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Movie Posters from Schine's State Theater

October 10, 2014, 7:24 am
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In the late 1920s, the State Theatre in Sandusky was known as “Schine’s State Theatre.” It was then a part of the Schine circuit of independent theaters, which a major chain of theaters until it broke up in 1965. The post card pictured above was created by E.B. Ackley. On November 30 and December 1, 1929, the silent movie “Our Modern Maidens” played at the Schine’s State Theatre. It starred Joan Crawford, the second in a trilogy of movies put out by MGM. 

  
On December 9 through 11, 1929, the movie “The Mighty,” starring George Bancroft, was featured at the theatre. This film was about a ruthless gangster who gets drafted into military service.


On December 12, 13, and 14, “Halfway to Heaven” played at the State. This film featured Charles “Buddy” Rogers, who was once known as America’s Boy Friend.
          
                

Mr. J. Robert Hoffman donated these movie posters, which are now a part of the collection of the Follett House Museum.
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Union Ticket for Ohio from October 1863 Election

October 13, 2014, 8:01 am
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During the Civil War, many Ohioans became members of the Union Party, which was made up of Republicans and Democrats who were in support of the Union cause. On October 13, 1863, John Brough was elected Governor of Ohio on the Union Party ticket. Brough soundly defeated Clement L. Vallandigham, who was against the Civil War, and had been forcibly exiled to the Confederacy. When President Abraham Lincoln heard that John Brough’s majority was over 100,000, he personally wired the Governor-elect. His message said “Glory to God in the highest. Ohio has saved the nation. A. Lincoln.”
John Brough, Ohio Governor 1864-1865(Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JohnBrough.jpg )

Several articles that appeared in the October 16, 1863 issue of the Sandusky Register, reported that Sandusky area residents had a “grand era of good feeling” over the Union party majority during the recent election. The article stated that the hundreds of people from all around Sandusky and Erie County turned out at the Erie County Courthouse. The courthouse was illuminated from top to bottom, and bonfires were ablaze at the parks on Columbus Avenue. The Union Band played patriotic music, and at 8 p.m. Colonel J.C. Lee of Tiffin addressed the crowd. There was an announcement for the Brough Ball which was to be held at Norman Hall on October 16.



Proceeds from the Brough Ball werefor the benefit of the families of Union soldiers.


Business owner C.C. Keech included the words Brough! Brough! in his advertisement for wool. The ad mentioned the 100,000 majority for Brough, along with an ad in which he offered to purchase 100,000 pounds of wool for 73 to 75 cents a pound.  Governor Brough died in 1865, before he completed his two year term as Governor of Ohio.



The names of several local candidates also appeared on the ballot in the fall of 1863, including W.D. Lindsley, who was elected to the Ohio Legislature; George Morton, elected Probate Judge; George O. Selkirk, elected as Clerk of Common Pleas Court; George W. Smith, elected Erie County Auditor; Calvin Caswell, elected Erie County Commissioner; and John Wines, elected Infirmary Director. 
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Group Photographs on the Steps of Sandusky High School

October 16, 2014, 8:30 am
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Sandusky photographer Ernst Niebergall took many images of people and places in and around Erie County during most of the first half of the twentieth century. He was a native of Germany, and during times of war, he had his cameras confiscated, as government officials considered him a potential threat to the country. (Read more about Mr. Niebergall at the April 2004 edition of Paper Trails, from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center.) 

A popular location for some of Niebergall’s group pictures was on the steps of the old Sandusky High School, later Adams Junior High School.  Below is a photograph of the War Bond Group of the Sandusky Chamber of Commerce, taken on May 27, 1918. A large American flag is hanging over the middle door on the western portion of the school building.


Two more group photos of members of the Sandusky Chamber of Commerce were taken by Mr. Niebergall on June 25, 1919. In the picture below, the men are all wearing hats.


It appears that Mr. Niebergall was a stickler for detail, or he had an unusual sense of humor, as another picture of the same group is nearly identical, except that the men have removed their hats.


Several years later, Niebergall took this picture of the Sandusky High School Band on the steps of Sandusky High School. Over sixty members of the band are pictured with their instruments in 1935.



