Sandusky and Vacationland in WPA Guides

 

The Federal Writers’ Project was a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s W.P.A. - known as the Works Progress Administration from 1935 to 1939, and the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to its conclusion in 1943. Guides to each of the then 48 states in the U.S., as well as Alaska, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., were written during these years, along with guides to smaller regions, including "Vacationland," a term used at the time for the Lake Erie Islands region (including Sandusky). 

The WPA Guide to Ohio featured three sections: general background, cities, and tours. Sandusky was one of the featured cities in the Ohio Guide. 

On page 308 of the book, the authors described Sandusky as “a magical place, when its numerous parks and old shade trees shower their colors everywhere, its limestone buildings take on a regal dignity, its bay quickens with the touch-and-go of barges, tugs, pleasure boats and freighters, and thousands of brightly dressed tourists overrun the city.”

The section of the book on Sandusky continues with historical facts about the city, along with a description of local industries. The Oran Follett House was listed as one of the “Points of Interest” in Sandusky.

The Lake Erie Vacationland in Ohio book offered descriptions of Ohio's Lake Erie islands and communities in Erie and Ottawa Counties, and some suggested tour routes.

It also included a number of photographs and a map of the region.

In November, 1941, the Sandusky Library celebrated American Guide Week, with a display of books from the American Guide Week series.

The Ohio Guide can be borrowed through the Hoopla digital service, or a print copy can be requested through Clevnet. A reprint copy of the Vacationland book can be checked out from the Sandusky Library, or you can view an original copy in the library's Archives Research Center to learn more about our region as it looked in the 1930s.

Chamber of Commerce Photos from the 1950s

In the picture above, several individuals are standing in front of an information booth, which was a service of the Sandusky Area Chamber of Commerce, now known as the Erie County Chamber of Commerce. It appears that the Cookie House, which was home to Santa when local youngsters visited him in December, served as a location for the distribution of Vacationland tourist information during the summer months of the 1950s.  

An article in the August 26, 1955 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News reported that the Sandusky Chamber of Commerce was kicking off an expansion campaign known as “Let’s Go Sandusky.”  Chamber members used a chicken to demonstrate a point during one of their meetings. You can read the entire article about this campaign in the Sandusky Register Star News, now on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

The Merchants Division of the Sandusky Chamber of Commerce sponsored this  large poster at a trade show.  It stated that Sandusky is in the heart of Ohio’s Vacationland. 

 

Listeners to WLEC Radio in the 1950s and 1960s often heard the phrase “another great day in Vacationland” when their radio dial was turned to 1450 AM.

Cask Villa in Vermilion

During the 1920s, William J. O’Neill purchased over twenty wine casks from a wine wholesaler in Ohio. The casks were made from solid oak, and measured nine feet in length and twelve feet in diameter. Mr. O’Neill hired carpenters to put windows and a door in each wine cask, and to level the bottoms. Foundations were placed under each large barrel, and each was equipped with electricity, a stove and even a bathtub. The casks were painted, and a screened in porch attached to the front of the structures. Soon the “Cask Camp” served as a place for vacationing motorists to stop and spend the night along the old lake road between Vermilion and Sandusky.  Eventually the unique group of cottages became known as “Cask Villa.”

The picture above is from the Karl Kurtz Estate. On the back of the picture is the “Ohio’s Lake Erie Vacationland” stamp, once a familiar sight to most local residents.

An article in the April 26, 1951 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News stated that cottages at Cask Villa could be rented for $25 to $35 a week. These cottages were available for rent up to the 1960s. By 1978 the Cask Villa Condominiums had been built on a site near the former Cask Villa cottages. 

Ohio’s Lake Erie Vacationland Postcards

Several postcards published by E.B. Ackley, a popular musician and band leader in Sandusky, are in the collection of historical postcards at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. These four postcards are from the Ohio’s Lake Erie Vacationland series. Notes on the items indicate that they were Art-Colortone postcards printed by the Curt Teich Company in Chicago, Illinois. The Cedar Point pier is featured on the first postcard.

The Sandusky Yacht Club is the topic of this postcard.

