Fort Wayne's African-American community and history is displayed at one of the finest museums in the Midwest devoted to local African-American history. Housed in the former Phyllis Wheatley Center and former offices of the Fort Wayne Urban League, the museum features the local, national and international story of residents of African descent.

The fourth courthouse to serve Allen County was built between 1897 and 1902 and remains one of the nation's finest. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The current Allen County Courthouse is the fourth courthouse built in Fort Wayne. Its three predecessors were all located on the current courthouse square, which had been set aside as a public square when Fort Wayne was first platted in 1824. The designer of this courthouse was Fort Wayne local Brentwood S. Tolan. Not formally educated as an architect, Brentwood Tolan was the son of architect Thomas J. Tolan, and had attended art school and trained under his father. Brentwood Tolan also designed courthouses for Whitley, Delaware and LaPorte counties. Working with his father, the duo designed fifteen other courthouses in Indiana. Also, Brentwood designed Fort Wayne’s Opera House, the Masonic Temple, and the old National Bank Building. Altogether, Brentwood Tolan designed more than forty-four buildings and drew plans for 23 jails. Dedication for the newest courthouse was on Sept. 23, 1902, five years after its cornerstone was laid. It is constructed of Vermont granite and limestone from Bedford, Ind. The courthouse was designed in the styles of Grecian, Roman, and Renaissance with Doric lines on the first floor, Iconic columns on the second story, and Corinthian and Roman Imperial styles on the third level. On top of the building is the Goddess of Liberty statue that stands on the copper-sheathed dome. The courtroom skylights were covered during WWI blackouts as a precaution against aerial bombing. Around the outside of the building are friezes and cornices filled with sculptured images and proverbs of the history of Allen County, American government, law, virtue, and industry. The busts on the exterior of the courthouse are of Chief Little Turtle, Colonel John Allen (the county’s namesake), and George Washington. Above the entrances on each side of the courthouse are inscriptions that read, “The law hateth wrong,” and “Justice the Hope of all who suffer, the dread of all who wrong." The four murals inside of the dome are allegories depicting the opposing themes of Anarchy and Despotism (south wall), lawful Government and Democracy (north wall), Prosperity and Peace (east wall) and Despair and War (west wall). All four murals were done by Charles Holloway, who also created the paintings on the proscenium arch of the historic 1888 Auditorium Theater in Chicago, IL. Scenes and sculptured panels continue in the four court rooms, depicting the history of law and pursuits of agriculture, workings of justice and terrors of war. There are also sculptures showing early events of local history such as the arrival of Anthony Wayne, Chief Little Turtle’s burial, and the completion of the canal. Along with portraits of Colonel John Allen (a colonel from Kentucky who aided in Fort Wayne’s relief during the war of 1812), there is one of Samuel Hanna who was Allen County’s first postmaster and judge, and of Perry A. Randall who was a founding vice president of the Jenney Electric Company which was the predecessor to the local division of the G.E. Company. Even before the fourth courthouse was completed, the rotunda served as the place of honor for the casket of Civil War hero General Henry Lawton in 1899. Lawton was killed in the Philippines earlier that year. When the previous courthouse stood from 1862-1897, a wrought iron fence encircled the block. The brick building had a central cupola extending above the roof with clock dials facing four surrounding streets. In niches on the north and west facades were life-sized statues of George Washington and General Anthony Wayne in full continental dress uniform. An eagle topped an ornamental canopy that covered a public drinking fountain, standing on the northeast corner of the lawn. Though the drinking fountain canopy came down when the present day courthouse was built, the drinking fountain remained in use on the north sidewalk until the 1950s. The well canopy was moved to Swinney Park in 1902 but there is no sign of it today. The courthouse cost $817,553.59 to build and furnish. In 1975 there was a major renovation done to the courthouse and improvements made in 1992. In 1994, the outside dome was repaired and covered with a copper sheeting. Restoration on Miss Liberty took five months and $41,900 including repair on her damaged left hand, right wing, and left foot in 1996. On Sept. 23, 2002, the county courthouse was rededicated after its restoration. The restoration cost $8.6 million, the courthouse green restoration cost $2.2 million and included the purchasing of land, demolition of the existing buildings and construction of the park. August 3, 2009, renovation on the exterior began and cost $1.3 million and included restoration from top to bottom. The granite and limestone was repaired and pigeon droppings removed. The fourth courthouse to serve Allen County was built between 1897 and 1902 and remains one of the nation's finest. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