The steps at the old Sandusky High School, facing the Erie County Courthouse look virtually the same today as they did when Mr. Niebergall took the group pictures many years ago.

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Lewis M. Lea, Jeweler and Optician

October 19, 2014, 11:34 am
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Lewis M. Lea was born in Sandusky in 1843 to James D. and Caroline (Mackey) Lea. James D. Lea was successfully engaged in the lumber yard business in Sandusky for many years. When Lewis M. Lea was twenty years of age, he enlisted in Co. B of the 145th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After the end of the Civil War, he began a long career in the jewelry business, working as a jeweler and watchmaker in Sandusky in 1866.  He was first in partnership with other jewelers, including Joseph Bixby, Henry Dehnel, and a Mr. Greenfelder. In the 1888 Sandusky City Directory, Lewis M. Lea was listed as the sole proprietor of a jewelry business at 135 Columbus Avenue. He stayed at this location until 1917, when he moved the jewelry business to the Lea building at the southwest corner of East Market and Wayne Streets. 

Besides selling watches, clocks, jewelry and silverware, Lewis M. Lea was also an optician. An advertisement in the May 1, 1891 issue of the Sandusky Register stated that residents could secure their spectacles from Lea, the “graduate optician.”


An article in the December 9, 1911 issue of the Sandusky Register stated that Lewis M. Lea’s life was “like an open book.”  Mr. Lea was said to have large and well-selected stock, featuring “novelties of every selection” and a complete line of optical goods. 

On August 18, 1918, Lewis M. Lea passed away after an illness of six months. His obituary, found in the 1918 Obituary Notebook, stated that Lewis M. Lea had been one of Sandusky’s best known business men. Funeral services were held at the Masonic Temple. Several Ohio leaders in the Masonic order attended Mr. Lea’s funeral, which was solemn and impressive, according to an article in the August 22, 1918 issue of the Sandusky Register. At the funeral, Grand Commander Barton Smith presented Lewis M. Lea’s 33rddegree Masonic ring to his son, Jay D. Lea.  Lewis M. Lea was survived by his wife, one son, seven grandchildren, and a sister and brother. A son, Lewis W. Lea, had predeceased him. Lewis M. Lea was buried in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery. At the Follett House Museum you can view eyeglasses and silverware which were purchased from Lewis M. Lea’s jewelry store.

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Postcards from the Echo Cafe

October 23, 2014, 5:00 am
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The Echo Cafe was established about 1901 by Julius Brengartner. It was located at 725 Market Street in its early years. After street numbers changed in Sandusky in 1915, the address became 201 West Market Street. An article in the October 4, 1921 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated the bar at the Echo was said to be one of the longest in Northern Ohio.

       
In the October 5, 1921 issue of the Sandusky Register, a brief article was entitled: “Echo Cafe a Thing of the Past After Today.” The article said that the son of Julius Brengartner, Ralph, had taken over the Echo after his father needed to give his full attention to his position with the Ulmer Mortgage Company in Pennsylvania. The Echo Cafe was purchased by Alex M. Wagner. The building where the Echo Cafe once stood is now a parking lot, but it was the site of a hardware store in the 1920s and 1930s, and later was home to B.F. Goodrich and City Loan. This vintage picture shows a portion of the Echo Cafe on West Market Street in the early twentieth century.



Another business called the Echo Tavern later operated on Columbus Avenue in Sanduskyfrom about 1948 until the early 1980s.
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Beilstein Steam Laundry

October 27, 2014, 7:00 am
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From the late 1890s until about 1909, the Beilstein Steam Laundry did business at 630 Market Street. The proprietors in 1898 were Henry J. Beilstein and John Pfanner, but in 1900, they were Henry J. Beilstein and Philip J. Pfanner. In the picture above, you can see that some customers arrived at the Beilstein Laundry by horse driven vehicles, and others by bicycle. The inside of the laundry is pictured below. Both males and females were employed at the Beilstein Steam Laundry.


In an advertisement which appeared in the October 27, 1904 issue of the Sandusky Star, the proprietors of the Beilstein Steam Laundry stated that that they could get dress clothes in order for the weddings and parties of the for the fall and winter season.




