{"nrhp_refnum":"75001387","name":"Erie County Infirmary","other_names":["Erie County Home"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S of Sandusky on Columbus Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sandusky","county":"Erie County","state":"OH","lat":41.427306428000065,"lon":-82.69365875199998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-09-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story limestone county infirmary (later the Erie County Home) on Columbus Road in Perkins Township, south of Sandusky, Ohio, built in 1886 in the Second Empire style with High Victorian Gothic elements.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an excellent example of the institutional buildings erected in the late nineteenth century to care for the less fortunate. Its design resembles contemporary college buildings, showing that institutional architecture was not yet highly differentiated. It is also notable for its local limestone construction, which shaped Sandusky's architectural character.","narrative":"Built in 1886 on Columbus Road south of Sandusky, this four-story county infirmary replaced an earlier poorhouse that burned in November 1885, killing five people. The county had run an infirmary for the aged and indigent since 1855. George Phillip Feick won the contract with a low stone bid of $24,168. The walls are coursed local limestone, and the plan has a square entrance block with long north and south wings. A central tower with a steep pyramidal roof carries a round window glazed with the date 1886. Elaborate dormers rise from a densely bracketed cornice, and wooden verandas mark the wing ends. A brick annex stands to the rear. Inside, a wide hall, masonry corridors and period woodwork survive, and the unfinished mansard story has an almost Piranesian look. The building is valued as a typical late nineteenth-century institution for the poor and for its use of Sandusky's limestone.","period_of_significance":"1886","architect_builder":"George Phillip Feick (contractor); M. Mullen (construction superintendent); John H. Smith (engine house and smokestack)","architectural_style":"Second Empire with High Victorian Gothic elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in good condition, largely unaltered apart from basic electrical, plumbing and heating upgrades; in use as a county home, with the east annex only partly used because of safety regulations.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.650025-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/75001387.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001387/c27133b725-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001387/c27133b725-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erie_County_Infirmary.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erie_County_Infirmary.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988156","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_County_Infirmary","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5388292"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/erie-county/erie-county-infirmary-75001387/"}