ABOUT US Toledo is the fourth largest city in Ohio, but lacks a comprehensive history museum. There are several neighborhood museums representing specific areas of historic development, whereas our vision encompasses the greater Toledo metropolitan area from the Black Swamp days when Native Americans and settlers struggled to keep their land or begin a homestead with an eye on the future. French trading posts operated in the area around 1680 and American settlers arrived in 1794 after the Battle of Fallen Timbers, founding Fort Industy. Many settlers fled the area during the War of 1812 with resettlement beginning around 1817 when a Cincinnati syndicate purchased a 974-acre tract, naming it Port Lawrence at the mouth of Swan Creek along the Maumee River, creating the downtown area. Another syndicate founded the town of Vistula immediately to its north becoming the historic north end. Cherry Street divided the two which is why present-day streets on the northeast side of Cherry Street run at a slightly different angle from those to the southwest.