5109 Sylvania Ave.

GAYLEEN GINDY

When driving east on Sylvania Avenue, have you ever wondered how the greenhouses at the Corey Road intersection came to be?
Lucas County records show the house at 5109 Sylvania Ave. was constructed in 1965, but it is actually older. The home, originally on 29.50 acres, is shown on the 1900 map and was owned by George Douglas.
In 1906, William and Amelia (Lange) Trettin rented the home. They were both born in Germany near the Polish border and were married in 1887. They came to the U.S. in 1893 with two children: Paul, born 1888, and Anna , born 1889 and all spoke English. After arriving, the couple had six more children. William, 1894; Otto, 1899; Martha, 1900 and died in 1904; Bernard, 1901; Felix, 1906; and Gertrude, 1910.
By the 1910 census, William and Amelia Trettin were listed living in the house with their children Anna, 21, not attending school; Willie 16 years old, working as a farm laborer; Otto, 10 years, and Burnhart, 9 years, both attending school. Their son Felix is not listed and his name may have been missed.
Records in 1918 show that the property and home officially transferred into William and Amelia’s names. By the 1920 census, William and Amelia were still listed living here, and only their son Bernard, age18, and daughter Gertrude, age 9, were living at home.
This census shows that William was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1907 and that Amelia had been naturalized in 1897. William is listed as the employer of a truck farm. Their son Felix was 13 years old and was staying in Toledo with his sister, Anna Krueger, and her husband Karl at the time of this census.
The 1924 map shows William Trettin owning 20.5 acres, with 10 acres to the south of Sylvania Avenue, and east, extending to Corey Road.
When the 1930 census was taken, William is 65 years old, and is employed as a farmer on his truck farm, which he owned with a mortgage. Amelia is 61. Living at home are son William, 35 years old, and employed as a watchman for a junk yard. Gertrude “Amelia,” 19 years old and single. Their son Felix was 24 years old, single, and living with his sister.
William died in June, 1930. When the 1940 census was taken Amelia was listed as 71 years old, widowed, and living with her son Felix, 34 years old, single, listed as owning the farm, and working on his own account. In 1944 the property transferred from William to Amelia. She passed away in March 1947 while living in this home. Her obituary said she was 78 years old and died unexpectedly. Surviving were her daughters, Mrs. Karl Krueger and Mrs. Harry Bunde of Toledo, sons, Paul of Maumee, William of Midland, Mich., Otto and Bernard of Petersburg, Mich., and Felix of Sylvania.
In 1948 the house transferred to William Trettin ¼; Otto Trettin ¼; Bernard Trettin ¼ and Gertrude Bunde ¼; subject to the life estate of Felix Trettin. In the 1950 census Felix, 47, is living by himself at 5109 Sylvania Ave., and a farm owner.
County records show that in 1965, three frame commercial garages were built along with two commercial metal frame structures on the property that served as greenhouse structures. Over the years Felix became a well-known greenhouse owner and truck farmer, until losing much of his farm land for the expressway when it was built behind him. At that time he began focusing on growing flowers year-round in his greenhouses.
He, and his sister-in-law, Dora Trettin, seeded pansies in December and other plants in late winter. The Blade said that passers-by often remarked at how attractive the corner looked. Customers would stop, point at the pansy they wanted, and he dug it out and wrapped it in newspaper.
Felix had one leg and wore a prosthesis, but into his 80s he still cut an acre of lawn with a push mower. As a young man he was a pianist and accordionist in a three-person band that played at area dances. He had no immediate survivors when he died.
In September, 1994, the property transferred to James W. Heiney, Trustee, for $150,000, as Felix moved to the Lutheran Village at Wolf Creek in Springfield Township for his final years. Then in September, 2000 Roger Barrow, owner and operator of Whiteford Road Greenhouse, purchased the house and 1.66 acres for $160,000.
Felix died in 1999 at the age of 93. His obituary appeared in the Toledo Blade on April 22, 1999 and said that the property had been used for gardening since the early 1900s. It also stated that the Trettin Greenhouse had been a fixture at Sylvania Avenue and Corey Road for many years, and the land behind the house, now occupied by the I-475 expressway, had been owned by the Trettin family until the state took it.