Old Fostoria Businesses Remembered

Author: FFP Ai Bot

Illustration: The Fostoria Free Press.

FOSTORIA- Fostoria grew up making things. Here is a look back at some of the businesses that once defined the city, drawn from the Fostoria Area Historical Society’s columns and other historical sources.

Wagons and buggies

The historical society’s history of the buggy business says an 1877 city directory listed five companies making wagons or buggies. They supported a web of other trades, from blacksmiths and horseshoers to lumber mills and livery stables.

The biggest was the Peabody Buggy Co. The column says that by 1893 it had taken over the former Fostoria Buggy Co. building on North Union Street, led by brothers E.W. and W.O. Allen, and became the largest buggy and carriage maker in Fostoria. One illustration in the column shows a carriage Peabody built for President William McKinley’s mother.

From buggies to cars and spark plugs

As automobiles took over, the column says, the Allen brothers changed course. Allen Motor Car Co. began producing cars in Fostoria in 1912, and Peabody was last listed as a manufacturer in 1916. The column also says the original Autolite plant started in the old Peabody carriage building on North Union Street.

The last of the old carriage shops, the Cook Carriage Co. on East Center Street, turned to car body and top repair by 1926 and was destroyed by fire in the mid-1940s, the column says.

Glass

The state historical marker “Fostoria, Ohio – Home of Fostoria Glass” says natural gas drew more than a dozen glass companies to Fostoria between 1887 and 1920, making windows, bottles, tableware, lamps, shades and incandescent lamps. The best known, the Fostoria Glass Company, began production here on Dec. 15, 1887, according to the Fostoria Glass Society, before moving to West Virginia in 1891.

Main Street shops

A 1981 historical society column on Main Street walks through the stores on the east side of Main between Center and Tiffin streets. They included hardware stores, shoe stores and a long-running confectionery at the corner of the Alcott Block that later became The Chatterbox. Upstairs were dentists, doctors, lawyers and insurance offices. The Alcott Block and the Hays Hotel were destroyed in a 1962 fire that damaged 15 businesses.

Share your memories

The Fostoria Area Historical Society museum, 123 W. North St., collects photos and stories of local businesses. If you have old directories, signs or photos, the society may be interested in them.

Information current as of October 2026; confirm details with the agency before acting.

Sources

Fostoria Area Historical Society, “Rise and Fall of Buggy Business in Fostoria” (Oct. 30, 1980 column, fostoriamuseum.org)
Fostoria Area Historical Society, “Historical Look at East Side of Main, From Tiffin to Center” (June 25, 1981 column, fostoriamuseum.org)
Ohio Historical Society marker 5-74, “Fostoria, Ohio – Home of Fostoria Glass”
Fostoria Glass Society of America, History of the Fostoria Glass Company (fostoriaglass.org)