A Brief History of Sylvania, Ohio
| In 1832 General David White acquired the title to a
"considerable" tract of land lying in the eastern half of the future site of
Sylvania. He constructed a log house at the northeast corner of Summit and Monroe streets.
On July 13, 1836, the plat of the town of Sylvania was recorded by Judge William Wilson.
A large granite boulder at the corner of Erie and Division streets marked the
beginning of the present town of Sylvania. Sylvania almost didn't happen! A dispute between White and Wilson led White to record the town of Whiteford in Michigan. White favored the name "Whiteford" and Wilson favored the name "Sylvania" - the Latin word for "woods or trees." Had it not been for this disagreement Sylvania would have been named Whiteford! |
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For a higher resolution map, click on the map at left. The image size is 269 KBytes, so it will take about 1.5 minutes to load with a 28.8 modem. |
| Schools |
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The first school building was erected on the West side of Main Street midway between Erie and Maple streets. General White paid for this first school. This site proved unsuitable, however, because of noise from the rail line running through town and the efforts of the engineer to negotiate the curve north of Erie Street. The school was then moved to "the opposite side of town" - somewhere near the southwest corner of Summit and Blank Streets. the west side of Main Street between Maplewood and Erie Streets. A new school was built on this site in 1869 (below). |
| Burnham School (below) was constructed in 1929 on land given
by Henry Burnham. At the time the school "afforded the utmost in educational
facilities." The present Burnham school is still utilized.
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In the 1933 "History of Sylvania" several people who attended both the old Main Street School and the new Burnham facility recalled that the Burnham building was "practically a total failure, since it had no belfry to climb." |