The Terminal Inn, on the Downtown Waterfront

In May of 1903 the Terminal Inn opened in downtown Sandusky at the foot of Columbus Avenue, close to the passenger steamer docks and railroad tracks. The Inn featured a cigar store, café, and a large waiting area for visitors to Sandusky. The proprietors of the Terminal Inn were Adam Stoll and William Finley. You can see visitors peering over the balcony of the Terminal Inn in the close up view below.

In the early hours on the morning on June 21, 1904, a massive fire destroyed almost an entire block of Sandusky’s waterfront, north of Railroad Street (now Shoreline Drive) from the Jackson Street slip to the Columbus Avenue slip. Over $150,000 worth of property was destroyed (about $4 million in today's value), including the Terminal Inn, Booth Fish Company, and a building owned by the Gilcher and Schuck Lumber Company. Detailed accounts of the fire appeared in the Sandusky Register and the Sandusky Star, now available on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Though the Terminal Inn was in business in Sandusky for a short time, a plate depicting the Terminal Inn and Sandusky’s waterfront is now housed in the collections of the Follett House Museum. Mrs. Marjorie Owings, longtime staff member of Sandusky Library, donated the plate to the museum.