Early Apartment Buildings in Sandusky

Though not all the apartment buildings are still in existence, many of the named apartments buildings listed in the 1941 Sandusky City Directory are still providing homes for Sandusky residents. Pictured above is the Ramsey Apartment building located at 335 Central Avenue.

The Erie Apartments at 1517 Columbus Avenue were built in 1919 for employees of the Erie Tire and Rubber Company. Though the company was only in Sandusky for a few years, the apartment building still stands.  The apartment building at 515 West Washington Street was once the home of the William T. Townsend family.

Mentions of apartment buildings often appeared in the society pages of the local newspapers. The Sandusky Star Journal of March 28, 1911 reported that Mrs. John Renner had recently been hostess to the Fortnightly Club in her apartment at the Feick Flats, and Mrs. W.H. Nolte served an elegant lunch when the L.G.A. met at her apartment at the Willdred. 

At least two of the buildings from the 1941 listing have been named to the National Register of Historic Places, the Willdred Flats and the Mertz apartments. The apartments at 310-303 East Washington Street were listed as the Converse-Mertz Apartments in the National Register.

According to the Ohio Historic Places Dictionary (Somerset Publishers Inc., 1999), the Greek Revival style apartment building was built by Charles Converse, an early dry goods merchant in Sandusky. Andrianna Van Deusen purchased the property about 1867, and ran it as a boarding house. Sandusky businessman John Mertz purchased the building in 1912 and remodeled it. The property remained in the Mertz family until the 1960s.

Of course today, there are many more choices in apartment living in Sandusky, including several high rise buildings, and the recently converted buildings such as the Cheapeake Lofts and the Rieger Loft. Visit the Sandusky Library, to view historic Sandusky City Directories, to learn more about the residents of our city in years gone by.