Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Frank, Bakery Owners

Caroline Beck Frank was born on May 18, 1850 in Baden, Germany to Johann Georg Beck and his wife, the former Margaretha Schlessman. Caroline Beck married Conrad Frank, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Heinrich Frank,  in Mosbach, Baden, Germany on January 9, 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Frank had three children,  born between 1873 and 1876. By 1880, the Frank family had emigrated to the United States, where they settled in Sandusky, Ohio. In 1882, Conrad Frank established a bakery at 140 Tiffin Avenue, where he also resided with his family. Mr. Frank is pictured below, in a page from the English translation of Sandusky “Einst und Jetzt.”

Conrad Frank died on April 8, 1894. Following his death, Mrs. Frank ran the family business. Below is a picture of a delivery wagon and three employees from Mrs. Frank’s bakery.

By 1888, the Frank bakery had moved to the northeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Neil Street.

When Mrs. Caroline Frank passed away on June 6, 1926, an article which appeared in the June 8, 1926 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that Mrs. Frank had been the oldest business woman in the city of Sandusky, and that she “met with unusual success” in her business. Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Frank were both laid to rest in Block 100 of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. The family bakery was run by Julius Frank and his wife, after his mother’s death.

Vintage Views of Bakeries in Sandusky

Before Amandus Smith, Sr. co-founded the H and S Modern Baking Company with Edward Hartzel in 1918, he operated a bakery at Tiffin and Pearl Streets in Sandusky.  Pictured below is a photograph of the H and S Modern Bakery on Hancock Street which was taken in 1920. Eventually the H and S Modern Baking Company had facilities at 625 Hancock Street, 221 East Monroe Street, and 244 Columbus Avenue. The company also had facilities at other locations in Sandusky through the years. The H and S Modern Baking Company continued in business in Sandusky into the early 1950s.

Conrad Frank founded a bakery business in Sandusky about 1882. After his death, Mrs. Conrad Frank continued to operate the bakery for thirty-four years, until shortly before she passed away in 1926.

Check out the loaf of bread from the Armbruster Bakery, which was in business in Sandusky in the 1920s.

John Armbruster and Sons Bakery was located at 1614 West Jefferson Street for most of the 1920s in Sandusky.

These are not the only bakeries that have existed in Sandusky through the years, but unfortunately we do not have photographs of every historic business in the area.  Visit the Sandusky Library to find listings of bakeries and many other businesses in the Sandusky City Directories, which date back to 1855.

Businesses on Tiffin Avenue

The 1855 Sandusky City Directory lists several businesses on Tiffin Avenue, including a barber, cooper, blacksmith, and a grocer. David Bruckner and Florian Ulmer had a blacksmith shop on Tiffin Avenue near Monroe Street in the 1880s.

Mrs. Conrad Frank’s bakery was located first at Tiffin Avenue, but later moved to Columbus Avenue.

The Kuebeler brewing plant was built on Tiffin Avenue near Broadway Street in 1893, after the previous brewery was destroyed in a fire. In 1896 the Kuebeler and Stang breweries merged to form the Kuebeler-Stang Brewing Company. Two years later the Kuebeler- Stang Brewery became part of the Cleveland and Sandusky Brewing Company. Most of the breweries in Sandusky closed during Prohibition. One of the Kuebeler-Stang plants survived by making soft drinks, but it too closed in 1935, and all remaining beer production moved to Cleveland.

The Industrial Nut Corporation, which began as the Brightman Nut and Manufacturing Company, has been located on Tiffin Avenue for one hundred years.

George J. Bing built carriages at his garage on Tiffin Avenue in the early twentieth century, before his untimely death in 1914.

Many businesses have come and gone (and many still remain) on Tiffin Avenue, including Kerber’s Marine Grocery, Pietschman’s Shoes, and a variety of restaurants, gas stations, drugstores, and other businesses. A major Erie County employer, Ford Motor Company, now known as Automotive Components Holdings, opened an assembly plant on Tiffin Avenue in 1955. The picture below shows local Ford employees working in the 1960s.