News December 2019

Put-in-Bay News December 2019 What Happened At Put-in-Bay

Calling All Singers – Annie Parker is recruiting former Island Christmas Singers to reprise Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on Wednesday, December 11th, Senior Luncheon. It’s so interesting to look back at all the people, some as little kids, who participated in those decades ago.

Put-in-Bay Music Festival -The 4th Annual Put-in-Bay Music Festival is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 6th, 2020. In homage to the centennial of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, the 2020 music festival will feature all women and women-led musical groups. Watch for more details as the event details are released.

Golf Cart Case No Longer Up in the Air – The court has dismissed a case brought by Mary McCann which would’ve allowed her to keep the golf cart that is on the roof of her golf cart rental booth about a block south of the Jet Express Ferry Dock entrance on Hartford Ave. The case was simply dismissed because the appeal was filed one day late. The Village had brought suit against having the cart there because it violated the signage portion of its zoning ordinance.

Road Races Date for 2020 -The 2020 Put-in-Bay Road Races are scheduled for September 29th through October 2nd. Racing at the airport will take place on Wednesday, September 30th, and Thursday, October 1st.

Bath House Improvements -Village Administrator Anne Auger tells us the new epoxy floor at the bathhouse in the downtown park is spectacular. The cost to prepare the floor properly and put the coating on was just over $27,000. The next project is a new roof for the building.

Moving to the Mainland -Judy Ruggiero from Mike’s Drive is relocating to Youngstown, Ohio. Longtime island residents Scott and Deb Ferrell have sold their home to Dee Dee Duggan who recently sold her large home downtown across from the school. We asked Dee Dee if she was going to continue to run the home as a B&B as the Ferrells did. Dee Dee said she will continue to run it only as a B&B for her four kids.

Dates set for “Bash On the Bay 4” The 2020 “Bash On The Bay 4,” the island music festival that takes place at the Put-in-Bay Airport at the end of August, will take place on two days this coming season, August 26th and 27th. According to reports, the headliners have been signed, but promoters are waiting to fill out the playbill before they are announced. Watch for more info as the event gets closer in News December 2019.

Something happened on Halloween that hasn’t happened in many years. The large anchor on East Point that sits by the road at the head of the tree-tunneled lane that leads to the Anchorage ended up on the front lawn of Put-in-Bay School. For many years it was a tradition for the students to “pile” the school with anything from around the island that wasn’t tied down. The anchor was always the prized item
because it was very heavy and took some ingenuity to transport. Kudos to those who completed the task this Halloween At Put-in-Bay!

There’s a bit more to the anchor story to be told. Before Halloween, Pam Ackerman spent a few days on the island. Pam, who now lives in California, spent summers on the island when she was growing up. She had an interesting story to tell. Her grandfather, Brad Granfield, married one of the three Engel sisters, the daughters of the “Engels” part of the E&K Winery (Engels & Krudwig). The two other sisters’ husbands, one of whom was Barbi Barnhill’s father, Marion Yenney, ended up operating the winery because the sisters didn’t want to. The only problem was that the three men did not get along with each other and the company ceased making wine about 1960.

The Granfield’s owned the Anchorage, now the home of Maryann McCann and Pam would stay with them and play with her Barnhill cousins on East Point. Pam’s parents, Charles Ackerman and Helen Grandfield, were married at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church by the Rev. Lee Lindenberger. Warren Miller from Wa-Li-Ro, the boy’s choir group associated with St. Paul’s, was the organist. Charles and Helen had their wedding reception on the lawn at the Anchorage and later dined at Cooper’s Restaurant (now the Goat). Eventually, her grandfather sold the Anchorage and bought the “Salt Box which is currently the home of Amanda and Elizabeth McCann on Put-in-Bay Road.

Pam told us about the large anchor, the very same one that ended up on the lawn at Put-in-Bay School. She told how her grandfather acquired the anchor in Detroit and brought it to Put-in-Bay and placed it where it sits today. Pam didn’t give a specific date, but we’re guessing it was sometime in the 1950s. It was originally painted white, not the silver color it is today. When we told Pam how the island kids would take the anchor on Halloween and put it in front of the school, she was surprised to learn of that. We wonder if Pam’s grandfather ever thought that the anchor he brought to the Island would be an island landmark and part of an island tradition more than 60 years later.

News December 2019 From the Put-in-Bay Museum

Curator Dan Savage from Lake Erie Islands Historical Society graciously accepted a valuable and rare item for the island museum’s collection this past month. Sam Irwin from Essex, Ontario, came over to the island with an early Perry Monument watch fob that is more than 100 years old. For years, Sam has been going to Pelee Island and is well-aware of the historical importance of the Lake Erie Islands.

For those who don’t know what a watch fob is, it’s a small ornament piece suspended from a pocket watch chain. Years ago, pocket watches were carried in a vest pocket with a chain suspended from a buttonhole. Sam’s brass fob featured a monument with the wording “PERRY MEMORIAL MONUMENT • LAKE ERIE O.” The only problem was the monument on the fob didn’t look anything like the Perry’s Monument which has graced South Bass Island for more than 100 years. In a previous visit to the island museum, Sam learned that the fob his father
had given to him came from before the final design of Perry’s Monument had been decided on. And indeed, the piece is rare. Dan, who had never seen another one of these fobs, plans on displaying the piece along with the artist’s rendition of the same early-design monument that hangs in the island museum.

What remains a mystery is how the fob came into the possession of Sam’s father who was born in 1904 and a child when the fob was made. Sam had no additional information, but it would be interesting to know the fob’s complete journey to its final home in the museum. While Sam was on the island, he also stopped by the school and dropped off several soccer balls and basketballs for the Panther students to enjoy. On behalf of us islanders, thanks to Sam for both donations.

If you’re interested in preserving the history of the Lake Erie Islands, please consider joining the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society.

Did you notice Christmas decorations went up in DeRivera Park more than a week before Thanksgiving? We haven’t even finished our
Halloween candy yet! Bill Cantillon from East Point is a consultant for logistics help on a two-wheelhouse Staten Island Ferry. The ferry is the first of four being built for the NY Port Authority. The ferry does not need to turn around like the Miller ferries do when they come into dock at the Lime Kiln.

This coming season, two Delaware Ave. businesses won’t be returning. They are Mama Maria’s, the food stand at Delaware Carts between
Lovella and Mr. Ed’s, and Del Sol, the color-changing t-shirt shop at Harbor Square. We’ve only heard rumors about what will be replacing them.

Police Sergeant Carson Frase who served as a police officer on Put-in-Bay for the last two years has left the island to take a position in Mansfield, Ohio. Melissa Wilde has chosen as a replacement.

For some reason this summer, perch fishing wasn’t the greatest, but recent reports say it picked up nicely in recent weeks. We don’t know which is your favorite, bass, walleye or perch, but we will definitely take perch over all the rest.