The 1910 Sandusky City Directory listed the business as the Beilstein-Pfanner Laundry, still located at 630 Market Street. By 1915, the Beilstein Laundry and the Philip J. Pfanner’s Dry Cleaning and Dyeing businesses were at separate locations. The Beilstein Laundry had moved to the 200 block of Jackson Street, and Mr. Pfanner’s business was located at 318 Washington Street. In the twentieth century, the Beilstein and Pfanner families both operated dry cleaning businesses for many years.
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Happy Halloween!

October 30, 2014, 12:42 pm
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Here is a group photo of the Business Women's Club Halloween Party at Reinke's Boat House on Meigs Street. The exact date is unknown, but it was probably around 1920-1925.

Many of the young women are identified. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn their identities.
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The Boy Scouts Have Been Active in Sandusky for Many Years

November 2, 2014, 12:39 pm
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The Boy Scouts of America have been active in Sandusky since shortly after the organization was founded in 1910. Pictured above is a group of Boy Scouts in Washington Park in Sandusky about 1916, with a young lady dressed in a patriotic costume. After the flood of 1924, several troops of Boy Scouts met at Grace Church in Sandusky, to report for duty to aid in the clean up effort in Sandusky. In 1936, Sandusky Boy Scouts co-operated with the American Red Cross to collect clothing and food for flood victims in Southern Ohio. 

A Sandusky Boy Scout once made national news for his act of heroism. On January 30, 1926, Henry Sherman Potter, saved Omar E. Meyer, Jr. from drowning. Omar fell through the ice while skating on Sandusky Bay. Henry crawled on thin ice, and tossed his sweater to Omar, and pulled him to safety. For his heroic deed, Henry Sherman Potter was awarded the Carnegie Hero Medal for saving the boy's life. 

In the summer of 1937, area Boy Scouts marched in a parade before they departed for the first National Jamboree of the Boy Scouts of America, which was held June 30 to July 7, in Washington D.C.


Here is an undated photograph of Troop Number 4 from Sandusky:


Another undated picture shows a large group of Boy Scouts gathered in Sandusky.

If anyone knows the identity of the Scouts in the unidentified photos, please contact the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, so that the names can be recorded for history.
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Sebastian Schweinfurth Family

November 5, 2014, 7:42 am
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The Sebastian Schweinfurth family is pictured above in the late 1800s, in front of the Schweinfurth residence at the corner of McKelvey Street and Sycamore Line in Sandusky, Ohio. Sebastian had been born in Baden, Germany, and came to the United States in 1854. During the Civil War, Sebastian Schweinfurth served in Company D of the 128thOhio Volunteer Infantry, a unit which stood guard at the prison camp at Johnson’s Island. In 1865, Sebastian married Anna Elizabeth Horn, who was also a native of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Schweinfurth had a large family of seven children. After working in the Klotz and Kromer machine shop, Sebastian Schweinfurth ran a grocery store with his son Fred. All four of Sebastian’s sons were educated in the grocery business and went on to have businesses of their own. For many years, Fred and Simon operated the Schweinfurth Brothers grocery store at the southwest corner of Hayes Avenue and West Park Street.  Later, John was a partner with Simon at the Schweinfurth Brothers grocery store, and Fred had his own business.


You can still just barely read the name of Fred Schweinfurth on the building at 428 Decatur which was at one time a grocery and a bakery.



After Fred’s death, other members of the Schweinfurth family ran the business until the early 1950s. Henry and John Schweifurth operated saloons in Sandusky in the early 1900s, and later they too were in the grocery business. Consult the historical Sandusky city directories to learn the specific dates and locations of the many businesses which were operated by the Schweinfurth family in Sandusky. Sebastian and Anna’s grandson, Gerald Schweinfurth, served as the Erie County Auditor from 1947 to 1982. Members of several generations of the Schweinfurth family contributed to their community through their businesses, church, and social affiliations. 
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Gustave A. Hauser

