Wyandotte Point

An article in the October 12, 1919 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that real estate development had begun in an area known as Wyandotte Point, under the impetus of James J. Hinde, manager of the Sandusky Development Company. The area contained 30 acres of land adjacent to West Monroe Street, running from Sandusky Bay to land close to New York Central railroad tracks.  The name Wyandotte Point was a nod to the Native Americans who once lived in this vicinity. The plot was laid out prior to World War I, but government regulations prohibited new construction during the wartime years.

Homes were to be constructed for a cost of between 3000 and 7000 dollars ($47,000-$110,000 in today's dollars), with only single family residences to be built here for fifty years. Mr. Hinde was quoted in the Register article, “The time is right for extensive real estate development here. This is evident owing to the incoming of many manufacturing plants and the need for housing. Employees and officials must have dwellings. Another thing, as I see it, all modern home development must be in the suburbs. The tendency of home seekers is to withdraw from city surroundings into the more open and healthy country.”

The close proximity to Sandusky Bay and Winnebago Park were key factors for prospective buyers of homes in Wyandotte Point. A street car line took residents from Winnebago Park to Sandusky.

Notes on the picture below indicate that J.J. Hinde had these homes built on Gartland Avenue, which was close to the G and C Foundry, and namesake of one of the foundry's owners.

An advertisement in the Sandusky Register of November 26, 1919, told prospective owners of homes in this development that they could double their money in five years.

Winnebago Park is now known as Lions Park. In “The Follett House Scrapbook,” a feature in the August 23, 1987 issue of the Sandusky Register, Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann gave a brief history of Winnebago Park and Lions Park. The park was once included in the Wyandotte Point development.

In the 1920s through the 1950s, many family reunions were held at Winnebago Park, later known as Lions Park. The Sprau family gathered at Winnebago Park in 1920.

Sandusky Register, Oct. 12, 1919