Now home to a legal office, real estate management
company, and space for inside storage, the brick building at 1408 Central
Avenue has been a commercial building in Sandusky for several decades. In the
1896 Erie County Atlas, this location was listed as a bonded warehouse. An article in the January 20, 1899 issue of the Sandusky Star reported that the officers
of the Sandusky Warehouse Company had purchased the bonded warehouse on Central
Avenue, which had previously been owned by Hugo Engels, a local wine dealer. From 1916 to 1919, Sandusky city directories
list the property at 1408 Central Avenue as a Special Bonded Warehouse for the
Internal Revenue Service. In this image from the Sanborn Map, you can see that
the property at 1408 Central wraps around to the 800 block of Polk Street.
An advertisement which appeared in the May 4, 1919
issue of the Sandusky Register reported that the Arbogust Garage was Sandusky’s
“newest, largest, completely equipped garage.” It was located at the former
site of the bonded warehouse at Central Avenue and Polk Street.
From the 1920s through the 1940s, 1408 Central
Avenue was home to a variety of automobile related businesses. From 1950 to
1969, Sears and Roebuck had a warehouse at 1408 Central Avenue. In a local
newspaper ad in 1950, Sandusky customers were urged to “follow the crowd” to
the big Sears warehouse sale at 1408 Central Avenue and Polk Street. A map from
the downtown Sears store to the warehouse was included in the advertisement in
the June 14, 1950 issue of the Sandusky
Register.
During the 1970s, property was vacant for some
years, and a pharmaceutical company which sold vitamin products was in business
there for a few years. From the very late 1970s until about 2000, the Warehouse
Gift and Gun Shop were in business at 1410 Central Avenue, while 1408 Central
served as a warehouse for the shops. Many
of the commercial buildings in Sandusky have been home to a variety of
businesses through the years. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research
Center to see Sanborn Maps, county histories, and historical Sandusky city
directories to learn more about our community’s past.
No comments:
Post a Comment