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| Vintage postcard courtesy of Dennis Lamont |
Regular contributor Rick Kurish suggested Bay View as a blog topic earlier in the summer. Back in June, he wrote, "I know you are familiar with the area of western Ohio known as “Vacationland," and have done a few blog postings on the area. Perhaps you might consider Bay View, which I believe is now a part of Sandusky.
"Like Sheffield Lake, Bay View was developed as a summer colony of lake cottages. The area was developed in the mid 1920s, and I have attached a few of the cottage ads which appeared in the Chronicle-Telegram in the 1925/1926 time frame.”
Here are the ads. This one (below) is the oldest ad Rick could find for the Bay View development. It ran in the Chronicle on April 16, 1925.
Here are two more.
Rick also wrote about his personal experience connected with Bay View. He wrote, "I ‘discovered' Bay View in the summer of 1965 when
I was living in Toledo. By Ohio Turnpike, the drive between Toledo and Amherst
took about two hours.
"However, one summer weekend I decided to make the drive
home a leisurely one along the lakeshore. I ended up crossing Sandusky Bay on
the old State Route 269 lift bridge, which took you right into Bay View.
"At the
end of the bridge was a restaurant where I stopped for lunch. I don't remember
the name of the restaurant, but it was later named The Angry Trout.
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| 1960s postcard of Log Cabin Restaurant, predecessor of the Angry Trout |
"As I was
eating lunch looking at a road map, several people stopped to ask if I needed
help or directions. when I mentioned that Bay View looked like a great place to
spend the summer, they laughed and said it was the best kept secret on the
western part of the lake. Anyway, after I had eaten I decided to drive around
the area before continuing on my way.
"And it appeared the guy was right. While
covering a relatively small area, the ambiance was "lazy summer day” – mostly summer cottages, hammocks in the yards, chairs lining the beaches, and
people water skiing in the bay. I was impressed, and decided that one day when
I had some time I would rent one of the summer cottages for a week or two and
see if living there in the summer was a neat as it looked --- but of course, I
never did.
"With the demise of the Route 269 bridge, and the advent of the
Edison Bridge which bypasses the town, there is little reason to pass through
Bay View anymore. In fact, the last time I was there was over 20 years ago. I
think I'll leave it that way, and remember it as it was the first time I passed
through in the summer of 1965.”
Thanks for sharing your memories, Rick!
****
Bay View is still there and very much the same, as we’ll see tomorrow when I go “Back to Bay View."
5 comments:
Awesome post !!
Glad you liked it, Dorene! I remember that you grew up there.
I lived there from 1981 till 2000 i loved growing up there as a kid there was so much to do we were outside pkaying everyday now I drive out there in the summertime and I never see kids out there playing
It was somewhat of a ghost town during my Sunday morning visit too. There were also posted signs that discouraged me from driving around in the residential area, so I was unable to get a real sense of how populated it was.
It's too bad that signs have been erected to discourage driving through the residential area --- perhaps for safety, or maybe privacy. When I "cruised" through Bay View in the 1960s, the residential area was what appealed most to me. I remember it as a mix of vacation cottages and year around homes. On a lazy summer day who can resist the lure of a cottage and a beach!
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