Grace Episcopal Church c1920. Image courtesy of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.
GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Grace Church is the oldest church in Sandusky with part of the original building incorporated into the present church. The 18-inch-thick exterior walls rise from the bedrock limestone, that underlies most of Sandusky. Limestone for the Follett house and original Grace Church was quarried from the nearby triangular park.
The economies of the cities of the Lake Erie were poor until about the early 1830s due to the high cost of wagon transportation between Buffalo and the East Coast. Transportation costs were reduced a hundredfold after the Erie Canal opened in 1825. Buffalo prospered immediately. Sandusky prospered in the mid-1830s when it was selected by the Ohio Legislature as the judicial seat for the newly formed Erie County. That attracted many good people to Sandusky from Buffalo and northern Ohio.
The Society of Grace Church was founded on March 13, 1835. On June 20, the Vestry resolved to build a church of stone of size 70 ft long by 50 ft wide (later changed to 45 ft) with walls 25 ft high by 18 inches thick. Ground was broken and the cornerstone laid on July 31, 1835. Completion of the church was to be by November 1. But construction was delayed by crash of the national economy (1837 Panic). The undercroft was finished enough for a Christmas Eve service in 1935. That part of the church is evident from the different limestone (especially on the Wayne St. side of the church).
Here’s a sketch of the north side of the original church as seen from Washington Park. The entrance was on the north side since most residences were to the north and east of Washington Park. The church was completed in December 1843.
The additions to the original Grace Church building are evident by the different tints of limestone – the original limestone being yellowish and the later limestone being blueish.
In 1852-53 transepts were added and the chancel extended by 20 feet. In 1858, gothic towers were added, as seen in this picture. About 1890, the chancel was again extended, and a water powered organ and choir stalls added.
An interesting side note is that one of the founders of Grace Church, Eleutheros Cooke, was elected to the Ohio Legislature in 1822, 1823, 1825 and 1844. Grace Church was founded as a religious corporation of the State of Ohio. The corporate structure of Grace Church enabled the vestry to found (1875) and operate the Good Samaritan Hospital (now Firelands Regional Medical Center).
Eleutheros tried to get the Ohio Legislature to give a franchise for Sandusky to be the northern end of a canal that went to the Ohio River, however Cleveland and Toledo won that franchise. Instead, Eleutheros got the Legislature to award Sandusky two railroad franchises – the Mad River and Lake Erie RR, and the Monroeville to Sandusky RR (which eventually was merged with the Baltimore and Ohio RR.)
His son, Jay Cooke moved to St. Louis as a teenager then went to Philadelphia. He was known as the Financier of the Civil War since he devised a system to sell bonds throughout the North to finance the Union side of the Civil War. He founded an Episcopal church near Philadelphia. His sister, Sarah Moorhead donated the beautiful baptismal font that is still in use at Grace Church.
The church today.
Visi
tors are welcome for the 10 am Sunday morning service and to see the interior of Grace church, especially three beautiful stained-glass windows bays. The Ascension window bay was dedicated to the memory of William and Maria Townsend, Eleutheros and Martha Cooke, and Pitt and Mary Townsend Cooke.
In 1982, Grace Episcopal Church was placed on the National Register of Historical Places. This historic marker was placed near the main entrance to Grace Church by the Ohio Historical Marker program.
For hours when the Follett House and the reference area of the Sandusky Library are open visit www.sanduskylib.org.