Early Apartment Buildings in Sandusky

Though not all the apartment buildings are still in existence, many of the named apartments buildings listed in the 1941 Sandusky City Directory are still providing homes for Sandusky residents. Pictured above is the Ramsey Apartment building located at 335 Central Avenue.

The Erie Apartments at 1517 Columbus Avenue were built in 1919 for employees of the Erie Tire and Rubber Company. Though the company was only in Sandusky for a few years, the apartment building still stands.  The apartment building at 515 West Washington Street was once the home of the William T. Townsend family.

Mentions of apartment buildings often appeared in the society pages of the local newspapers. The Sandusky Star Journal of March 28, 1911 reported that Mrs. John Renner had recently been hostess to the Fortnightly Club in her apartment at the Feick Flats, and Mrs. W.H. Nolte served an elegant lunch when the L.G.A. met at her apartment at the Willdred. 

At least two of the buildings from the 1941 listing have been named to the National Register of Historic Places, the Willdred Flats and the Mertz apartments. The apartments at 310-303 East Washington Street were listed as the Converse-Mertz Apartments in the National Register.

According to the Ohio Historic Places Dictionary (Somerset Publishers Inc., 1999), the Greek Revival style apartment building was built by Charles Converse, an early dry goods merchant in Sandusky. Andrianna Van Deusen purchased the property about 1867, and ran it as a boarding house. Sandusky businessman John Mertz purchased the building in 1912 and remodeled it. The property remained in the Mertz family until the 1960s.

Of course today, there are many more choices in apartment living in Sandusky, including several high rise buildings, and the recently converted buildings such as the Cheapeake Lofts and the Rieger Loft. Visit the Sandusky Library, to view historic Sandusky City Directories, to learn more about the residents of our city in years gone by.

Willdred Apartments

The Willdred Apartments were constructed in 1906-1907, in the classical revival style of architecture. The Willdred Apartment building can be seen below in a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, on Columbus Avenue, between Scott and Finch Streets.

The front steps lead up to an entrance porch. On either side of the porch are two columns which support balconies on the upper two levels of the building. Several sets of triple windows on three sides of the Willdred Apartments allow for plenty of natural light.

H. Roger Grant wrote in his book Getting Around: Exploring Transportation History (Krieger Pub. Co., 2003), that the three story apartment building was conveniently located near the lines of the Lake Shore Electric Railway. Anyone who resided at the Willdred could travel in and out of Sandusky easily on the interurban. An advertisement in the May 12, 1928 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal listed the rent at the Willdred at $25.00 per month. This included five rooms and a bathroom, which was “modern with furnace.”  Local newspapers frequently mentioned the Willdred Apartments, sometimes known as the Willdred Flats, in the society pages. In January of 1908, the Art Study Club held its first meeting of the year at the apartment of Mrs. E.W. Altstaetter in the Willdred. In 1920, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs Jay Cohn held a Japanese lawn party at the Willdred. Japanese lanterns decorated the lawn as several young people enjoyed the latest dance steps. On March 11, 1993, the Willdred Apartment building was named to the National Register of Historic Places.