Erie history in photos: Big Wheel by Marx Toys, Erie Sand & Gravel, Isaac Baker fire, Fairview square

Staff report
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Take a closer look at the Erie region and our community through images from the Erie Times-News files, from local, state and national archives and contributed from photographers like you.

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Original patterns of the body and front wheel of the plastic Big Wheel tricycle are shown, Dec. 11, 2004, at the Marx Toy Museum, located at 50 E. Bloomfield Parkway in Summit Township. The Big Wheel Cobra is in the background. It was the last version of the Big Wheel made by Marx Toy Company, which was founded in Erie in the mid-1930s by Louis Marx and closed in September 1975. In its 40 years of existence, millions of toys were assembled at Marx's Erie plant on West 12th Street. Among the toys that rolled off the assembly line were the Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, Big Wheel and Penny the Poodle. Many of the toys were designed and engineered in Erie as well. At the Marx plant in Girard, workers produced the company's electric train sets. The museum in Summit Township closed in April 2008. Museum items were auctioned off in June of that year and the building was later demolished.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie history in photos: Big Wheel by Marx Toys, Sand & Gravel, Isaac Baker fire