Looking Towards Sandusky Bay from St. Mary’s Steeple, Circa 1920

Robert Frank donated this photograph which features the view from the steeple of St. Mary’s Church, looking down Central Avenue towards Sandusky Bay about 1920.  Many landmarks (some no longer standing) are visible in the picture. At the top left of the picture is the Sloane House. To the right of the Sloane House (across Columbus Avenue) is the Kingsbury Block, shortly before a portion of it was replaced by the Commercial National Bank building. In the far distance, northeast of the Kingsbury Block, are storage silos and buildings in the waterfront district of Sandusky, close to the B & O Railroad tracks. The Erie County Courthouse is in the same location as it is today, but in 1920 it had not yet been remodeled in the Art Deco style, which was a WPA project in the 1930s.  You can see Sandusky High School to the east of the Courthouse, before it was expanded. (This building later became Adams Junior High School.) The steeple of Emmanuel Church is visible, at the northeast corner of Columbus Avenue and Adams Street. Only the rooftop of the Sandusky Library can be seen, opposite the Courthouse on Adams Street, which is very close to the Erie County Jail. A private residence and later Dr. J.D. Parker’s office, stood between the library and the jail for many years. At the upper right of the picture is the smokestack of the Water Works. Apartment buildings and businesses are seen along Central Avenue. The diagonal direction of Central Avenue forms a portion of the Masonic emblem. Hector Kilbourne laid the city of Sandusky out in the shape of the square and compasses of the Masonic emblem.

  

This historical marker in Washington Park honors Hector Kilbourne, the surveyor who laid out the original plat of Sandusky in 1816.