Fuchs Grocery Store and Fuchs Hall

In the 1890 Sandusky City Directory, Charles P. Fuchs was listed as a partner with his mother Mary Fuchs in the grocery business at 781 Fulton Street in Sandusky, now 702 West Monroe Street.  Charles’ father Joseph had previously run a grocery store at the corner of Fulton and Fox Streets. The name Fuchs is translated into Fox in the English language. Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann wrote in an article that appeared in the November 7, 1993 issue of the Sandusky Register that Joseph Fuchs/Fox had platted lots on the west side of Fulton Street, south of Monroe Street. That area was known as “Foxtown” and once featured a German beer garden. From about 1906 through the mid-1930s, the upper floor of the Fox Grocery was known as Fuchs Hall, or Fox Hall. 

This hall was a popular meeting place for the German Singing Society and the Low German Mutual Aid Society, as well as for card parties and dancing lessons. In 1916 the First Spiritual Reform Church met weekly at Fuchs Hall. Charles P. Fuchs died in 1934, and in 1935, a fire did considerable damage to Fuchs Hall. You will recognize the location of the Fuchs Grocery and Fuchs Hall at the southwest corner of Fulton and Monroe Streets as the longtime home of Cameo Pizza.

Second Annual Christmas Tree Party and Dance by the Sandusky Sangerbund

On Christmas evening in 1916, the Sandusky Sangerbund (sometimes spelled Saenger Bund) held their second annual Christmas Tree Party and Dance at Lea’s Hall at 172 East Market Street in Sandusky. In 1916, the group met on Sunday evenings at the northwest corner of Water and Columbus Avenue in Sandusky. Saenger Bunds were associations of singers, often comprised of individuals of German descent. The groups sang for dances, holiday events, and participated in competitions. On occasion the Sandusky Saenger Bund sang at funerals.

You can read more about the social life of German American residents of Sandusky in chapter five of Sandusky Then and Now, available at the Sandusky Library.