Famous "Visitors" at the West House

 

The West House was Sandusky's first "high-rise" hotel, opened in 1858 at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Water Street (now the site of the State Theatre). Its location in the heart of downtown near the waterfront and railroads made it a popular location for travelers in Sandusky.

The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center is fortunate to have the guest registers of the hotel from 1860 to 1878. Names of guests are recorded with their signatures in these books; often, the names of traveling entertainment groups accompany the signatures, as seen above with the New Orleans and Metropolitan Opera Troupe. Some names familiar to local historians and other researchers can be found in these pages, making them a useful and interesting research source.

Some signatures can be more interesting than others, for reasons you might not expect. . . 

If you look carefully at the page above from May 1860, you might see a familiar name from that time. Yes, there is a signature that says James Buchanan, destination White House. For those who know their history, James Buchanan was President of the United States in 1860. And for those who really know their history, John Floyd, the name below him, was the Secretary of War for President Buchanan. The President and Secretary of War visited Sandusky in 1860? Why have we not seen a report of this? This is something I'll need to research, I thought; but first, let's keep looking at the guest register.

So, a few pages later, we found other Presidents "visiting" Sandusky. . . 

Unfortunately, President Washington had been dead for over sixty years by then. Martin Van Buren was still living, but was an elderly 78 years old. And did you notice the similarities in handwriting among the presidents? Considering that each of the signatures were the last ones of their respective days, and the handwriting seems to be from the same person, we can speculate whether it might have been the work of a bored night clerk at the West House, who wanted to provide some entertainment for those in the future who read this guest register. It worked for us!