Rye Beach
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The resort of Rye Beach, located about two miles west of Huron on the shore of Lake Erie, was built on part of an 118 acre farm once owned by Charles Wolverton. Charles died in 1890 and two years later William Bruns bought 47 acres of wooded land and farm fields of the former Wolverton estate from John McGuire, whose wife Elizabeth was one of Wolverton’s children. The site included a 17-acre grove of trees, which Bruns made into a summer vacation site.
Billing it as a temperance resort, Bruns opened Rye Beach in 1893. The new picnic and swimming spot first catered to Sunday school groups. Bruns expanded the summer attraction with a peanut stand, dancing pavilion and a bowling alley. In 1904 he parceled out the property and sold lots, with more than 100 vacation cottages built in the 1920s. Many of the cottages were converted to year-round homes in the 1930s and 1940s. Rye Beach became part of the village of Huron in the late 1950s.
In 1920s and 1930s people could walk for miles on the beaches, both east and west. A favorite treks were east to the concretions near Camp Boulder or west to the Cedar Point Chausee.
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