November 8, 2014, 5:30 am
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Gustave Adolph Hauser was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1874 to John and Margaret (Schmidt) Hauser, who were both natives of Germany. He was known fondly as Ottoto his family and friends. He is pictured above next to a high wheeled bicycle when he was quite young.  Here is a picture of Gustave as an adult, again posing with a bicycle:


For most of his adult life, Mr. Hauser worked as a ship carpenter. He was interviewed in an article which appeared in the January 14, 1934 issue of the Sandusky Register, in a piece which featured an old ship named the Valley Mills. The ship was a stern wheeler, which turned out to be unprofitable for use on the lake. The hulk of the vessel remained in Sandusky Bay near the old B and O Railroad docks for many years. When Mr. Hauser had last seen the ship in 1897, he was employed at the Monk shipyard in Sandusky.



Sadly, Gustave A. Hauser died suddenly of a heart attack while riding his bicycle on Cleveland Road. He was survived by a sister, two nieces and two nephews, and was laid to rest in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery. Mr. Hauser was uncle to Norbert A. Lange, and Elmer Wirth, who were both college professors in scientific fields. 
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Margaret Ebert, Art Teacher

November 11, 2014, 10:43 am
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Miss Margaret Ebert was the daughter of Carl and Caroline Ebert. She graduated from Sandusky High School in 1910. In the graduation picture below, Margaret is number 17.


A closer view shows Margaret in her middy blouse, a popular style at the time.



Margaret Ebert taught art for the Sandusky City Schools for over thirty years, retiring from Jackson Junior High School in 1953. An article in the June 1, 1953 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News reported that Miss Ebert had taught art in all twelve grades at different times during her long career as a teacher. 

In about 1940 students in Margaret Ebert’s art class at Osborne School created a fabric collage of Cedar Point. In the portion of the mural below, you can see the ferry G.A. Boeckling, along with a pony ride and other attractions at the amusement park.

      
A carousel and ferris wheel are visible in another portion of the mural:
           

Miss Ebert often spoke to local community organizations about textile art. The various colors and prints in the fabrics used in the mural gave a delightful visual depiction of Cedar Point from a bygone era. You can see the mural created by Margaret Ebert’s art classes in the Toy Room of the Follett House Museum.

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Stereograph Cards by A.C. Platt

November 14, 2014, 7:04 am
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Stereographsare a pair of nearly identical images that give a three dimensional effect when viewed through a device called a stereoscope. Several stereographic cards are found in the collections of the Sandusky Library and the Follett House Museum. Above is a stereograph card of the Erie County Courthouse created by Sandusky photographer A.C. Platt, probably around 1876. A group of stereographs created by Mr. Platt were donated to the Sandusky Library by Mrs. John H. Jacques. The cards originally belonged to her father, Willis Merry. Mrs. Jacques was a direct descendant of Ebenezer Merry, a pioneer settler of the Firelands. A view of Sandusky High School and the old academy building can be seen in the stereograph card below. The academy building was used as a courthouse prior to the construction of the Erie County Courthouse in 1875. It was torn down in 1884.


This view of downtown Sandusky was taken from the upper level of the Erie County Courthouse. The steeples of the Congregational Church, then in Washington Park, are visible. This church was demolished in 1896, and a new church was built at the northwest corner of Columbus Avenue and Jefferson Street. In the background, you can see a portion of the Cedar Point peninsula


     In 1875, the first city water works was under construction, at Meigs and Washington Streets. Here you see construction scaffolding around the standpipe. If you look closely, you can see men at the top of the scaffolding.


Below is a view of the Sandusky’s waterfront in the early 1880s. The vessel Chief Justice Waite is partially obscured by an unidentified ship in Sandusky Bay.


   

Thanks to A.C. Platt’s stereograph cards, we can get a sense of what life was like in Sandusky in a bygone era.
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Jacob Mertz, Pioneer Hardware Merchant

November 17, 2014, 8:20 am
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Jacob Mertz was born in Wurttemberg, Germany in the 1830s. He came to the United States in the 1850s, and after living for at time in Norwalk, Ohio, he settled in Sandusky.  A biographical sketch about Jacob Mertz found in History of the Western Reserve (Lewis Publishing Company, 1910), opened with these sentences:  “The great empire of Germany has contributed a most valuable element to the cosmopolitan social fabric of our American republic, which has had much to gain and nothing to lose from this source. Among those of German birth and ancestry who have attained to success and precedence in connection with business activities in the city of Sandusky is Jacob Mertz, a citizen of sterling character and one honored by all who know him.” 