Multi-colored lights enhance the water in the Boy with the Boot Fountain, in a night time view of Sandusky’s Washington Park.

A daytime view of the Erie County Courthouse and the Boy with the Boot Fountain is the focus of this postcard.

While we do not know the exact dates of these Ackley postcards, they were most likely created in the 1930s.

The Lake Shore Route Association

Pictured above is a picture the Official Information Car of the Lake Shore Route Association, taken in the 1930s.  The Lake Shore Route Association promoted the Lake Shore Route as the shortest, safest, most scenic automobile route between Buffalo, New York and Chicago, Illinois. The opening of the old Sandusky Bay Bridge on February 2, 1929 allowed automobiles to travel in a direct route from Erie County to Ottawa County across Sandusky Bay. The Sandusky Bay Bridge was a key component of the Lake Shore Route in the 1930s.

 In June of 1933, three members of the Lake Shore Association took an automobile tour along the Lake Shore Route, en route to the World’s Fair in Chicago. Along the way, members distributed maps and brochures promoting the Sandusky Bay Bridge, Cedar Point, Lakeside, and other points of interest in Erie and Ottawa Counties. In 1939 the Lake Shore Route Association compiled a booklet which promoted the Lake Erie area. Highlighted were beaches, Camp Perry, the Blue Hole, Cedar Point, campsites, and areas for fishing and boating.

            

 According to an article which appeared in the January 29, 1931 issue of the Sandusky Register, a very early Lake Shore Route was built in 1808 from Cleveland to Sandusky. Geauga County Commissioners were instrumental in creating the plan for a road to extend from the west bank of the Cuyahoga River to the western most lands of the Firelands. Seven hundred dollars were appropriated for digging and the building of bridges over brooks and creeks. The contractor requested extra funds for the construction of a log bridge to be built over Old Woman’s Creek. By the 1940s, the Lake Erie Islands region was promoted as Vacationland. Today Lake Erie’s Shores and Islands is instrumental in providing information about the many attractions and natural features of Erie and Ottawa Counties.

Ohio’s Lake Erie Vacationland

The warm summertime weather and access to water in the Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie Islands region have been popular with vacationers for decades. Visitors to “Vacationland” can enjoy beaches, parks, fishing, boating, camping, and of course the popular amusement park, Cedar Point. An advertisement in 1904 from the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway promoted railroad travel to several destinations, including the southern shores of Lake Erie.

Local residents also enjoyed the pleasant summer weather and time off from work and school during the summer months. Some families had a home in Sandusky, and a summer cottage closer to the beach. The Lange cottage at Cedar Point is pictured below:

Several articles in the Sandusky Register from the 1920’s through the 1930’s mention house parties. According to the August 25, 1920 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal, Eulalia Peterson hosted a “delightful house party at the summer home of her parents” on the Cedar Point Chausee. Several young ladies enjoyed outdoor diversions during the daytime, while young men joined the girls in the evening to enjoy dancing with music form the Victrola on the veranda.

Boating has been popular with local residents as well as visitors to the Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie area for many years.

Swimsuits were much more modest in days gone by, as seen in this photo from the Cedar Point Beach, taken before 1940.

Besides recreational activities, many historical attractions are within driving distance of Sandusky including the Thomas Edison Birthplace, the R.B. Hayes Presidential Center, the Cooke House and The Follett House Museum. The Marblehead Lighthouse has been guiding boats and ships on the Great Lakes since 1822. A ride aboard a ferry boat can take you to South Bass Island or Kelleys Island, where even more attractions may be enjoyed.

Two books about Lake Erie’s Vacationland can be borrowed from the Sandusky Library: Ohio's Lake Erie Vacationland in Vintage Postcards, by R. Wayne Ayers, and Lake Erie Vacationland in Ohio: Revisiting a1941 Travel Guide to the Sandusky Bay Region. The latter title was originally compiled by the Ohio Writer’s Program of the Work Projects Administration, and was reprinted in 1999 with an introduction by Connie Smith Girard. The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center features books, photographs, brochures, and historical newspapers on microfilm which cover the history of the Vacationland area, including Cedar Point and the Lakeside Association.