Businesses on Tiffin Avenue

The 1855 Sandusky City Directory lists several businesses on Tiffin Avenue, including a barber, cooper, blacksmith, and a grocer. David Bruckner and Florian Ulmer had a blacksmith shop on Tiffin Avenue near Monroe Street in the 1880s.

Mrs. Conrad Frank’s bakery was located first at Tiffin Avenue, but later moved to Columbus Avenue.

The Kuebeler brewing plant was built on Tiffin Avenue near Broadway Street in 1893, after the previous brewery was destroyed in a fire. In 1896 the Kuebeler and Stang breweries merged to form the Kuebeler-Stang Brewing Company. Two years later the Kuebeler- Stang Brewery became part of the Cleveland and Sandusky Brewing Company. Most of the breweries in Sandusky closed during Prohibition. One of the Kuebeler-Stang plants survived by making soft drinks, but it too closed in 1935, and all remaining beer production moved to Cleveland.

The Industrial Nut Corporation, which began as the Brightman Nut and Manufacturing Company, has been located on Tiffin Avenue for one hundred years.

George J. Bing built carriages at his garage on Tiffin Avenue in the early twentieth century, before his untimely death in 1914.

Many businesses have come and gone (and many still remain) on Tiffin Avenue, including Kerber’s Marine Grocery, Pietschman’s Shoes, and a variety of restaurants, gas stations, drugstores, and other businesses. A major Erie County employer, Ford Motor Company, now known as Automotive Components Holdings, opened an assembly plant on Tiffin Avenue in 1955. The picture below shows local Ford employees working in the 1960s.

Aerial View of Tiffin Avenue Around 1950

This aerial view of the area surrounding the intersection of Tiffin Avenue and the New York Central Railroad, in Sandusky’s west end was taken about 1950. At the very bottom left of the picture is a “Tourist Court,” according to the 1950 Sandusky City Directory. This later was known as Hopper’s Mobile Home Park. The New York Centrail railroad tracks can be seen just north of the mobile home park. Tiffin Avenue intersects with the railroad, in the lower half of the picture, forming an X. Traveling in a northeastern direction along Tiffin Avenue, the Brightman Nut and Manufacturing Company, now known as Industrial Nut Corporation, is visible. Directly across from Brightman Nut, you can see the old Coca Cola bottling company, near the current location of the Juvenile Justice Center. Continuing northeast on Tiffin Avenue are the former homes of Jacob and August Kuebeler, at 1318 and 1319 Tiffin Avenue. In 1950, the Erie County Detention Home was located at 1319 Tiffin Avenue, and Mrs. Anna Schade, the daughter of Jacob Kuebeler was still living at 1318 Tiffin Avenue. Dick’s Carry Out is currently located at 1318 Tiffin Avenue. Other landmarks on the aerial picture are the coal docks, seen at the top of the picture, and Mills Creek, to the east of Brightman Nut. The smokestack from the former G and C Foundry is visible at the very left side of the picture.

See a previous blog post to view aerial photographs taken by Tom Root.