Sanborn Maps, An Invaluable Historical Resource

 

The Sanborn Map Company published maps between 1867 and 1970 to help fire insurance companies determine potential risks for buildings in American cities. While their value for insurance policies has long ended, these maps serve a new purpose for historians and family history researchers. Precise locations of buildings and streets are included on the maps, as well as the types of construction materials used, water sources available, and how buildings were heated, among other information. While individual property owners are not usually given, researchers can find out the location of the homes and places of employment of their ancestors. 

At the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, Sanborn Maps can be accessed in a variety of formats. There are physical copies of the 1886 and 1905 atlases stored in the Archives, another atlas, with revisions into the 1950s, is also available for viewing. Microfilm roll 6885 contains copies of the 1886, 1893, and 1905 Sanborn Maps for Sandusky. And a digital collection of 40,000 Sanborn Maps of Ohio cities is accessible to Ohio library users through OPLIN Databases. This digital collection can be accessed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to holders of Ohio library cards. Some examples from this collection are below.

The J. Kuebeler and Company Brewery was located on the west side of Sandusky in 1886, on Tiffin Avenue.

This 1886 Sanborn Map shows locations of the Kuebeler brewery’s malt storage, fermenting unit and ice houses, along with many other details about the facility.

The Sandusky Library appeared on page 25 of the 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map.

In the original library building, the reading room in the east wing of the Carnegie building had a skylight, and a music hall was in the west wing, complete with an area for storing scenery. Notes indicate that the library was heated with steam heat.

The street names and house numbers found on the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps seem to come alive when one can locate photographs taken of a specific location. Below is a section of the 1893 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map which shows the corner of Monroe and Hancock Streets.

William Brehm had a dry goods store at 631 Hancock Street in 1893. The front window of Mr. Brehm’s store is visible in the picture below which also shows car number 9 of the Sandusky, Milan and Norwalk Electric Railway in 1893.

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Sandusky.

A Photographic Postcard from the Perry Centennial

This photographic postcard was taken at the time of the Perry's Victory Centennial which commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory at the Battle of Lake Erie. Sandusky’s celebration took place on September 8 and 9, 1913. Columbus Avenue was decorated with flags, lights, banners, and patriotic bunting. Visitors to the Perry Centennial arrived by the interurban electric railway and automobiles, and then boarded boats to travel Put in Bay on South Bass Island.

On the west side of Columbus Avenue, one of the shops on the street level of the West House hotel hung a banner promoting their services for the developing of Kodak camera prints.

A café and restaurant on the east side of the street were open for business to serve meals to the many visitors to Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands region.

The Lake Shore Electric Railway Co. transported people to Sandusky from all points on the system, which included Cleveland, Lorain, Elyria, Norwalk, Bellevue, Fremont, Toledo, and many stops in between, while the steamer Arrow made two trips daily to Put in Bay, Lakeside, Kelleys Island, and Middle Bass. 

Taking a closer look at this postcard allows us to see the energy and excitement that was associated with the celebration of this historic event. To learn more about the event, view the Official Souvenir Program of the Perry’s Victory Centennial, available online at the Internet Archive.

Postcard View of the Perry's Victory Centennial

This photographic postcard view of Columbus Avenue was taken at the time of the Perry's Victory Centennial which commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory in the Battle of Lake Erie. Sandusky’s celebration took place on September 8 and 9, 1913. Downtown Sandusky was decorated with flags, lights, banners, and patriotic bunting. Visitors to the Perry Centennial arrived by the interurban electric railway and automobiles, and then could board boats to Put in Bay on South Bass Island.

On the west side of Columbus Avenue, one of the shops on the street level of the West House hotel hung a banner promoting their services for the developing of Kodak camera prints.

A café and restaurant on the east side of Columbus Avenue were open for business to serve meals to the many visitors to Sandusky and the Lake Erie Islands region.

The Lake Shore Electric Railway Co. transported people to Sandusky from all points on the system, which included Cleveland, Lorain, Elyria, Norwalk, Bellevue, Fremont, Toledo, and many stops in between, while the steamer Arrow made two trips daily to Put in Bay, Lakeside, Kelleys Island, and Middle Bass Island. Taking a closer look at this postcard allows us to see the energy and excitement that was associated with the celebration of this historic event. The Official Souvenir Program of the Perry’s Victory Centennial is available online at the Internet Archive.

Early Transportation in Sandusky had Horse Power

In the 1820s  mail was delivered to Sandusky by the mail stage. Passengers, as well as the U.S. mail, were transported from Sandusky to Norwalk, Mansfield, Mount Vernon and on to Columbus and then back again. Of course, since Ohio was known as the Gateway State, many families traveled by horse and covered wagons through Ohio as they made their way to the west. People who traveled to Sandusky could board a steamer to several different port cities along the Great Lakes. 