Mr. Mertz married Teresa Hemmerle in 1856, and they had eight children. In 1860 he opened a hardware store and tin shop on Washington Street. In 1865 he moved his business to the southeast corner of West Washington and McDonough Streets in Sandusky.  He was the sole proprietor until 1885, when his sons became partners and the business became known as J. Mertz and Sons.


In 1910, J. Mertz and Sons carried a variety of hardware, builders’ materials, stoves, ranges, and household furnishings. 

Jacob Mertz, Sr. died on December 26, 1913, after a brief illness. His sons, John, George, and Jacob, Jr. ran the business after his death. The Mertz Hardware Store stayed in operation in Sandusky until about 1935. The Braunstein Furniture Store occupied the site at the corner of West Washington and McDonough Streets from about 1941 until 1961.  Currently this location is a multi-unit apartment building.


Several members of the extended Mertz family are buried in the family lot at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.
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Zion Lutheran Church Choir

November 20, 2014, 11:54 am
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Members of the Zion Lutheran Church Choir are pictured above in front of the organ pipes. The photograph, by Mound Studio in Sandusky, was taken between 1945 and 1955. Lovely stained glass windows are located on either side of the organ pipes. Harold Parker is in the front center of the picture. Mr. Parker, a well known Sandusky architect, directed the church choir at Zion Lutheran Church for twenty five years. The church building, at 503 Columbus Avenue, was dedicated on Sunday, November 12, 1899. The architect and builder of Zion Lutheran was George Feick.


Two histories of Sandusky’s Zion Lutheran Church are found in the local history section of the Sandusky Library. While the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center does not have an extensive history of every church in Erie County, Ohio, five archival boxes are devote to church histories in the Churches Collection of the Archives. Included in these files are histories of two African American churches, the Oheb Shalom Temple, along with historical information from several Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian, and Unitarian churches in the area. Church records are available on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center for these churches:
Holy Angels Catholic Church
Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
St. Anthony Catholic Church (Milan)
Calvary Episcopal Church
St. John Lutheran Church
First Presbyterian Church
St. Stephen’s United Church of Christ
First Congregational Church of Christ

Erie County, Ohio is rich in church history, from circuit riding Methodists, to abolitionist Congregationalists, to German Lutherans and Catholic roots going back to Father J.P. Machbeuf. St. Stephen A.M.E. church was begun by several individuals who had previously been enslaved. Four churches can be seen in the picture below of Columbus Avenue, taken in the first half of the twentieth century. 


Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to view the Finding Aid for the Churches Collection.
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John J. Marquart - An Interview with an Early Sanduskian in 1947

November 24, 2014, 7:00 am
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In the Twin Anniversary Edition of the Sandusky Register Star News, dated November 24, 1947, Harry Stack featured highlights of an interview he had conducted with John J. Marquart, who at that time had been a resident of Sandusky for eighty five years. Mr. Marquart is pictured below in a photograph taken at the Pascoe photographic studio. (He is seated at the left, opposite C. J. Pascoe.)

              
John J. Marquart was born in New York City in 1853, and moved to Sandusky in 1862, in the midst of the Civil War. As a youngster, he resided on East Adams Street above the Marquart family grocery store. He helped his father in the grocery store for a time, then around 1890 he became involved in a business which dealt in furniture and undertaking. By 1906, he was a funeral director and embalmer, on the street level of the Odd Fellows Temple on Washington Row, and for a time in partnership with a Mr. Meyers.  In 1925 Mr. Marquart took Lee B. Keller on as a partner, and the business was known as Marquart and Keller. For thirty nine years prior to 1932, Mr. Marquart was in charge of the burials of veterans at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home. You can see a portion of Marquart’s funeral business in the Odd Fellows Temple in the picture below, in the early 1900s.


