WOMEN’S BUILDING
110 Columbus Avenue
Women’s Building, 1913-1920. Image courtesy of Sandusky Library Archives Research Center
Upon completion in 1874, various shops and offices occupied 110 Columbus Avenue.
The Women’s Building and Rest Room Association was formed around the turn of the twentieth century to provide a clean, safe place for women and children to go while in Sandusky. The Association also served inexpensive hot meals. The organization was first housed on Market Street, opening there in 1908. To raise funds to get the association established, they published a newspaper called the Women’s Endeavor as a fundraiser. In 1912 they purchased a building on Columbus Avenue for $9,500. Until 1921 it was known as the Women’s Building; in part a product of a bygone era and in part ahead of its time, it served as a women’s shelter, training center, and cafeteria. The building provided a venue for women to learn new crafts and sell them. The site also provided a place for farm women to gather as their male relatives conducted business in the city.
Find out more HERE on the Sandusky Library’s site. Interestingly, use of the building specifically for women ended the year after the ratification of the nineteenth amendment which gave women the right to vote.
The Women’s Building and Restroom Assoc. holds its annual meeting in January 1914 (from the Cincinnati Enquirer, January 18, 1914). It was noted that the building was purchased and opened up as a home for the Federation of Women’s Clubs.
