TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
W. Washington St. Location (1874-1918)
SW Corner of W. Washington and Jackson Sts.
Stop 3 on the Washington Park Walking Tour
The ca. 1870s photo shows Trinity United Methodist Church’s fourth building as its construction was being completed. One can see the work being finished on the building’s steeple which has not yet been shingled. Image courtesy of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.
The top of this steeple was later removed after it was damaged in a storm, giving the church the appearance seen in the later (below left) photo. Image courtesy of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.
What today is known as Trinity United Methodist Church began in August 1828 when a group of local residents drafted a petition to establish a Methodist church in Sandusky. This petition was accepted by the Ohio Methodist Conference, and the Reverend John James was sent to the area as the first resident preacher of the new church.
Although construction of this building began in 1872 and the congregation moved into it in February 1874, it was not fully completed until 1881. This building was Trinity United Methodist’s fourth location in the city, as it previously had built and occupied two other churches on sites that now are part of the Erie County Court House property as well as a third building on the public square west of Columbus Avenue which was destroyed by a fire in 1848 as it was being completed.
As Trinity United Methodist’s history notes, during the more than 40 years that it occupied this building it completed “a list of alternations and repairs” that illustrated “the trend of the times” including the installation of electric lights, a furnace, a telephone, and a pipe organ as well as “an addition to the rear of the first floor to house a kitchen.”
Despite these improvements, by the early 1900s parts of the building were becoming “cramped for a lack of room,” which led the church’s congregation to accept an offer made by the Federal Government in 1915 to purchase the property as the site for the new city Post Office (see Stop 3 on the Washington Park Walking Tour for more information). After the purchase was finalized, Trinity United Methodist vacated this building and it was demolished in 1918.
This 1918 photo shows the intersection of West Washington Street and Jackson Street shortly before the corner was cleared to make way for the new city Post Office building. Trinity United Methodist Church can be seen on the right side of the photo. The corner buildings on the left side of this picture housed Bernard Lodick’s Carriage Shop from 1868 to 1907, and had been converted to an automobile service station by the time this photo was taken. Image courtesy of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.
To read more about the current location of Trinity United Methodist Church, see Stop 8 on the Washington Park Walking Tour.