A detailed look into the lost neighborhood of Ironville. Located near the Port of Toledo, the memories of this neighborhood have been lost in time due to the area's ultimate demise at the hands of urban renewal and eminent domain.
Very well done, grew up there until my senior year in high school. Our house was the last one on Millard before duck creek and the old Klondike oil well. Very fond memories very fine people .
My grandfather who was the first born in America from England, was a miner in Hocking Ohio and in the early 40's when the mining was dying down in Hocking, he moved to Ironville and worked at Unicast that was on East Broadway. He lived in Ironville until he was kicked out for the terminal that was never built there. Then he moved to Licking Street until his death in 1978.
I did an interview with a resident from Ironville named Floyd Tefft. He worked as a longshoreman. He said it was a rough and tumble life. He passed away last year. I was glad to have gotten the interview.
A nice story but had a few errors. Sad that they didn't even know that the elementary school was named after Washington Irving. People had no choice to sell or not. They were threatened with "Eminent Domain" and their homes would be taken from them none the less. What a shame to see a thriving neighborhood torn apart for nothing. I left Ironville in 1964 and never returned. I miss it to this day. Sometimes I wish East Toledo could have been incorporated into Oregon when It became a city in the late 50;s. East Toledo has always been the "Dirty Stepchild" to Toledo proper.
My mother and father grew up in Ironville. So did almost all their cousins. They tore down a wonderful community that was so close. Alit of the residents had found each other again through Facebook. They were meeting for luncheons and having reunions for several years. All the remaining survivors are getting up in age and it has become too hard to put stuff together anymore. We just took my mom on a pontoon ride tonight so she could see it again. She showed me the pump house my dad lived beside.
My Mother, Dorothy Sampsel was born and raised in Ironville. Her parents were Curt and Florence. She had two brothers Jack and Don, and a sister Pearl. Growing up I recall some pretty wild stories about life in Ironville.... One got the idea that you didn't want to mess with the folks in Ironville.
