Sylvania is a small city of 19,000 people (2020) in Ohio Erie shore west. Sylvania is a northwestern suburb of Toledo, on the Ohio side of the border with Michigan.

Understand

Named for the dense forests that once made up the region, part of the Great Black Swamp, the city is built on large shale deposits, which over hundreds of years have been mined in quarries to make concrete, cement and other stone products.

Get in

By car

US 23 and US 233 cuts through the east end of Sylvania running north to Michigan and south to Holland, Ohio.

Get around

• TARTA Flex. On demand public transit service covering Sylvania and the broader Toledo metro. (updated Dec 2023)

See

The original Sylvania railroad depot, along the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, now part of the Sylvania Historical Village

• 1 Sylvania Historical Village, 5717 N Main St (Downtown), ☏ +1 419-517-5533. Includes a preserved 1858 railway depot, a replica one room schoolhouse made of stone, a replica barn, a log cabin, and a garden commemorating the sister city of Woodstock in Ontario. (updated Dec 2023)
• 2 Lourdes University, 6832 Convent Blvd, toll-free: +1-800-878-3210. A private Franciscan university. Hosts the Appold Planetarium. (updated Nov 2018)
• A steel beam from the World Trade Center forms part of the 9/11 First Responders Last Call Memorial at the Toledo Memorial Park Cemetery.

Do

• 1 Marathon Classic (Dana Open). Annual golf tournament. (updated Dec 2023)
• 2 Sylvania Tam-O-Shanter. Athletics complex. (updated Dec 2023)
• 3 Fossil Park, 5675 Centennial Rd. 8:30AM to 5:30PM or later depending on month. Opens mid-April to October. This public park lets visitors collect and take home fossils out of an former quarry. Free. (updated Dec 2023)

Buy

• 1 Hudson Gallery, 5645 N Main St (Downtown), ☏ +1 419-885-8381, info@hudsongallery.net. Tu-F 10AM-6PM, Sa 10AM-3PM. Contemporary art gallery. Free. (updated Dec 2023)

Eat

• Chandler Cafe, 5648 N Main St. (updated Dec 2023)

Drink

• Inside the Five Brewery, 5703 Main St, ☏ +1 567-408-7212. Brewery with food offerings. (updated Dec 2023)

Sleep

• 1 Wingate by Wyndham Sylvania, 5480 S Main St, ☏ +1 419-517-2000. Check-in: 3PM, check-out: noon. Offers free WiFi, breakfast, a fitness center, and a business center. Rooms have HD flatscreen TVs. ~$135. 

Connect

• 1 Sylvania Branch Library, 6749 Monroe St, ☏ +1 419-882-2089. Branch of the Toledo Public Library system. (updated Dec 2023)

Cope

• 2 Flower Hospital, 5200 Harroun Rd, ☏ +1 419-824-1444. Hospital offering emergency services, as well as non-emergency care. (updated Dec 2023)

Go next

• Toledo