Venice School

Mrs. Leona Zeller Fitz donated these pictures of students and teachers from Venice School to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Pictured above are over fifty elementary students who attended Venice School in the first quarter of the twentieth century. No students have been identified, but Mrs. Baum was the teacher on the left and Mrs. Kelley was the teacher standing on the right. 

In the picture below, Leona Zeller is marked with an x. Mr. D.W. Carlisle, a teacher at Venice School in 1915, is the tall man in the back row. Later, he became principal of Venice School. Many of the male students are wearing short pants, or "knickers," and most of the older boys have on hats.

Venice Heights Elementary School is now a part of the Sandusky City Schools system, but for many years Venice School was one of the schools in Margaretta Township. (The original Venice School was founded in 1818 on Venice Road near Cold Creek.) This map from the 1896 Erie County Atlas shows the location of the school at that time, just south of the railroad tracks along Sandusky Bay.

An article in the April 4, 1923 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that “a handsome new school building” in Venice was to be dedicated on April 5. At that time, Mr. D.W. Carlisle was the principal of Venice School, and he also taught grades 7 and 8. All the other teachers at Venice taught two grades as well. That new school building, no longer standing, was on Bardshar Road, a short distance away from Trinity Lutheran Church. In the 1950s and 1960s, during some years an entire grade held class in the basement of  Trinity Lutheran Church, because of over-crowding at Venice Elementary School.

Sandusky High School Class of 1913

Philip Weisberg is pictured below. Mr. Weisberg graduated from Sandusky High School
in 1913. He was an avid patron of the arts. Today, in the library, you will find his collection of art books, which he donated to the Sandusky Library. The Weisberg collection is shelved in the Lower Level of the library.

Two classmates of Philip Weisberg became authors. Corydon W. Bell authored several books, including The Wonder of Snow, Thunderstorm, and The Riddle of Time. In 1937 Emeline Baumeister was the co-author of a fourth grade reader entitled The King's Drum. A copy of this book is located in the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.

In 1916 three members of the Sandusky High School class of 1913 were attending the University of Michigan.
In this picture of the Sandusky Club at the University of Michigan, circa 1916, Philip Weisberg is number 8; Wilbur Schoepfle is number 10; and Elmer Wirth is number 13. (Norbert Lange, who translated Sandusky Then and Now is number 15.)

In the early 1950’s the Class of 1913 had a reunion at Cedar Point. Pictured below are three members of the class, identified only by their first names: Gertrude, Verna, and Miriam, with their former teacher Miss Taylor.
The Sandusky High School Alumni Directory lists the maiden names of these 1913 graduates as: Gertrude Sartoris, Verna Payne, and Miriam Fitz.