Pythian Castle (Toledo, Ohio) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Pythian Castle
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![]() Front and eastern side
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Location | 801 Jefferson Ave., Toledo, Ohio 43604 |
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Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1890 |
Architect | Bacon & Huber |
Architectural style | Romanesque |
NRHP reference No. | 72001032 |
Added to NRHP | February 23, 1972 |
The Pythian Castle in Toledo, Ohio, is an old building built in 1890. It has a special style called Romanesque. You can find it in downtown Toledo. It was added to a list of important old places, the National Register of Historic Places, in 1972.
Contents
History of Pythian Castle
Building a Meeting Place
The building is very big, about 30,000 square feet! It was built in 1890 by a group called the Knights of Pythias. This group was like a club or a fraternity where members met.
Two architects, Norval Bacon and Thomas Huber, designed it. The tallest part of the castle is a tower called a turret. It reaches 122 feet (37 meters) high!
In 1908, people said it was the best building anywhere used only by the Pythian group. The building also had shops on the ground floor. One early shop sold pianos and organs.
Changes Over Time
In 1951, the Knights of Pythias sold the building. They sold it to a bus company called Greyhound Lines.
In the 1970s, a man named Ed Emery owned the castle. He opened a youth center there. He also rented space to a music store, an art studio, and an antiques shop. In 1972, he helped get the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A fire in 1978 damaged the building. After the fire, no one used it, and it started to fall apart. In 2006, the mayor of Toledo even put it on a list of the city's worst-kept buildings.
Efforts to Save the Castle
For many years, different owners tried to fix the castle. They spent money to try and make it stable again. They even put on a temporary roof.
In 2013, a group called Toledo's Pythian Castle LLC owned it. A local newspaper, the Toledo Blade, wrote about the building. They showed pictures of how run-down the inside had become.
Later in 2013, a group called the Lucas County Land Bank bought the building. They wanted to fix it up.
In 2016, the Land Bank sold the castle to a developer named David Ball. He bought it for a very small amount of money. The Land Bank also gave him a loan to help pay for a new roof and to fix the tall turret. The loan would be forgiven if he made the building safe to use within three years.
In February 2017, David Ball's company started working on the renovations.
Gallery
See also
In Spanish: Pythian Castle (Toledo) para niños