Postcards from the Echo Cafe

The Echo Cafe was established about 1901 by Julius Brengartner. It was located at 725 Market Street in its early years. After street numbers changed in Sandusky in 1915, the address became 201 West Market Street. An article in the October 4, 1921 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated the bar at the Echo was said to be one of the longest in Northern Ohio.

       

In the October 5, 1921 issue of the Sandusky Register, a brief article was entitled: “Echo Cafe a Thing of the Past After Today.” The article said that the son of Julius Brengartner, Ralph, had taken over the Echo after his father needed to give his full attention to his position with the Ulmer Mortgage Company in Pennsylvania. The Echo Cafe was purchased by Alex M. Wagner. The building where the Echo Cafe once stood is now a parking lot, but it was the site of a hardware store in the 1920s and 1930s, and later was home to B.F. Goodrich and City Loan. This vintage picture shows a portion of the Echo Cafe on West Market Street in the early twentieth century.

Another business called the Echo Tavern later operated on Columbus Avenue in Sandusky from about 1948 until the early 1980s.