Sandusky Has Loved Parades

With Sandusky's Bicentennial Parade soon to become part of history, it's a good time to share the stories of other parades in our history.

Pictured above is a scene from downtown Sandusky when Company B of the Sixth Ohio Regiment returned from the Spanish American War in May of 1899. Here is another view of the parade:

Parades have been held in Sandusky since the early days of the city. According to History of Erie County, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, (D. Mason and Co., 1889), Washington Square was originally appropriated as a “public ground, parade and walk.” In the 1840s, members of the local militia drilled on Washington Square, accompanied by fife and drums. On Saint Patrick’s Day in 1844, a joint parade was sponsored by the Sons of the Emerald Isle and Washington Total Abstinence Society, "in celebration of the principles of temperance."

The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center has pictures of several parades in Sandusky's history. On April 30, 1938, thousands of people celebrated the 150th anniversary of the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which established the territory that included the future state of Ohio.  In the picture below, parade participants are seen proceeding north on Columbus Avenue.

      

At that time a Walgreen drugstore was located in the Cooke Block at the northeast corner of Columbus Avenue and East Market Street, and the S.S. Kresge store was on the southeast corner. 

A parade held in conjunction with the Buckeye League Band and Orchestra Festival took place in Sandusky on May 6, 1938. A band marched down Jackson Street; the Hotel Rieger is to the east and the Plaza Theater to the west.

A double feature was playing at the Plaza that day: I Was a Spy and Accidents Will Happen, starring future U.S. President Ronald Reagan. In 1938, our grandparents would probably never have guessed that Reagan would one day be the President.

Many local residents will recall when Gray Drugs was a busy store in downtown Sandusky, where the parking garage is now located. The Armed Forces Day parade was held on May 16, 1959.

Some of you may have attended this parade, which honored Jackie Mayer, Miss America of 1963.

   

Photographer Thomas Root took an aerial view of the Miss America Homecoming Parade held in November 1962. Providence Hospital was under construction at this time, seen on the right side of the picture above. 

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the history of Sandusky and Erie County. You may also browse through our historical photograph collection online.