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Louis Pesha was a photographer who was well known for his photographs of the Great Lakes area in the early twentieth century. The Pesha Postcard Company was located in Marine City, Michigan.
Pictured below is a Pesha postcard of Scott Park in downtown Sandusky. Scott Park was the original home of the Boy with the Boot statue, along with two maids of the mist statues.
The Erie County Courthouse can be seen in the postcard below, which features a fountain in Washington Park.
The steamer G.A. Boeckling is just one of the many Great Lakes vessels photographed by Louis Pesha. The G.A. Boeckling was christened on June 12, 1909, and transported guests to Cedar Point until 1951.
Tragically, on October 1, 1912 Mr. Pesha died in an automobile accident as he was traveling to visit his childhood home in Euphemia, Ontario.
4 comments:
This entry states that the steamer G.A. Boekling was used until the end of the 1952 season. However the entry of June 26, 2014 states that it was used only till the end of the 1951 season. I certainly should not to have to ask this question as I probably rode that fine old vessel on one its very last trips across our bay; perhaps on its very last day of service. Could you clarify however, when that beautiful ship was last used? I would have been a junior at SHS in 52, and seem to recall riding it that summer. How I have come to love this website!
Yes, you are correct. The last service of the Boeckling was in September 1951. It was lost and moved from Sandusky in July 1952, which probably explains the reason for our mistake of writing 1952.
I don't know how I managed to write "lost" when I meant to write "sold." The Boeckling was sold and moved from Sandusky in 1952.
No matter how you say it, it was a loss. As a boy, I remember how fascinated I was when watching that massive engine in operation. From the lower deck, it was possible to look over a rail right into the open engine room below. To a young boy it was especially enormous, and wondrous in size and operation. Changes in maritime laws and crew requirements increased the cost of operation beyond practicality. Surely age was also a factor. Truly a loss though.
That year I had a summer job in the one hundred block of Columbus Ave., and watched our fine memory as it was towed away on that July day.
The Boekling was the last side-wheeler on the Great Lakes, though I did get a ride on one up the Hudson River from NYC to Poughkeepsie in about 71. The Alexander Hamilton I think. Larger than the Boekling; with no open engine room.
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