When Button Shoes Were Sold in Sandusky

In the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century, a popular style of shoe was the button shoe. An interesting article appearing in the Sandusky Star newspaper of January 27, 1899 recommended this handy shoe button bag to keep on hand for when a button came loose from your shoe.

Below is a picture of one of the pair of high button shoes that Miss Evangeline Vinton wore when she married former Sandusky Mayor Charles Bouton in 1871. They are now housed in the historical collections of the Follett House Museum.

W.O. Stubig sold button shoes in both kid and patent leather in 1904.

Local shoe stores sold button hooks to help their customers fasten the buttons of their shoes, like this one from the Leo A. Sacksteder store on East Market Street in Sandusky in the 1910s.

Mr. Sacksteder placed an advertisement in the January 1916 issue of the Fram, stating that “Shoes for graduation must have character and style and what Sacksteder says is so.” At that time Sandusky High School had a winter graduating class as well as a June graduating class.

You can see the buttons on the shoes of young Steen L. Parker in this picture of the toddler, taken by C.W. Platt about 1911.

The two younger Ebert children in this picture are also wearing button shoes.

After World War I, the popularity of button shoes declined, as more and more people purchased ready-to-wear clothing and footwear. But the fashion was remembered in a unique way: on October 9, 1947, the show High Button Shoes opened on Broadway. It was a musical comedy set in 1913, when high button shoes were still a popular fashion item.