Historic Building at 1408 Central Avenue

Now home to a legal office, real estate management company, and space for inside storage, the brick building at 1408 Central Avenue has been a commercial building in Sandusky for several decades. In the 1896 Erie County Atlas, this location was listed as a bonded warehouse. An article in the January 20, 1899 issue of the Sandusky Star reported that the officers of the Sandusky Warehouse Company had purchased the bonded warehouse on Central Avenue, which had previously been owned by Hugo Engels, a local wine dealer.  From 1916 to 1919, Sandusky city directories list the property at 1408 Central Avenue as a Special Bonded Warehouse for the Internal Revenue Service. In this image from the Sanborn Map, you can see that the property at 1408 Central wraps around to the 800 block of Polk Street.

An advertisement which appeared in the May 4, 1919 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that the Arbogust Garage was Sandusky’s “newest, largest, completely equipped garage.” It was located at the former site of the bonded warehouse at Central Avenue and Polk Street.

From the 1920s through the 1940s, 1408 Central Avenue was home to a variety of automobile related businesses. From 1950 to 1969, Sears and Roebuck had a warehouse at 1408 Central Avenue. In a local newspaper ad in 1950, Sandusky customers were urged to “follow the crowd” to the big Sears warehouse sale at 1408 Central Avenue and Polk Street. A map from the downtown Sears store to the warehouse was included in the advertisement in the June 14, 1950 issue of the Sandusky Register.

During the 1970s, property was vacant for some years, and a pharmaceutical company which sold vitamin products was in business there for a few years. From the very late 1970s until about 2000, the Warehouse Gift and Gun Shop were in business at 1410 Central Avenue, while 1408 Central served as a warehouse for the shops.  Many of the commercial buildings in Sandusky have been home to a variety of businesses through the years. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to see Sanborn Maps, county histories, and historical Sandusky city directories to learn more about our community’s past.