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. The city lies at the junction of two creeks: Ottawa Creek, flowing south from the community of Ottawa Lake, Michigan, about four miles north of the city, and Ten Mile Creek, a tributary of Ottawa Creek running about 30 miles (48 km) from the west, which becomes the Ottawa River and empties into the Maumee River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.68 square miles (17.30 km 2), of which 6.63 square miles (17.17 km 2) are land and 0.05 square miles (0.13 km 2) are water. A post office called Sylvania has been in operation since 1859. While the depot is no longer in operation, the original station building exists as an exhibit in the Sylvania Historical Village, still next to the railroad which remains in use. Sylvania built its own railroad depot along the Erie-Kalamazoo Railroad in 1858. Trains were at first pulled by horse until the first steam locomotive was installed in 1837. In 1833, the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad was chartered as part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, running from former Port Lawrence, Michigan (now Toledo, Ohio), to the mouth of the Kalamazoo River at Lake Michigan. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, rail transportation saw significant expansion throughout the Great Lakes region. Wilson presented the original plat for Sylvania in June 1836, with the town of Whiteford directly adjacent. That year, White established the first area school in Whiteford, and platted the township there one year later in 1835. The relationship between White and Wilson did not last, and when the boundary dispute that lead to the largely bloodless Toledo War began in 1834, they began splitting the lands they had purchased, platting their own towns. Over the course of several years, White, along with his associate, Judge William Wilson, purchased a total of 1,920 acres (780 ha) of Port Lawrence and surrounding land in what would eventually become Sylvania, and 1,720 acres (700 ha) of what would become Whiteford Township, Michigan, where he also served as the first town supervisor. Prior to White's acquisition, the land was a part of Port Lawrence Township, Monroe County, Michigan. In realizing the potential of some available land to the north of Maumee, Ohio, a notable port city at the time, he acquired a title to the land and built a log cabin at what would eventually be the corner of Summit and Monroe streets near downtown Sylvania.
In 1832, White was given the title of General (possibly after services rendered during the War of 1812), which allowed him to explore the western Lake Erie region. General David White is considered the founder of Sylvania as the first pioneer settler and town supervisor, originally from Palmyra, New York. The original Sylvania railroad depot, along the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, now part of the Sylvania Historical Village
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