1932 Map of the City of Sandusky

This map of Sandusky from 1932 was featured in an Erie County Directory.

An ad for the former Caswell Auto and Machine Co., which was located on Jackson Street, advertises service to R.C.A. radios, besides storing and repairing automobiles and selling oil, gasoline, and other supplies. Individual names of railroads are labeled on the map, including the B & O, New York Central, Lake Erie & Western, and the C.C. C. and St. Louis Railroad.

There is not yet a golf course near Mills Creek, but the Woodlawn Golf Course is shown between Old Railroad and Hayes Avenue, just south of Perkins Avenue. St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s Cemeteries, found on opposite sides of Mills Street, are called the “German Cemetery” and the “Irish Cemetery,” though certainly people of many different ethnic backgrounds were buried in each.

There are no Perkins or Sandusky Plazas in 1932, and the map contains considerably fewer streets than a current map of the city. A few streets that still exist had different names in the 1930s, e.g., 52nd Street was called Austin Street, and Huntington Street was also known as Roosevelt Street.

Pictured below is a photograph from the Woodlawn Golf Course, which opened in 1931. The golf course only lasted about a year, due to financial difficulties. Mel Carrier was the golf pro (third person on the right). An old ad offered customers the opportunity to “play on velvet greens.”

Pictured below are: John Rheinegger, owner, Boyd Hamrick, and Chester Bohn, greenskeeper.

Woodlawn Golf Course in Sandusky in the 1930s

The Woodlawn Golf Course opened at the corner of Camp Street and Perkins Avenue on May 30, 1931. The clubhouse was built by Miller Brothers, of Venice, Ohio. The firm of Opfer and Faber ran thousands of feet of tile, to provide adequate drainage for the golf course. Green fees were $1.00 for weekdays, and $1.25 on Sundays and holidays. On opening day, there were exhibition matches between Ed Windisch and Mel Carrier, and between Miss Polly Smith and Mrs. Cecil Laird. Pictured above are Mrs. Locke, Harley Hane, and Mel Carrier, the golf pro at Woodlawn. 

Several advertisements and announcements about the opening of the Woodlawn Golf Course appeared in the Sandusky Register of May 30, 1931.

The Manhattan store in Sandusky sold clothes that would make golfers “dress well” for the sport. Holzaepfel’s ran special sales on golf balls and golf clubs. 

In the snapshot below are: Mr. John Rheinegger, owner; Boyd Hamrick; and Chester Bohn, greenskeeper.

This is the Number 4 Fairway:

In the Spring of 1936, Charles Stamm took over the Woodlawn Golf Course as the manager and golf pro. During this economically-troubled era business declined, so that by 1938 and 1939 circuses were held on the grounds of the former golf course. This ad for the Parker and Watts Circus was featured in the Sandusky Star Journal of May 22, 1939.

Eventually, with the help of the Depression-era WPA, a new municipal golf course was created on the west side of Sandusky. An article in the May 20, 1940 issue of the Sandusky Register announced the dedication of the Mills Creek Golf Course. (The name is derived from the Honorable Isaac Mills, one of the founders of Sandusky.)