Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
On May 6, 1946, when the United States Navy launched the USS Toledo CA-133, a brand new heavy cruiser from the Philadelphia Shipyards, the citizens of Toledo were on hand to give something special to this new ship being christened in name of our fair city.
The Navy League of Toledo had raised the funds needed to have a custom 18-place engraved silver service dinner set made for the USS Toledo and its officers’ ward room. The silver collection was commissioned through the Gorham Silver Company of Rhode Island, one of the most famous makers of silverware in the world. It was an artfully crafted collection of over 200 pieces, with many of the trays and plates featuring the engravings of Toledo landmarks on them.
The collection was impressive and beautiful, created at a cost of about $12,500. It is undoubtedly worth much more in today’s dollars.
When USS Toledo is retired, silver is returned to Toledo
By 1960, however, when the USS Toledo was retired from active duty, the coveted silver service set, at the request of Toledo Mayor Mike Damas was returned to Toledo and locked in a vault at the former Naval Armory at Bayview Park with the idea that it might eventually be displayed at the Toledo Museum of Art.
However, less than a year later, the set was loaned out again to the Navy. This time, it went aboard the USS Spiegel Grove for a voyage on a goodwill tour of Africa’s coastal cities. The Spiegel Grove, a Navy landing craft, had been named to honor President’s Rutherford B. Hayes’s beloved home at Spiegel Grove in Fremont, so it was only natural that the Toledo inspired silver dinner set would grace its wardroom.
But the loan of the USS Toledo silver to this landing craft was short lived, as the Navy requested that the set be placed aboard the soon-to-be-commissioned super aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk. Once again, with Ohio’s connection to the Wright Brothers and their historic relationship to Kitty Hawk, N.C., Toledo’s city fathers felt this was an appropriate move to allow the set to be placed aboard the new super aircraft carrier.
In 1963, Toledo City Council passed a resolution to make that official and soon the silver dinnerware was on its way to San Diego to become a part of this huge U.S. Navy super carrier. That was the last time the silver was ever seen in Toledo, and it has never been back since.
When The USS Kitty Hawk was taken out of service, the silver sort of vanished into the byzantine bureaucracy of government limbo. What happened to it? The answer was not readily forthcoming.
But thanks to the Internet these days, finding elusive information is not as hard as it once was. With a little digging and lots of patience, photos of the USS Toledo silver service appeared on a Facebook posting in 2004 for the soon-to-be-opened USS Midway Museum in San Diego harbor.
And there it remains to this day. It is a part of the “Below Deck” exhibit which features a display of the officer’s wardroom where the USS Toledo Silver Tea set is featured.
Will it ever come back to Toledo?
From some of the original news stories in 1946 and then again in 1963, the set was never intended to be given away to the U.S. Navy without some conditions attached, and certainly did not appear to give the Navy carte blanche authority to exercise sole discretion as to the artwork’s eventual disposal.
But despite early intentions, the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command says that when the silver service was returned by Mayor John Potter of Toledo to be placed onboard the USS Kitty Hawk in 1963, that it did not come with any stipulations that it be returned to Toledo or that it was being loaned to the Navy, therefore the collection is considered to be the property of the Navy.
Case closed. The Navy decided the silver would be best suited to be placed in a museum instead of in storage.
The 204 pieces in the collection, valued at over $61,000 today, will stay on USS Midway for an unspecified period of time, or until such time that another ship bearing the name the USS Toledo goes into service.
The USS Toledo submarine, launched over 30 years ago, does have two of the original silver platters from the collection.
It appears that if curious Toledoans would like to cast their eyes on this coveted “Toledo” silver set, the best bet is to take a trip to San Diego and check out the USS Midway Museum where this valuable piece of Toledo history remains on display.
Some of it remains missing
It should be noted that the set is missing some pieces. It was originally a 225-piece set and only 207 have been located. Apparently one of the key pieces may be in the in the town of Kitty Hawk, N.C. in a museum to honor that legendary aircraft carrier.
That museum has a large platter from the silver set with “USS Toledo” clearly emblazoned on it. As to the whereabouts of the other items, those may be lost to history and indifference.
But for now, the large bulk of this once forgotten collection of silver, made possible by the generosity of Toledoans some 79 years ago, is safe and will be viewed by the thousands of visitors and tourists in a city thousands of miles away.
