FREELAND T. BARNEY BUILDING
Freeland T. Barney Bldg, Looking east down Water Street, ca. 1896. Image courtesy of Sandusky Library Archives Research Center
The left side of this current photo shows how little things have changed compare to the left side of the old photo above.
In 1835 Zalmon Wildman and Isaac Mills, founders of Sandusky, built three brick stores each three stories high on Water Lots 68, 69, and 70. It is easy to see where the first building (far left) was married to the other two.
Alexander Barber and Charles Barney established the town’s first hardware store there, and behind the store they had a dock and a warehouse.
After Charles Barney died in the cholera epidemic of 1849, his brother, Freeland, established F.T. Barney & Co., dealers in foreign and domestic hardware. In 1869, Benjamin Ferris went into business with Barney and the firm became known as Barney and Ferris. The outside of the building was beautified with an ornate bracketed cornice and the roof was raised. In 1892 the building was again extensively remodeled and the third floor windows were given arched lintels.
May 21, 1892 – A team of horses attached to Toft’s dairy wagon ran away on Columbus Avenue yesterday. They started at Monroe Street and were stopped on Water Street by Officer Cullen. Nobody was hurt.