The Allen County Public Library has been an important part of the social and cultural aspect of life for residents in Fort Wayne, Indiana and surrounding communities since 1895. The concept of a public library had its beginnings in 1850, when Allen County provided for a library in its budget. Although state law had authorized a tax levy for a public library in 1881, the Fort Wayne City Council refused to establish one until 1893, when the Woman’s Club League of Fort Wayne persuaded City Council to change its mind. The Fort Wayne Public Library opened in January 1895, in a room in the City Hall building on East Berry Street. The Fort Wayne Public Library served residences with 3606 volumes.[1] In 1904, with a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, the first permanent public library building was constructed at Webster and Wayne Streets. During construction of the Carnegie library, the collection was moved into the Elektron Building across the street from City Hall. The Carnegie building remained the library’s home until 1968, when it was demolished. The present building was constructed on the same site and the northwest wing was added in 1981. In 2004, the library embarked on a renovation and expansion of its main branch in downtown Fort Wayne. The project was so extensive, the library moved out of the building and relocated to the old Lincoln Museum building on Wayne Street. The library expansion project was completed in 2007. The Allen County Public Library holds the largest genealogical collection in the United States and was the first public library to obtain all the available Federal census records. The origins of this extraordinary genealogical collection can be traced to the Great Depression, when library director Rex Potter and his young friend and disciple, Fred Reynolds, went on the road searching for inexpensive books to fill the library’s shelves. Without much money to buy expensive new books, they found many local and family histories, directories, and other records. When Fred Reynolds became the director of the library in 1960, he focused the collection specifically on genealogy, with a special room set aside in the old Carnegie building. Reynolds made arrangements with the famous Newberry Library in Chicago (then the largest genealogical collection in the country) to preserve Newberry’s precious and rapidly deteriorating books and records through a massive photocopying effort at the Allen County Library. Originals and a copy were sent back to Newberry, but a copy also stayed in Fort Wayne. As many as 37,000 volumes of very rare reference works were acquired by the library in this way, and these became the foundation of the great genealogical collection.[2] Today, the Genealogy Center has an extensive collection of 350,000 printed volumes and more than 513,000 items of microfilm and microfiche. The collection is continually growing by active library purchases and through donations from generous genealogists and historians.

Revolutionary War hero Major General Anthony Wayne was commander of the U.S. forces that defeated the Miami Confederacy and built the first Fort Wayne in 1794. Anthony Wayne was born in Waynesboro, Pa., on January 1, 1745. In 1775, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Wayne joined the American Army and was named Colonel by the Continental Congress. With the command of a Pennsylvania Regiment, he led the invasion of Canada in 1776. After Valley Forge in 1778, Anthony Wayne played a significant role at the Battle of Monmouth. He continued to participate in the last years of the Revolutionary War and was present at the British surrender at Yorktown. When the war ended, Wayne retired to his home in Pennsylvania, where he helped draft the state’s first constitution. President Washington called him back into duty to lead a campaign against the Native Americans of the Ohio Country in 1792 in the wake of the horrible losses suffered by General Harmar.

George E. Ganiere of Chicago sculpted the equestrian statue of General Wayne Anthony, which was dedicated in 1918 and placed in Hayden Park at Maumee and Harmar streets, facing the Lincoln Highway. In 1973, it was moved downtown to Freimann Square. Hayden Park was renamed in 1986 to Nuckols Memorial Park in honor of John Nuckols, the first African American city councilman in Fort Wayne. Originally, Ganiere had inscribed the base of the Anthony Wayne statue with the General's name; but it was removed when the base was replaced. Ganiere also had two plaques constructed for the statue of Miami war Chief Little Turtle, Shawnee leader Tecumseh and Fort Wayne. These also did not make the move to Freimann Square. However, in 2008, the pieces were donated to the Allen County Public Library and have been displayed in the lobby of the genealogical department ever since.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Older Historical Marker reads: “The site of General Anthony Wayne’s fort dedicated Oct. 22, 1794. It was the first United States fort near “Three Rivers.” This fort commanded the shortest portage between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi systems. A portage known to the Indians as “Glorious Gate,” and a strategic crossroads in early trade and exploration.”

Major General Anthony Wayne had built five forts during his campaign against the Miami Confederacy in 1794; this fort was the last of the five. In Ohio, Wayne built Fort Recovery, Fort Adams, Fort Greenville, Fort Defiance, and Fort Deposit. Wayne had this fort built to erase the army’s bad reputation from being defeated by the Miami Nation at the Battle of Kekionga four years earlier. He also realized that this fortification would lower the morale of the Native Americans and the fort would be able to control at least two important rivers. On Sept. 17, 1794, the legion arrived at the villages and set to work on the fort despite hardships caused by the weather and shortages of supplies. The soldiers were kept under strict discipline and lived off of half rations the majority of the time. As many as five horses a day died from lack of feed. After a month long hauling of logs hitched to the backs of wagons, the fort was finished on Oct. 22, 1794. Wayne gave command of the fort to Colonel John F. Hamtramck.

