Side A: Oran Follett constructed his Sandusky house between 1835 and 1837. The golden sandstone mansion was home to Follett and his family until his death in 1894. Sold to James Flynn and then the Krupp family, the house remained a private residence until rented to the Works Progress Administration in 1935. The Sandusky Board of Education purchased the house in 1939 and used it as the adjacent high school’s Home Economics annex, meeting space, offices, and occasionally as art gallery or dance venue. From 1958 to 1968, it housed the Sandusky School of Practical Nursing. The Sandusky Library took over management of the house in 1973, opening it as museum in 1976. Considered one of the finest Greek Revival mansions in Ohio, the Follett House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Side B: Oran Follett (1798 – 1894) was born in Gorham, New York. He made his mark as a newspaper editor and publisher and served one term in the New York Legislature. In 1832 he married his second wife, Eliza Gill Ward (1801 – 1876), and moved his family to Sandusky by 1834. In Ohio, Follett served as editor of the Ohio State Journal, founded the Bank of Sandusky, invested in Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad, and was president of Sandusky, Dayton, and Cincinnati Railroad. His Columbus firm, Follett, Foster & Company, published the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and William Dean Howells’ Life of Lincoln, bringing public attention to the fledgling Republican Party. Eliza Follett was a founding member of Sandusky’s Grace Church, a dedicated nurse during epidemics, and is remembered for her involvement in the Underground Railroad.
