History of the Island

Middle Bass Island (MBI) is part of Put-in-Bay Township of Ottawa County, Ohio, which was created from Sandusky, Erie, and Lucas Counties in 1840. MBI is the central island of a trio of islands, known in the nineteenth century as the Three Sisters; it is flanked by North Bass (Isle St. George) Island and South Bass (Put-in-Bay) Island. The island was sparsely settled before the War of 1812. After the war a few people returned to MBI but it was not until the mid-1850s and the sale of smaller lots and farms by an absentee owner that the island began to develop.

The new mid-nineteenth century residents of MBI found the soil particularly well suited to viticulture. Grape growing was touted as a viable and profitable agricultural land use by early Victorian horticultural and agricultural societies; contemporary journals are filled with speculation on the best soil and climatic conditions for viticulture. The Bass Islands seemed to perfectly fit the bill for grape cultivation and wine making.  In 1859 four men, Joseph Mueller, Andrew Wehrle, William Rehberg, and George Caldwell, bought all of MBI with the intention of establishing vineyards there.

By the 1870s vineyards appeared to account for more than half of the arable land use on MBI, followed by orchards, predominantly growing peaches, but also pears and plums. As the population of the island grew, so did the cultural and political amenities including a cemetery, a school and a town hall, located at a crossroads at the center of the island. In the 1870s a school was also located on the south side of the eastern point peninsula. 

From Hardesty’s 1874 atlas

The island was divided into 3 major spheres of familial influence during the first few decades of the viticulture development. The Lutes family owned the eastern point peninsula, the Wehrle family the southern portion of the island, and the Rehberg family the western portion. All three families established vineyards and wine production facilities including wine press houses, wine cellars and docks for easy access to the outside world. Perhaps the most prominent historical feature of the island is the area containing the old Wehrle-Lonz Winery complex (originally referred to as the Golden Eagle Wine Cellars), located at the southern-most tip of the island. This Winery complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1986 and is often referred to as containing the “heart of island history”. A brief history of the Winery complex is provided in Table 1.

On a regional level, the Winery was considered one of the largest and most proficient producers of wine and grape juice products in Ohio, as well as throughout the Midwest. During the late 1800s, Lake Erie island wineries, led by the Golden Eagle Winery, ranked alongside New York’s Finger Lakes and California’s coastal valley wineries. Wehrle entered into a partnership with George Werk, William Procter, James Gamble, and Andrew Jergens (all of Cincinnati, Ohio) and founded the Wehrle, Werk & Sons Company to produce, market, and distribute the products.

Review of historic maps and photographs indicate the locations of several buildings across the complex that are no longer standing. Immediately west of the Winery was the location first of the Wehrle residence and then later the Hillcrest Hotel. Both structures were destroyed in separate fires.

Wehrle-Lonz Winery History of Events - Table 1
Ownership	Dates	Event/Comments
Andrew Wehrle	1863 - 1871	Constructed frame pavilion Winery building (Wehrle Hall) overtop an expansive cellar excavated approximately 14' out of bedrock. A one-and-one-half-story structure located to the northeast of the Winery (termed the Managers residence) also was constructed prior to 1874. Winery referred to as the “Golden Eagle Wine Cellars.”
	ca. 1871	Wehrle residence built immediately east of the Winery
	ca. 1874	Construction of a two-story frame and brick house located northwest of the Winery
Zoellinger (listed as trustee)	1905	Due to financial troubles, the Winery was sold at a sheriffs sale
	1906	Wehrle residence is destroyed in a fire
August Schmidt, Jr.	1906	Hillcrest Hotel is constructed at the location of the old Wehrle residence and the Schmidt-Lonz residence is built to the east
John Roesch, James Hauck, William Conley and Earl Heinen	1916	Winery continues in operation
	1920	Prohibition starts and wine production is replaced by grape juice production
	1923	Fire destroys the Wehrle Hall and the Hillcrest Hotel
George Lonz	1926	Lonz buys Winery and merges it with his own Winery, the Lonz Winery, which was established in 1884 and operated on MBI north of the Wehrle property.  Winery continues to produce grape juice, much of which was sold to the “home wine-making” market.
	1934	Lonz constructs new gray cement block and brick building overtop wine cellars at the old Wehrle Hall. At the end of Prohibition (1933), wine production begins again.
	1942	Fire destroys the interior of the Winery and damages some of the exterior
	1945	Lonz rebuilds the Winery to current stature
	1956	Presshouse located immediately north of the Winery is constructed
	1969	George Lonz dies without any heirs
Philip Portteus	1972	Wine production ceases and generally falls into disuse
Terry Cornell, Jerry Sawicki	1976	Winery is auctioned off to various parties to satisfy lienholders
Robert Gottesman, Paramount Distillery of Cleveland	1979	Paramount also purchases NorthBassIsland and its vineyards
State of Ohio	2000	Creation of the MBISP

Aside from wine production, MBI also became known as a resort destination as early as 1874 and lasting until the present day. Summer vacationing became even more important as the grape industry waned in the early 1900s. In 1874 the "Toledo and Lake Erie Fishing and Boating Association" (later the Middle Bass Club) established a resort at the western tip of MBI, on the former William Rehberg property. This resort contains several cabins/cottages and homes and is listed on the NRHP as a historic district. The place became a favorite location for famous and powerful people from Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit, and elsewhere. In the mid-1920s a prominent Cleveland lawyer and politician, Harry F. Payer, purchased 100 acres of the land at the eastern point of the eastern peninsula of MBI and established a private retreat with stables, tennis courts and a golf course, called East Point Manor. He hired Ohio architect, J. Milton Dyer, to design the estate and the manor house. East Point Manor is listed in the NRHP. By the mid-twentieth century MBI supported both vacationers and viticulture. Tourists who were not visiting the MBI Club stayed in private homes, as there was no public lodging on the island. The Lonz Winery, as it was now called, had a club room-rathskeller that was open to the public and was a popular destination for tourists.