In his interview with Harry Stack, John J. Marquart recalled the pioneer businesses of Sandusky. He personally knew Jay Cooke, and members of  the Hubbard family. He recalled seeing Confederate officers arriving by train at the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad office at Warren Street, before being taken to the prison at Johnson’s Island during the Civil War. He remembered when the harbor of Sandusky was filled with full-sail schooners transporting lumber to and from the city. The ice industry was another vital business in Mr. Marquart’s early days in Sandusky.  He recalled when the streets were made of cobble stone, and horse drawn vehicles were used. A quote by Mr. Marquart appeared toward the end of the interview: “I’ve seen many changes and much improvement in the 85 years I’ve lived in Sandusky. It used to be more important than Cleveland, but somehow or other it grew to a certain size and stayed there. Still and all, Sandusky is all right. It’s my home and proud of the fact.”  To read the entire interview, visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center where copies of the Twin Anniversary Edition of the Sandusky Register Star News are available in print and on microfilm.
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Sandusky Gets Ready for Thanksgiving in 1906

November 27, 2014, 11:35 am
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Many area businesses placed advertisements in the Sandusky Daily Register in November of 1906, as Sanduskyprepared to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Dilgart & Bittner boasted “A Bounteous Thanksgiving Feast for All.” The store featured a wide variety of home furnishings, and they offered the installment plan, to make paying for purchases easy on the budget.


 Edward Smith’s Meat Market at 527 McDonough Street sold turkey, duck, chicken, goose, beef, veal, mutton, pork, and homemade sausages. The Smith’s Meat Market made home deliveries to all parts of the city.


 The Mayer Lebensburger store, which sold men’s apparel, placed their ad in the newspaper in the form of a Thanksgiving menu, suggesting that the hats they carried were “creme de la creme.”


J.H. Herman suggested that it would be a “Thankful Day Indeed” if you purchased your furniture, carpets and stoves from their store on Market Street.


These are just a few of the advertisements from the Sandusky Daily Register during the Thanksgiving season of 1906. Visit the SanduskyLibraryArchivesResearchCenter to read historical Sandusky newspapers on microfilm, dating back to 1822.
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Sandusky’s Railroad Depot

November 30, 2014, 10:46 am
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Now used by Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, the railroad station at North Depot and Carr Streets in Sandusky, was originally built for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. The Sandusky Transit System and North Central EMS now have offices at this location as well. A front page article in the December 19, 1892 issue of the Sandusky Register reported on the new passenger depot, which was described as “very elegant.” 



The depot was built by A. Feick and Brother, at a cost of nearly $30,000. Several other local subcontractors were involved in the project. Brohl and Appell were in charge of the plumbing. Copper work was done by J. Mertz and Son. Woodwork and doors were installed by George R. Butler and Company, while the hardware and glass were furnished P.L. VanAlstyne. The only firm connected to the new railroad depot that was not from Sandusky was the architect, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, from Boston, Massachusetts. The station was built from Amherst buff stone, with blue stone trimming. The roof was a Gothic pitch roof. A baggage station was built just to the east of the main railway depot, and was used by the American Railway Express Company for several years in the 1920s.


The original railroad depot had a general waiting room, as well as a separate waiting room for ladies only. Two marble drinking fountains were located near the waiting rooms in the original building.  The article in the Register stated that this new structure was “a credit to the city in point of architecture and improvement.”  The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Depot in Sandusky was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Today it is served by Amtrak’s Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited routes. Below is a post card of the depot after the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad merged with New York Central.


Rail transportation has been vital to Sandusky for many years. Ground was broken for the pioneer Mad River Railroad in Sandusky in 1835.

                     
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St. John’s Chapel of Grace Episcopal Church

December 4, 2014, 5:00 am
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Pictured above is a Sunday School group at St. John’s Chapel, an outreach site of Grace Episcopal Church. The photograph was taken between 1900 and 1910. All the children are dressed in their Sunday best, and the pastor and several other adults are standing behind the Sunday School students. The 1905 Sanborn Mapactually shows two buildings associated with the St. John’s Chapel. One was located on Clinton Street, and designated as the St. John’s Sunday School, while the St. John’s Chapel itself was located on West Monroe Street.


