Cooke-Dorn House to get historical marker

SANDUSKY — Famous Sanduskian Eleutheros Cooke and the house he lived in are getting their due with a new historical marker on Columbus Avenue. The historical marker up soon at the Cooke-Dorn House, 1415 Columbus Ave., will have two different messages.One side will tell the story of Eleutheros Cooke (1787-1864), who founded the first railroad west of the Allegheny Mountains and fathered two famous children, one of them Jay Cooke, known as the "financier of the Civil War."The other side chronicles the Cooke-Dorn House, built for Cooke and his wife, Martha, in 1843-1844. In the 1950s, it was occupied by Randolph and Estelle Dorn, who founded the Dorn Foundation.The home is now a state museum run locally by the Old House Guild of Sandusky. It's open to visitors and a perennial stop on the Guild's annual Christmas home tour. The new state historical marker will be dedicated at 11 a.m. Sept. 27. Ed Stout of the Old House Guild said a $3,040 grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation paid most of the cost of the marker, with the Old House Guild covering another $400. Pomeroy is a New York businessman and history buff and his foundation has paid for many historical markers in the Sandusky area.Stout said he initiated the historical marker effort and worked for years to get it done."We finally got it," Stout said. "It's in the garage right now. We're going to have the pole dug next Monday and we'll go from there, getting it erected and getting it ready for the ceremony on the 27th."Eleutheros CookeThe Cooke-Dorn House, off of Columbus Avenue in Sandusky, will be open to the public during the International Museum Day Saturday, May 19. Former Miss America Jackie Mayer will be signing autographs at the historic site from noon-4 p.m.