Tour of Southwest Quarter

 

Arriving back to the Milliken Hotel and the Opera House the last phase of your journey will begin. The Southwest Quarter of Bowling Green contains elements of the towns business success. Coupled with this is a tour of some of the 1890 era homes that adorn this section of town. Take your time and explore some of the side streets that branch off from South Main and West Wooster your time will be well spent. As you stroll under the shady oaks along West Wooster try and imagine yourself living and working in the Crystal City.

 

Gaghan Block Building

100 S. Main and 123 W. Wooster
Gaghan Block Building

G.W. Gaghan held oil interests, served as county auditor and later became postmaster of Bowling Green. He rebuilt the Gaghan block in 1888, at a cost of $7,000, to replace his dry goods store which was destroyed in the fire of 1887. The original cornice has been removed from this semi-restored Italianate commercial structure. Architectural features include a row of brick corbelling below the old cornice line and flat-topped windows with simple hoodmolds connected by a band of thin stone linking the facade with the side elevations.
175 West Wooster

City Building

The Bowling Green City Building stands at 175 West Wooster Street on the corner of Church Street. The structure is set back from the street approximately 20 feet and occupies just over 120 feet of frontage space. It forms the western edge of the Main Street Historic District, which consists of almost 50 buildings-- mostly one, two, and three story commercial buildings. Every one of these was constructed after the Civil War, and almost all were built after 1885. In fact, the major period of construction for this area came with the great Bowling Green "boom" in the 1890s, when the population grew at a tremendous rate. Some of the oldest structures in the Main Street Historic District include the Lincoln Block (102 North Main, 1874); the Union Block (108-112 South Main, 1877); and the Exchange Bank Building (101 North Main, 1883). Structures representative of the later "boom" era include the Brown Hotel (160 North Main, 1890); the McKenzie-Kabig Building (175-203 North Main, 1892); and the Millikin Hotel Block (101-109 South Main, 1895-1897).

For More information on the City Buidling Click Here

108-112 South Main Street

Union Block Building

The two story Union Block Building features bracketed cornices typical of Italianate design. A row of dentils seals the wall/cornice juncture. Although the first floor has been altered, the central door is original. The second story features seven segmentally arched windows set into seven larger round brick arches and a center window with a round hoodmold which covers two, rounded, upper sash panes.

Lehman Block Building

116 South Main Street
Lehman Block Building

Christoph (AKA Christian) Lehman Lehman was born in 1843, in Baden, Germany. His father was a weaver who died when Christoph was three. At age twenty-two, Lehman landed at Ellis Island with no money, but friends who enabled him to reach Tiffin, Ohio. There he worked at several odd jobs, including shoveling dirt for railway contruction and working in a brewery, before learning the trade of butcher from John Remerly. During his three year apprenticeship, he made efforts to improve his skills in the English language by attending a one-room school outside of Tiffin. In 1871, Lehman arrived in Bowling Green, determined to run a meat market of his own, an objective at which he proved successful. Purchasing property on south Main Street, Lehman put up the Union Block structure in 1877 and built the adjacent brick building which bears his name in 1896.

This building is an elaborate commercial structure with a scroll-like steeped gable in the center along the roof line. The rounded arch cornice and columns with a combination of corinthian and ionic capitals contribute to the classical appearance of the building. Two heads of cattle, presumably made of terra cotta, are mounted on either side of the central arch with its delicate, geometric moldings. The segmentally arched second story windows have keystones and multi-colored brick. Christoph Lehmann built this business block in 1896 next to his earlier Union Block Building (1877).

The Wood County Infirmary has a long history important to the development of Wood County, Ohio. As an extra feature you can now tour this facility as part of our Crystal City tour. Now known as the Wood County Historical Center it is located south of Bowling Green on Highway 6 and the intersection of Interstate 75.

 

Take a look at the rest of historic Bowling Green:

Northwest Quarter || Northeast Quadrant || Southwest Quadrant
Southeast Quarter

 

BOWLING GREEN 1890S TIMELINE
1890s WOOD COUNTY FARM LIFE AND CULTURE

 

ANALYSIS OF "CITY" LIFE AND CULTURE IN 1890s BOWLING GREEN

The Development of Public Education in Bowling Green
The Economic and Social Impact of Bowling Green's Oil and Gas Industry in the surrounding Wood County area.
Analysis of Bowling Greens Glass Industry, aka, "The Crystal City"
Oral Memories of Bowling Green in the 1890s

Last modified Fall 1998 by Ken Dvorak. "Welcome to the Crystal City" web site is a joint project by Dr. William Grant, American Culture Studies Program, Bowling Green State University, and Ken Dvorak, Doctoral Candidate, ACS, BGSU, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA. For more information or to send comments, please direct email to wgrant@bgnet.bgsu.edu or kdvorak@bgnet.bgsu.edu. Thank you.