Grace Episcopal Church’s original church building was begun in 1835. A marker at the church states that the building is the oldest church building in continuous use in Sandusky. This post card shows the church before the towers were altered.

        

At the back of a history of Grace Church by Gordon Wendt, is a list of several outreach programs undertaken by Grace Episcopal Church. Under the leadership of Rev. S.A. Bronson, St. Ann’s Chapel was built in the area known as Camptown, on the east side of Sandusky. St. Mary’s Chapel was built in the 1850s on the west side of Sandusky and later became the Sunday School building for St. John’s Chapel. St. John’s Chapel was built in 1876 on West Monroe Street, and was in operation through the 1920s. St. Luke’s Chapel was built in 1881 on Hayes Avenue, between Tyler and Polk Street. It was sold in 1915 to the First Christian Church, and was home to that church for many years. Mr. Wendt wrote that Calvary Episcopal Church started out as a chapel, built in 1870-71 at First Street and Erie Street. In 1899-1900, Calvary’s building at Meigs and First Street was constructed.  Old Calvary Church now serves as a wedding venue. Visit the Sandusky Library to read more about the history of Grace Episcopal Church, and many other local churches. The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center holds many reels of microfilmed church records.
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WLEC Radio Began Broadcasting in 1947

December 7, 2014, 12:01 pm
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Now a part of BAS Broadcasting Ohio, WLEC Radio began broadcasting on December 7, 1947. At that time WLEC was operated by the Lake Erie Broadcasting Company, an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System. The premiere broadcast on WLEC featured a program which commemorated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.



This picture was taken on the first anniversary of WLEC Radio in 1948. From left to right are: Bill Frankel, Al Heiser, John Kohler, Marie Pascoe, Father Hartman, Ed Gangware, Karl Whinnery and Jay Wagner.


 Marie Pascoe is seen on the left side in the picture below. In the 1950s, she narrated radio programs on WLEC Radio using the name NancyLake.




Jay Wagner and Dan Appel are on either side of the Landes twins during a WLEC broadcast.

  
 In 1958 WLEC Radio took its mobile studio the dedication of the CityBuilding.


Below is a picture of WLEC Radio staff from the 1970s.




Do you have any special memories of listening to WLEC Radio?
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Barber Shops in Sandusky

December 10, 2014, 11:47 am
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According to the July 1888 issue of the Firelands Pioneer, the first barber shop in Sandusky was operated by Grant Ritchie, an African American who was also active in the Underground Railroad in the Sandusky area, a network of individuals who aided fugitive slaves find their way to freedom in Canada. In the 1850s, most of the barber shops in Sandusky were in the downtown area of the city. Though the picture below is not in color, the J. and F. Bock Barber Shop, located at 812 Water Street in 1886, featured the familiar red, white, and blue pole in front of the shop. The red and white pole (with blue usually added in American poles) has long been a symbol of the barber’s trade.


The 1902 Sandusky City Directory listing for barber shops included the names of thirty three barbers. Harry Parker’s barber shop was in the Sloane House hotel at that time. In the first part of the twentieth century, several hotels in Sandusky had their own barber shops for the convenience of their guests. Barbershops were found in the West House, Commercial Hotel, Murschel House, Hotel Rieger, the Wayne Hotel and the Hotel Breakers at Cedar Point. Below is a photograph of Jerry McMahon’s barber shop in the Hotel Rieger about 1935. Jerry McMahon is on the right. The other barbers in the picture are: Bill Foley, Chet Martin, and Bill Wells. Charles Alexander, in the back of the shop, worked as a shoeshine porter.



John Martin Luipold worked as a barber in Sandusky for over sixty years. In this picture of his barber shop on Hayes Avenue in 1915, you can see a wooden rack holding the shaving  mugs of several of his regular customers.


Today, Sandusky still has several traditional barber shops, though some hair styling businesses cater to both male and female customers. The Acme Barber Shop on Columbus Avenue (below, in 1922) has operated under various owners since 1901.


To read more about the history of barbers in Sandusky, see Article 40 in volume two of From the Widow's Walk, by Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann.
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