Value City to close in downtown Sandusky

SANDUSKY — Take a seat for this news: Value City Furniture, one of the longest-operating businesses in downtown Sandusky, will soon close its doors. After filing for bankruptcy in November, American Signature — Value City's parent company — intends to close all 89 of its stores nationwide. There's no immediate date for when any store, including the area's lone location on East Market and Wayne streets, could shutter. All that's known is these closures are imminent. Both based in Columbus, Ohio, American Signature and Value City cited various economic factors — including high interest rates, inflation and a "severe housing market decline" according to bankruptcy filing documents — as reasons for its demise. American Signature was founded in 1948. Value City's roots, meanwhile, trace back to 1917. At the downtown Sandusky location, signs reading "going-out-of-business" and "store closing" lined the building's exterior windows. On the inside, they read "entire store on sale" and "all sales final." Value City, which began operating in downtown Sandusky nearly 40 years ago, represents just one of only a few commercial/large-scale businesses with a presence in the city's central business district. It's also the only furniture store in downtown. History lesson This building is officially known as the Commercial Building, according to Sandusky Library's history blog, which provided some history about this space: This commercial building was built by Sandusky contractor George W. Doerzbach in the spring of 1894. It originally was a 100-foot, square-brick structure. An article in the Sandusky Register of March 30, 1894, reported that the foundations of the building were blasted out of the stone bedrock. The stone that was blasted was then used in the basement and the first floor. Klotz and Kromer provided the engines that drove the elevator. A tin roof was put in by J. Mertz and Son, and the interior painting was done by Holland and Tebbutt. Total cost was $40,000. (That's about $1.5 million in today's dollars, adjusted for inflation.) The basement was leased to Engels and Krudwig, who pressed 400 tons of grapes in the fall of 1893, while the construction was still ongoing. In April 1894, the J.L. Hudson Store opened at this location after having previously done business in the Hubbard Block. The J.L. Hudson Co., which had its headquarters in Detroit, claimed that their store was the largest and finest in Erie County. The April 9, 1894, issue of the Register reported that, at Hudson's grand opening, Professor Theodore Taubert's orchestra provided musical entertainment, and potted plants and ferns decorated the store. Mr. J.L. Hudson himself arrived from Detroit to be present at the opening of his store's newest location. The store sold men's clothing and hats, women's apparel and dry goods. J.P. Hicks was the manager. Mr. Hudson died on July 5, 1912, and soon after, in the summer of 1913, articles in the Register announced that the Sandusky store would soon be closing. For a short time, John J. Healy operated a retail store at the site of the former J.L. Hudson store. Jacob H. Herman sold furniture and carpets here for many years, until the Bing Furniture moved into this site in the 1940s. In the 1980s, the building underwent a facelift, which included the addition of shutters over the upper-level windows and sandblasting of the exterior brick. Since 1987, Value City Furniture has been in business at the southeast corner of Market and Wayne Streets in Sandusky.