Sandusky. Octagon house. Built in 1916. Designed by George A. Boeckling.
Deliberately burned in 1978 for additional parking space for an amusement park.
Located at 2311 Ceder Point Chausee.
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.
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
In the photograph above the third story walkway around the house was called
"the widows walk." Clearly it would be dangerous to be on the walkway in the
best of circumstance. But as the undated photograph below shows, there was in fact a
railing around the walkway. Just what happened to it, and when, is not known now,
and might never be. Often things like this just rotted away, perhaps for lack of
maintenance, and were taken down to avoid providing a false security to anyone
on the walkway.
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
Some interior views below, in undated photographs.
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
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.
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
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
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
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."
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
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.
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
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.
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
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.
Left click on the image below for a larger version.
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.
Left click on the images below for larger versions.
A 1929 aerial photograph. The Breakers hotel appears in the bottom right.
Left click on the images below for larger versions.
A late 1960s aerial photograph.
Sources: R. Kline. Tenley C. Draheim.
Entered: July, 2002.
Updated: May, 2008.
Updated: June, 2008.
