day, Labor Day and the Fourth of July. Admission is free. Workshops offer opportunities for field experience with nature photographers and naturalists.

Wildwood Preserve

5100 W. Central Avenue (two entrances between Corey and Reynolds roads), Toledo

The prairie community at Wildwood Preserve is home to many diverse and fascinating plants and animals, providing them with critical habitat throughout the year. In spring, it is an essential breeding site for ground-nesting birds such as rufous-sided towhees, field sparrows and American woodcock. Summer brings a spectacular display of prairie wildflowers and grasses, such as rough blazing star, big bluestem and Indian grasses, some reaching 10 feet high.
Wildwood is the former family estate of Robert A. Stranahan, Sr., co-founder of the Champion Spark Plug Company. Metroparks purchased the estate grounds, including the family home, in the 1970s.

The Manor House

The Manor House is an architectural gem. Completed in 1938 as the Stranahan family home, it is an excellent example of 18th century Georgian colonial architecture, and it is decorated accordingly. The house, reminiscent of Mount Vernon with a wide front portico, rests on a bluff overlooking a branch of the Ottawa River. The house has 35 primary rooms, 17 bathrooms and 16 fireplaces.

Several other estate buildings, from a limo garage to stables, are now used for a visitors center, public restrooms and park district offices.

Twenty-two rooms of the house are open for free, guided tours Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., and for a variety of special programs, including musical performances.

The Manor House formal gardens were designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman, a pioneer landscape architect who designed more than 650 gardens from New Hampshire to New Orleans.

Oak Grove School, Victorian Farmhouse

The Oak Grove School is an 1897, one-room brick schoolhouse originally located at Corey Road and Springbrook Drive. It was moved a quarter-mile to its present location in Wildwood Preserve in 1998. The school is open some weekends and for special programs. It is located at the east entrance to Wildwood, near Corey. A Victorian farmhouse located near the Oak Grove School was once the residence of the Albon family, which farmed the land that is now Wildwood Preserve.

http://www.metroparkstoledo.com/metroparks/

Sylvania Sports and Exhibition Center at Tam-O-Shanter

The Sylvania Sports and Exhibition Center at Tam-O-Shanter is dedicated to providing a safe environment with high integrity, excellence, and hospitality. SSEC at TAMO operates as an arm of the City of Sylvania for athletic and exhibition events coming into our community.

Tam-O-Shanter markets the facility to attract a wide variety of events and activities working with local businesses and regional companies to make SSEC "The Venue" for their next event. Large or small, SSEC hosts trade shows, receptions, meetings, birthday parties, concerts, athletic leagues, craft shows, and MORE!

Sylvania Tam-O-Shanter Sports is a not-for-profit corporation created by the City of Sylvania to operate recreational facilities on its behalf. Tam-O-Shanter has been known to most as the premier hockey facility in Northwest Ohio and is now expanding to meet the needs of a growing community.

Sylvania Sports & Exhibition Center

Lourdes College – The Appold Planetarium

Another gateway to the final frontier is the Appold Planetarium at Lourdes College. Thanks to the generous support of James and Patricia Appold and additional donors, the former Copernicus Planetarium now features SciDome, a single projector full dome video system powered by Starry Night that allows real-time 3D sky simulation, full dome shows and multi-media presentations. Starry Night is the world’s most comprehensive astronomy software. Its star field quality allows astronomical detail and teaching capabilities that surpass any other digital planetarium system available.

The center is a fabulous resource for education and learning opportunities at Lourdes and in the community. Built in 1964, the planetarium was the first in Northwest Ohio and was one of only 50 in the country during that era.

http://www.lourdes.edu/

Sylvania Area Events

Golf takes center stage each July as the Jamie Farr Owens Corning LPGA Tournament sweeps into town. The tournament now in its 21st year features some of the worlds’ best lady golfers with a purse of over one million dollars
The Sylvania area is home to festivals, car shows, street fairs and the outstanding Sylvania Area Chamber of Commerce’s Arts & Crafts Festival at Lourdes College.  The area boasts of event such as Fossil Fest, Fall Festival, a huge 4th of July Fireworks display and the Sylvania Triathlon bringing in competitors from all over the world.
The holidays are welcomed in with a Halloween Hike, Holiday Happenings in several areas, Holiday’s in the Manor House and the annual First Light Celebration on December 31.

The area is abundant with children’s activities including the Easter Egg Hunt, Halloween Hike, kid’s trout derby, and the River Ball race.

http://www.cityofsylvania.com/

SHOP Sylvania

The Sylvania area has a plethora of chic boutiques, art galleries, big box stores, fine dining establishments and luxurious day spas. The Wingate Hotel is located in downtown Sylvania offering all the amenities of first class hotel in a charming setting.

http://www.wingatesylvania.com/

Entertainment

Franciscan Center at Lourdes College is a beautiful, full-service, state-of-the-art theater and conference center located on the Franciscan Campus in Sylvania, Ohio.

The Center features a full service theater which seats 850 patrons and hosts fully-staged and technically challenging performances including Broadway plays, the Symphony, Ballet and Opera as well as several musical shows.

http://www.franciscancenter.org/

Centennial Terrace - is an outdoor ballroom that has hosted many of the great swing and big bands of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Centennial Terrace boasts a 10,000 square foot. Terrazzo dance floor, one of the largest outdoor dance floors in the United States. Centennial Terrace features a wide variety of entertainment styles.

Most Saturday nights still feature big band music favored by many of the area’s seniors and ballroom dance fans. Many national recording artists perform and other summertime staple events include Sunday night “Youth Quake” Teen Dances the “Sylvania Star Spangled Celebration”, the local July 4th fireworks display and a “Disco Party” where some 2,000 adults enjoy reliving their times of the 1980’s.

http://www.sylvaniarecreation.org/facilities/cterrace/

Discover Sylvania, Ohio today!