HUBBARD’S BLOCK
109–101 W. Water St.
Hubbard Bldg With high wire artist. As part of the Centennial Celebration, “Professor Leon,” an accomplished acrobat, performed on a wire from the Hubbard Building on July 4, 1876. Image courtesy of Sandusky Library Archives Research Center
The neighboring Hubbard’s Block was designed by the well-known architect, Sheldon Smith, whose Commercial College and School of Design occupied the third floor. Smith designed a number of significant buildings in Sandusky including the West House before moving to Detroit where his firm is still operated by his descendants.
The second floor of Hubbard’s Block housed the Cosmopolitan Art and Literary Association which “encouraged the general diffusion of literature and fine arts.” For $3, subscribers received a magazine, the Cosmopolitan Art Journal, plus a chance to win a work of art at an annual drawing. Paintings, statuary and bronzes were displayed in the beautiful second floor gallery, and viewers came from far and wide to see the displays. In 1856 the Association’s 22,488 members drew lots for 200 works of art with the most prized awards being Power’s busts of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. The speaker at the Association’s awards gala in 1857 was Ralph Waldo Emerson who delivered an oration on “beauty.” The Association was disbanded with the outbreak of the Civil War due to a lack of interest.
January 9, 1873 – Young Men’s Christian Association – Rooms – Hubbard’s Block, opposite West House. Free Reading room. Open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Young men and others cordially invited.
The building, which had many tenants over the years, is built of locally quarried limestone and was beautifully renovated in 2007 by owner Daniel Delahunt into nine upscale residential and three commercial units.