A Look Back at Area Depots

Ernst Niebergall took this picture of the New York Central Depot in Sandusky in 1920. This depot still stands today, where it also serves as home to the Sandusky Transit System. 

From the late 1800s until 1938, a depot for the interurban lines was located at Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home (now the Ohio Veterans Home.)

  

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railway built a small depot in Bay Bridge, Ohio in the 1870s. A telegraph office was also at this location for many years.

                                      

Greyhound’s bus depot was on Columbus Avenue in 1939, between Joe Weske’s barber shop and Weber’s men’s clothing store. Newspapers were also sold at the bus depot.

To view more vintage pictures of Sandusky and Erie County, visit the website of the Sandusky Library’s Past Perfect Local History Archives.

George W. Paine, Railroad Agent

George W. Paine was the freight agent for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, and its successor the New York Central, for almost fifty years. From the early 1880s until the family moved to California in 1922, Mr. and Mrs. George W. Paine lived in Sandusky, Ohio. Mr. Paine served as the organist for the Congregational Church, and Mrs. Paine was active in the Martha Pitkin Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. During the Civil War, he served in Company D of the 101^st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. When Fremont and other cities in northern Ohio were affected by severe flooding in March of 1913, Agent Paine worked with local officials and organizations to transport food, clothing and other supplies over the New York Central railroad lines at no cost.

       

Local citizens and community organizations gathered supplies in a room at the Hubbard building on Water Street. A special car from the New York Central Railroad took the supplies to Fremont on March 27, 1913. Sandusky’s Company B, Sixth Regiment of the Ohio National Guard was also ordered to duty to assist in providing aid to flood victims.

Friends and family met at the New York Central station in August, 1922 to see the Paine family off to their new home in California. George W. Paine died in California on March 3, 1926. He was long remembered for his many years of service and leadership during his long career with the railroad in Sandusky.

The Bustling Waterfront in Sandusky in the 1910s

This photograph of a busy day in downtown Sandusky’s waterfront district was taken in the 1910s. The steamer “R.B. Hayes” was docked at the Cedar Point pier, while the “Arrow” was out in Sandusky Bay, most likely heading towards Cedar Point.  A third vessel, the “Ottawa,”  is on the western side of the Cedar Point pier. Several people are located near the train, including some local policemen. In this closer view, you can see a Penny Arcade located near the pier, as vacationers head towards the boarding area. 

On the very right side of the full picture, you can see the steps on the side of the Post, Lewis & Radcliffe building, now 101 East Water Street. In the view below, you can read the words New York Central Lines on the U.S. mail car number 105.

In the close-up view below, the abbreviation CCC & STL appears on the locomotive. The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the “BigFour” was an affiliate of the New York Central System for much of the first half of the twentieth century.

The foot of Columbus Avenue in Sandusky has long been the  hub of activity and transportation center, especially during the warm weather months. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. to learn much more about the history of Sandusky and Erie County. 

The New York Central Railroad in Sandusky

The history of railroads that operated in Sandusky is a long story involving many mergers and acquisitions. On September 17, 1835, ground was broken in Sandusky for the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. This line was a predecessor of the “Big Four” Railroad, which was active in Sandusky in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In 1906 the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad acquired the Big Four (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company), and in 1914, the company changed its name to the New York Central System. That same year, the New York Central merged with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway to form the New York Central Railroad. Below is an undated postcard of the New York Central crossing Sandusky Bay, just north of Medusa Cement in Bay Bridge.

  

You will recall that in an earlier blog post, we learned that the Amtrak Station was originally built for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, and was used by the New York Central for many years.

In 1968 the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the Penn Central, which went bankrupt by 1970.

From the 1920s through the 1960s, members of the Lake Shore Pioneer Chapter, New York Central Veterans, had reunions at Cedar Point. Below is a picture of a souvenir plate from the 1934 Reunion of the Lake Shore Pioneer Chapter of New York Central Veterans, now in the collections of the Follett House Museum.

                

In the Twin Anniversary Edition of the Sandusky Register Star News, dated November 24, 1947, Paul Laning provides a history of Steam Railroads in Erie County, up to that point in time. For more information about railroads in Ohio, there area number of books available for loan through the ClevNet system at the Sandusky Library.

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.

Employees of Sandusky’s American Railway Express Company in 1927

Pictured above are several employees of the American Railway Express Company in 1927 near the New York Central Railroad Depot.  At that time, there were two offices of the company in Sandusky, one on East Water Street, and one at the New York Central Railroad’s passenger depot, located on the south side of North Depot Street, between Hayes Avenue and Camp Street. The only individual who has been identified is Chester Piper, who is the fourth individual from the right. In the picture below, you can see the railroad depot in the background.

The American Railway Express Agency was created in 1917, when the U.S. government consolidated several of the country’s already existing express companies. The United States Railroads purchased the American Express Agency in 1929, and its name was changed to Railway Express Agency. Later known as REA Express, the company ceased operations in the mid-1970s.