Lake Erie Lives

Joan Faber’s gaze drifts out to the tree line in the distance, where she once watched eagles raise their eaglet. A city girl born and raised, she’d never seen anything like it until her husband brought her down to run the family business in the 1970s.

More than three decades later, Faber is still here.

“Things have really changed at other places,” she says, her voice strong. “Nothing changes at the Maples.”

She’s the third generation of Faber women to welcome guests at Sandusky’s Maples Motel, although it kills her that she’s a Faber by marriage only. This is a family business, a fact she takes very seriously.

Elegant in a mandarin collared shirt and downright trendy in black-framed glasses, the silver-haired Maples maven is a masterful mix of city cool and country warmth. She offers coffee, water, fruit, doughnuts, a swim in the figure-eight-shaped pool (the kind you don’t find outside Old Hollywood), whatever she’s got on hand, while dogs and cats come and go from the office-slash-homestead that’s anchored the motel property since Gypsies, on their way to seasonal work at Cedar Point, camped here 90 years ago.

The Maples Motel - By Joe Andersun

Timelessness is of the essence, with Faber endlessly winding back the clock. This plot of land, with its glorious old namesake maple trees and proximity to Lake Erie (“just past that tree line”) is coveted by developers and conservation-minded county officials alike. But try as everyone might, Joan Faber’s not selling. Not now, not back when everybody else was selling, not ever.

“People are talking,” she says, “that we didn’t sell to the Erie Metroparks because we wanted to wait for the huge bucks for condo development.” She laughs — how could anyone think she would allow this place to be developed? Next door is a nature preserve; across the street, just a lonely set of train tracks, the one bane of Faber’s existence (guests complain). It’s beautiful, peaceful, rustic. The “new” section of the hotel dates back to the ’60s. It’s a far cry but a close drive from the mayhem of Cedar Point, one of the largest amusement parks in the nation.

“I loved it right away,” she says. “It’s fun to get 10 reservations in two hours — I mean, you kind of get a high from that.” When her mother-in-law died, the Michigander packed up her four children, ages 8 through 11, and tethered herself to the motel for the three-month season in 1978. These days, the season is six months, her children are all grown up and the competition is fierce.

But the Maples has something no one else can offer: Joan Faber and her love for this sliver of Americana capped with an iconic orange-and-blue neon sign. It’s what has kept the rooms full summer after summer. It has also stationed the motel securely at the No. 2 spot on TripAdvisor.com. Faber doesn’t advertise. Her clientele landed her there, ahead of 35 other Sandusky accommodations.

“I had kids leave this morning,” she says. “They spent their whole honeymoon here.” And then said they’d be back again next year.

Third generations of families flock here, and they’re greeted by Faber herself, or maybe her son, who came to help out after Faber’s husband, Ken, died suddenly over Memorial Day weekend last year, just as busy season began. The motel kept her going.

“I love the people, and they love me,” she says. “Every day is a new, fun adventure. I never wake up thinking I hate doing this.”

Faber has spent much of her adult life at the Maples, waiting for her husband to come down from Michigan, and his job, each weekend. He was never all that interested in the family property; it was Faber who took on the burden and the beauty of this place, who committed everything she had to fostering this community.

“The ‘Maples’ is flickering,” Faber says with a sigh, nodding at the sign out front. “I have had that sign fixed four times this summer.” But she’ll fix it again. As long as Faber is here, the Maples will keep the lights on for all of us.

The Maples Motel is open May to October. Rates start at $30. 4409 Cleveland Road, Sandusky, Ohio; 419-626-1575, maplesmotel.com