Photograph.
Larger version.
Source: Dale Travis.
Entered: March, 2002
Updated: September, 2002
The house was apprently built for George A. Boeckling, who was president of the resort hotel "Cedar Point," and managed the Cedar Point Amusement Park from 1897 until his retirement in about 1930. At some point the race driver Barney Oldfield lived in the house for a while. Material evidence suggests the house was used to run alcohol from Pelee Island, Canada, to the US, during Prohibition.
George A. Boeckling, in an undated photograph. B. 1862, D. 1931.
Stu Hoffman, who lived in the house from about 1958 to 1965, and
Tenley C. Draheim, who visited the house often, supply the information and
photographs below.
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Left click on the image below for a larger version.
Some interior views below, in undated photographs.
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Left click on the image below for a larger version.
The center photograph above shows the dining room, the room to the right of the house when looking at the front entrance, as seen from the livingroom of the house.
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Left click on the image below for a larger version.
The image above shows the living room. Through the doors to the left one can see the dining room, in a room off the main house.
Below is a winter scene, from 1972
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The image below shows Alma Hoffmann on the front porch. The Hoffmann's owned the house from 1958 to 1973.
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A room above the kitchen - not part of the octagon portion of the house - the family called the "Cuckoo's Nest."
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The bottom portion of the image below shows a door to the "widow's walk," a second story walkway that apparently had no railing in the house's later years, if ever.
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The image below shows the front of the house is the entrance to the beach. The beach in turn is right next to the Cedar Point hotel beach property, hence the "private beach" sign.
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The item below gives a little background about the involvement of the Hoffmann's in the restoration and operation of the Erie Inn. Built in 1905, The Breakers hotel was part of a resort fad in the US in and around 1900. And many resort areas included amusement parks. These were sometimes related to resort hotels, and sometimes built and operated by trolley systems that were trying to generate weekend revenue. For this the location would sometimes be near a lake, and sometimes simply at the end of the line, to maximize trolley revenues.
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The rear of the house, and the front, with the sun room indicated.
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Below are the home's owners between 1958 and 1973. Alma Hoffman lived to be 98.
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The image below shows the livingroom area. The house was clearly both large and comfortable as appointed by Alma Hoffmann, shown in the photo.
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The image below shows what the family called the "Eagle's Nest." The top floor, used as a bedroom area, and comfortably appointed in what might be described as a late 1930s look.
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Below are two outside views of the house, showing that the outside of the house was stucco, and that overall the house appeared to be in excellent condition.
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Left click on the image below for a larger version.
The two sets of images below show the context of the home at different times, and suggest why the house was summarily burned down. The top aerial view shows the area in 1929, with the house indicated in the upper left. It appears the house was relatively secluded at that time. The second set of views shows the home in the late 1960s, by which time it was largely isolated by large parking lots associated with the Cedars Point amusement park. After the Hoffmann's vacated the house it was apparently burned down just to expand the parking lot further. Despite its beach front location, being surrounded by vast parking lots was probably not a location that many would have wanted.
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A 1929 aerial photograph. The Breakers hotel appears in the bottom right.
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A late 1960s aerial photograph.
Sources: R. Kline. Tenley C. Draheim.
Entered: July, 2002.
Updated: May, 2008.
Updated: June, 2008.
