Commercial Building at the Southeast Corner of Market and Wayne Streets

This picture of the Bing’s Furniture Store at 202 East Market Street was taken by Helen Hansen in 1983. At that time the building recently had a face-lift which included the addition of shutters over the upper level windows, and sandblasting of the exterior brick. This commercial building was built by Sandusky contractor George W. Doerzbach in the Spring of 1894. It originally was a one hundred foot square brick structure. An article in the Sandusky Register of March 30, 1894 reported that the foundations of the building were blasted out of the stone bedrock. The stone that was blasted was then used in the basement and the first floor. Klotz and Kromer provided the engines that drove the elevator. A tin roof was put in by J. Mertz and Son, and the interior painting was done by Holland and Tebbutt. Total cost was $40,000 (about $1.2 million today). 

Here is an illustration from the Sandusky Register which depicts the building as it originally appeared:

 From the Sandusky Register, Mar. 30, 1894

The basement was leased to Engels and Krudwig, who pressed 400 tons of grapes in the fall of 1893, while the construction was still ongoing. In April of 1894, the J.L. Hudson Store opened at this location, after having previously done business in the Hubbard Block. The J.L. Hudson Company, which had its headquarters in Detroit, claimed that their store was the largest and finest in Erie County.

The April 9, 1894 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that at Hudson's grand opening, Professor Theodore Taubert’s orchestra provided musical entertainment, and potted plants and ferns decorated the store. Mr. J.L. Hudson himself arrived from Detroit to be present at the opening of his store’s newest location. The store sold men’s clothing and hats, women’s apparel and dry goods. J.P. Hicks was the manager. Mr. Hudson died on July 5, 1912, and soon after, in the summer of 1913, articles in the Sandusky Register announced that the Sandusky store would soon be closing. 

For a short time, John J. Healy operated a retail store at the site of the former J.L. Hudson store. Jacob H. Herman sold furniture and carpets here for many years, until the Bing Furniture moved in to this site in the 1940s. Since 1987, Value City Furniture has been in business at the southeast corner of Market and Wayne Streets in Sandusky. 

*In January 2025, Value City announced it was going out of business. The future of the building is presently unknown.

J.H. Herman Carried the Columbia Grafonola for Christmas, 1919

In December, 1919, the J.H. Herman store sold the Columbia Grafonola. The grafonola was a type of phonograph which was used to play recorded music. In the 1920s, the grafonola was popular with music teachers all across the U.S. In the book The Grafonola in the Class Room, the Columbia Graphophone Company pointed out that music helped to cultivate contentment, faith, hope and love, and brought people together from all walks of life.

In the December 12, 1920 issue of the Sandusky Register, an advertisement from the J.H. Herman Company showed several models of Grafonolas. A special Grafonola Christmas Club offered customers a plan in which payments could be made over time.

The J.H. Herman Company was Sandusky’s “largest furniture store” for many years. It was at the southeast corner of Market and Wayne Streets in Sandusky from about 1906 until the late 1940s, when Mr. Herman moved his furniture store out to Cleveland Road. By 1948 Bing’s Furniture was at the site of the former J.H. Herman furniture store. Since the late 1980s, Value City Furniture has been in business at this location.