Toledo Zoo and Aquarium

The Toledo Zoo opened in nineteen hundred when a woodchuck found near City Hall was donated to the city parks department, which then built it an enclosure. That unpromising start grew into one of the most-visited zoos in the United States, drawing over a million guests a year. The Works Progress Administration transformed the grounds during the nineteen thirties, constructing the distinctive limestone buildings, grottos, and tunnels that still define the zoo's look today.

The aquarium, added in nineteen thirty-nine, was the first public aquarium in Ohio. The zoo sits on about fifty-one acres along the Maumee River and houses more than seven hundred species. Toledo's municipal pride in it runs deep, and voters have repeatedly approved property tax levies to fund it.