115 West Front Street

Getz House, Store and Saloon

Built ca. 1865, this brick structure eventually became an integral part of what is commonly known as the old Rheinfrank Hospital, but it originally looked like this when it was the home, grocery, and saloon of the George Getz family. 

The L-shaped house was built just above Perrysburg's then warehouses, mills and river shipping docks and was both the residence and business place of the Getz family. In the rear is a one and a half-story extension that may have housed the Getz Grocery and Saloon, a not an uncommon combination a century or more ago. Later Getz offered the public a seasonal ice cream parlor and oyster bar.

George Getz was born in 1830 and, along with his father and brother Frederick, was among a company of 72 Bavarians from near Munich, Germany, who immigrated and landed at Perrysburg on June 11, 1852. In 1861 he was among those incorporating the St. Rose de Lima Catholic Church congregation which the same year bought the Universalist Church, located across the street to the west of the present St. Rose building, for worship. 

Getz was also one of the signers of the resolution pledging to build a new court house here in 1872. That did not result as intended in getting the county seat returned here, but it did give the village and township the old Town Hall which was a popular landmark until 1963 when it was torn down. Upon his retirement, he lived with a daughter in Toledo until his death at age 77, in 1907.

Getz was among a colony of Bavarians who came here in 1852. In 1897, Dr. John H. Rheinfrank had his architect son, George, add a wing and convert the building into a hospital.

125 East Front Street - Original Construction

John Hollister House

In 1823, John Hollister, an early and prominent settler, chose the property directly east of the foot of Louisiana Avenue for his house, which for years was a showplace of the northwestern Ohio frontier. While it preceded the Second Empire style, it has its most common similarity, the distinctive mansard roof with dormer windows. A tall cupola with three windows originally topped the roof, and a wide porch in the rear offered a fine view of the river.

 Hollister was a forwarding and commission merchant, the owner of a line of steamboats, a judge, a postmaster, a mayor, and a member of the Ohio legislature. Presidential candidate William H. Harrison addressed a crowd in front of the residence in 1840, and over the years well into the 20th century, the place saw visitors such as Daniel Webster, William McKinley, Warren Harding, and Nicholas Longworth. 

125 East Front Street - Later Additions

In 1940, fire destroyed the then 117-year-old house while the owners were out of town. They quickly set about to replace it with a similar Second Empire design. The above photograph, date unknown, shows changes made over time in the Hollister house before it burned.