Pioneer Sandusky residents recognized the importance of railroad transportation, and showed interest in railway lines being developed in Sandusky as early as 1826. Ground was broken for the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad in 1835; it began running from Sandusky to Bellevue in 1838, with trains pulled by the Sandusky Locomotive, the first locomotive with a steam whistle. Rail transportation made it easier for people to travel longer distances, and enabled the shipping of products, which in turn boosted local economies. 

In 1882 the first intra-city transportation route was begun by Charles and William H. Gilcher. It was known as the "herdic lines." Horse drawn passenger vehicles took people along three different local routes. The first route operated from the West House downtown to the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway depot on the south side of town. The second route traveled from the West House to Oakland Cemetery. The third route was an east-west route from the city’s waterworks to Tiffin and Mills Streets. The Sandusky Railway was  the first street railway in Sandusky. It was begun in 1883 by L.D. Alcott, and featured fourteen-passenger side-seat cars that were pulled by two-horse teams. The route was double tracked, and went from the West House to the depot on North Depot Street, and back to the West House. You can see several people gathered around Sandusky’s first streetcar in the picture below, taken in 1883 by W.A. Bishop.

    

J.O. Moss purchased the Sandusky Railway in 1885, and organized more lines across the city.  An article in the November 27, 1947 Twin Anniversary Edition of the Sandusky Register Star News,  reported that the first electric streetcar operated in Sandusky in 1889 from Scott Street to the Soldiers’ Home, and linked with a spur track from Hayes Avenue. The Peoples Electric Railway Line was built in 1890, with financial support mainly from Sandusky residents. The charter of the Sandusky, Milan and Huron Electric Railway, later the Sandusky, Milan and Norwalk Electric Railway, was applied for in 1892. The line began operating in May of 1893 and connected with the local Sandusky lines.

Eventually all the local streetcar lines were absorbed by the Lake Shore Electric Railway, which was replaced by bus service in the late 1930s. 

As automobiles became more popular, more area residents began to drive their own vehicles instead of relying on public transportation.

However, public transportation is once again available to Sandusky residents as well as visitors to the area aboard the Sandusky Transit System, which operates three lines in the immediate Sandusky area. Sandusky’s Amtrak station operates out of the depot originally built for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. Several area boat lines also provide service to Cedar Point and the Lake Erie Islands. You can read more about the history of transportation in Sandusky, Ohio in the book Sandusky’s Yesterdays, by Charles E. Frohman.

Interurban Car Barns on Columbus Avenue

The image above shows the old car barns in 1902, at 2610 Columbus Avenue in Perkins Township, just south of Perkins Avenue. The building was built by the Sandusky & Interurban in 1899 as a carhouse and power complex. In 1902, the car barns were in use by the Lake Shore Electric Railway. From 1960 to 1964, the Giant Tiger department store did business at this location. The company ran an advertisement in the January 5, 1961 issue of the Sandusky Register, thanking Sandusky residents for their warm welcome.

A huge fire destroyed the Giant Tiger store on the evening of March 1, 1964. 

A number of different businesses have been at 2610 Columbus Avenue through the years. Perkins Township’s Administrative Offices are now located there.

At Work in Sandusky and Erie County

The warm weather in the summer months in northern Ohio allows for workers in a variety of occupations to get work done that is not easily accomplished in the cold months of the winter season. Sandusky photographer W.A. Bishop took the photograph above on July 25, 1908. Employees of the Erie County Courthouse can be seen looking out at Case equipment used to improve roads in Erie County. About 1920, Joe Staffler, Henry Scheid, and Fred Staffler were working on an outside project with a wheelbarrow and shovels.

In the picture below, taken in the early part of the twentieth century, a group of six men are working on a handcart along the Lake Shore Electric Railway in Milan, Ohio.

In this undated postcard, several men can be seen alongside an engine of the New York Central Railroad.

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to view these and thousands of other historic photographs from Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio.

The Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk Electric Railway

Pictured below is Car No. 9 of the Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk Electric Railway, near the northwest corner of Monroe and Hancock Streets in Sandusky. William Brehm’s dry goods store is visible at the left. Notes with the original picture indicate that Walter Rieger is one of the boys in the photograph.

The Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk Electric Railway was in operation from Sandusky to Milan beginning in July of 1893. The line from Milan to Norwalk began running in September, 1893. The track connected with the Peoples Electric Railway in Sandusky. The electric railway car below is in Norwalk, Ohio.

In 1901 the Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk Electric Railway became part of the Lake Shore Electric Railway. The Lake Shore Electric Railway was closed out in 1938, with the Lake Shore Coach Co., a bus transportation facility taking its place. The Lake Shore Coach Co. was sold to Greyhound in 1949.

An earlier streetcar line in Sandusky, the Sandusky Street Railway Company, was drawn along the tracks by horse. Chapter XVII of Charles E. Frohman’s book Sandusky's Yesterdays, entitled “Trolley Days,” provides historical information about early transportation in Sandusky. A sixteen page illustrated booklet by R. G. Morrison, The Sandusky, Milan and Norwalk Electric Railway, is housed in the Transportation Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. To view this item, inquire at the Reference Services Desk in the lower level of the Sandusky Library.