The Way We Were…

A statue of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and midshipmen sculpted by William Walcutt was commissioned by the City of Cleveland in 1860, removed in 1929, donated to Perrysburg, and erected on Front Street on September 18, 1937; the crumbling midshipmen were removed and the Commodore placed on a green marble base on December 17, 1966, then that was replaced by a bronze replica with all three figures intact on Memorial Day, May 26, 1997, while the original Commodore went to the museum at Put-In-Bay and the midshipmen went to the atrium at the Perrysburg Municipal Building. At 123, George and John Munger opened a meat market in 1879 that operated until 1925, when George V. Schwind bought it, and the site later housed The Worden 5¢ to $1 store in 1952-53. At 125, phone book records show the Rossbach & Hoffman dress shop there in 1925-30 before it moved to 200 Louisiana Avenue and closed about 1959; the building also housed Frank Gulick's furniture store in 1948-49, Perry New & Used Cars in 1950, and Carl Steinman Used Cars in 1954-59, before it and the next two buildings were razed in 1959 for Huntington Bank parking and a drive-thru. At 127, the Art Thornton Bakery served as a well-known local bakery where residents smelled roasting peanuts and received free samples, and the Thornton family operated there until about 1940 while making deliveries to local groceries and nearby country stores. At 129, the A.C. Fuller Dry Goods Company occupied the address in 1929, moved across the street to 124 Louisiana Avenue in 1930, and was followed by the Tourist Inn Cafe until the building was razed in 1959, after which the cafe moved to 215 Louisiana Avenue. At 131, the Perrysburg Banking Company was incorporated on May 12, 1906, in a building designed by George B. Rheinfrank, Sr., with Civil War veteran Edgar L. Kingsbury as its first president; drive-thru and parking facilities were added in 1959, the bank merged with the Bank of Wood County in 1962, and in 1974 it became Huntington National Bank, while upstairs offices reached from the southeast corner housed tenants including dentist Dr. Quidort, an insurance company, attorneys Farr, Fen and McEwen, a barber shop, beauty shops, accountants, and sales offices.

Perrysburg, Ohio · United States