Advertising Fan from the Tavern Restaurant and Service Station

A young lady wearing a bathing suit is pictured on this fan that was once a promotional item given away by the Tavern Restaurant and Service Station. (Hand fans were a popular promotional item in the days before air conditioning was common.) On the reverse side, more information is given about the business, which was located at 2350 Cleveland Road West, on Sandusky’s east side.

The Tavern Service Station sold Shell products and provided oil changes. The Tavern Restaurant gave special attention to parties with "no cover charge." An article in the July 22, 1931 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that the “super service” station and restaurant was to officially open on July 23, 1931. The article stated that it was “perhaps the finest filling station and restaurant on the highway between Cleveland and Detroit.” The site was chosen because of its location on a state route between Cleveland and Toledo, and automobile transportation was expected to be on the increase at that time. 

In 1931, Theresa Fuchs was in charge of the kitchen, under the direction of Frank Burich. J.J. Kaman was the proprietor of the service station.

The public was invited to inspect the “ultra modern station - - dedicated to the service of the traveling public.”

By 1945, the business became known as the Red Gables and was managed by Del Noyes. Today, Jack’s Deli and the Red Gables Mesquite Grill are in business at the location of the former Tavern Service Station and Restaurant. If you look carefully you can still see the spot where the gas pumps once stood.

Fuchs Grocery Store and Fuchs Hall

In the 1890 Sandusky City Directory, Charles P. Fuchs was listed as a partner with his mother Mary Fuchs in the grocery business at 781 Fulton Street in Sandusky, now 702 West Monroe Street.  Charles’ father Joseph had previously run a grocery store at the corner of Fulton and Fox Streets. The name Fuchs is translated into Fox in the English language. Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann wrote in an article that appeared in the November 7, 1993 issue of the Sandusky Register that Joseph Fuchs/Fox had platted lots on the west side of Fulton Street, south of Monroe Street. That area was known as “Foxtown” and once featured a German beer garden. From about 1906 through the mid-1930s, the upper floor of the Fox Grocery was known as Fuchs Hall, or Fox Hall. 

This hall was a popular meeting place for the German Singing Society and the Low German Mutual Aid Society, as well as for card parties and dancing lessons. In 1916 the First Spiritual Reform Church met weekly at Fuchs Hall. Charles P. Fuchs died in 1934, and in 1935, a fire did considerable damage to Fuchs Hall. You will recognize the location of the Fuchs Grocery and Fuchs Hall at the southwest corner of Fulton and Monroe Streets as the longtime home of Cameo Pizza.