Stereographic Image of Downtown Sandusky

A.C. Platt created this stereograph card between 1877 and 1888. The photographer was looking north down Columbus Avenue toward Sandusky Bay. The former residence of Eleutheros Cooke can be seen at its original location at the northwest corner of Washington Row and Columbus Avenue. (Erie County offices are now at this location, which has a present day address of 247 Columbus Avenue.) Following the death of Mrs. Eleutheros Cooke in 1878, Rush Sloane acquired the Cooke home. Rush Sloane hired Jacob Biehl to take down the Cooke house and rebuild it at 1415 Columbus Avenue, as a wedding gift to Thomas M. Sloane and Sarah Cooke.

The Customs House and Post Office were located at the southwest corner of Columbus Avenue and Market Street, where a parking garage stands today. You can see the station of the United States Signal Service on top of the West House which overlooks Sandusky Bay. James R. Davies had an insurance real estate business at 222 Columbus Avenue, adjacent to the Cooke block on the northeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Market Street. Many other Sandusky businesses, banks, and public halls are also pictured on this image. Leroy Hinkey donated a collection of several stereographs and photographs to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.