South of the cathedral on Collingwood are a whole bevy of interesting houses, and a nice change of pace from Detroit’s architecture in a neighborhood known as the Old West End. This first mansion is the Edward Ford House, and like so many gigantic manses, was repurposed as an institutional building, becoming the Red Cross headquarters in Toledo later.

Heading north is the Lee-Knight House, which was also occupied at one point by the Red Cross.

Below is the First Congregational Church , which takes credit for dating back to 1833, claiming to be the oldest church in Toledo, once being in downtown.

Of course, vacant lots prevail, as well.

Jumping around a little, we now head down Ashland Avenue at the corner of Termain Drive, where the neighborhood began to increase in density, with a storefront added on to the front of a single family house.

Next door is a nice Georgian Revival house.

They went crazy with the tan paint at one point. The house below is possibly a homeless shelter today.

Ashland Avenue heads at an angle back up towards Collingwood, and you can see how the house and church are getting close together.

In fact, due to demolition, you can see the Congregational Church past the parking lot where surely houses once stood.

Now we’re back onto Collingwood, and there are some absolutely amazing examples of the Italianate and Second Empire, which had largely been wiped out in the boom years of Detroit and other large cities. They’re preserved here.

I got a kick out of how these two houses had been connected. It’s obvious this neighborhood had become low income and the buildings repurposed.