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.
Video clip
Wildwood
From the WGTE documentary " Toledo Stories: Metroparks of the Toledo Area"
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