The following morning, “Colonel Hamtramck marched the troops to the garrison at 7am after a discharge of fifteen guns, he named the fort by a garrison order, Fort Wayne,” reported Captain John Cooke. Others who were present reported that the guns were really rounds of cannon fire. The fort’s name was given to Hamtramck from an order handed to him from Anthony Wayne. The name Fort Wayne was previously decided during correspondence between Wayne and the War Department.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

The statue commemorates a club formed in the early 20th century by men who as boys swam near here in the old aqueduct of the Wabash & Erie Canal. Text on Monument: “Let’s Go Swimming” This Memorial Presented To The City, July 6, 1927. The Old Aqueduct Club (followed by the names of “swimmers”) Rather than the usual heroic figure of the warrior on horseback or the proud city father, this civic statue depicts two barefoot boys who are friends, dressed in coveralls of the 1870s. The stone underneath says simply “Let’s Go Swimming.” This statue was erected in 1927 by the members of a unique Fort Wayne civic group called “The Old Aqueduct Club.” It was a group that celebrated the youthful activities and memories of the bygone era of canals and the covered aqueduct in Fort Wayne that carried the main channel of the Wabash and Erie Canal across the St. Mary’s River. The Old Aqueduct Club was formed in 1912 by several men who as boys played and swam in the aqueduct. The rules stated simply that members had to have lived on the west side of Fort Wayne before the 1870s (the end of the canal era) and to have gone swimming in the canal. Each year a dinner meeting was held and by the 1930s there were as many as five hundred members who claimed to have met the requirements. By 1955 there were only eleven members left at the club’s 43rd annual dinner, and the Old Aqueduct Club passed out of existence soon after. The aqueduct which the club celebrated was designed by canal engineer Jesse Lynch Williams and was built by Henry Lotz (the only mayor of Fort Wayne ever to have been deposed by City Council and this was done because he seldom appeared to act the part of mayor in 1843). The wooden flume was two hundred and forty feet long, seventeen feet wide and six feet deep. It was supported on three great stone pillars, remains of which may still be seen along the Rivergreenway on the west bank of the St. Mary’s River. The water of the canal was kept between four and five feet deep and moved about five miles per hour through the aqueduct. A roof was erected over the channel, giving it the appearance of a covered bridge. At the west end, just past the aqueduct, a large basin was created so that the canal boats could turn around and wait for another one to pass. It was here in the basin and in the aqueduct itself that the boys often played. In 1881, the Nickel Plate Railroad purchased the canal right-of-way in Fort Wayne, including the aqueduct and erected the steel bridge for the trails that still stands today just north of the aqueduct location. The aqueduct soon collapsed into the river and was removed in 1883. The little park in which the statue stands today is called Orff Park in recollection of the great water-powered mill operated in this location by the Orff family during the canal era and later.[1] The City of Fort Wayne purchased Orff Park from John Orff in 1892. The park was once larger than it is today, but two-thirds of the original park area was allocated to the West Main Street Bridge. Orff Park is the smallest park in Fort Wayne.

Every Saturday morning throughout the summer, one can stop by the oldest market in Fort Wayne: the Barr Street Market. The land for the Barr Street Market was donated to the city by city father Samuel Hanna in 1837. The Barr Street Market was influenced by the design of the Philadelphia Market. As the city grew, the need for a centralized market became evident. The land was named for John T. Barr, who had purchased the original 118 lots of the town of Fort Wayne. By 1855, the market was flourishing 6 days a week, and a new market building was erected. When the new city hall was built (now the History Center), the old market building was removed. In 1910 a concrete-covered market complex was designed by architects Mahurin & Mahurin. This Classical Revival structure served as the open market’s building until 1966. Today the Barr Street Market is run by the Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana. The market is open from 9 am-1 pm on Saturdays, May-September. The market’s legacy remains and still serves the Fort Wayne Community. The City of Fort Wayne operated the market from the day it opened until 1966. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

On Oct. 22, 1790, The Miami Nation, led by Chief Little Turtle, defended their home of Kekionga from attacks by the U.S. Army, led by Gen. Josiah Harmar. This campaign was the first by the Army since the Revolution and ended in defeat for the United States. Brigadier General Harmar had one objective in the fall of 1790: destroy Indian towns centered at the junction of the Maumee River with the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph rivers conjoining. President Washington had ordered the battle against the Miami Settlement of Kekionga for one main reason: The Miami Settlement of Kekionga were the center of Indian resistance to U.S. migration across the Ohio River. The U.S. campaign started when General Josiah Harmar led his force of 1,453 regular and militia soldiers toward Kekionga. A diversionary force under John Hamtramck had marched towards the Vincennes area to draw the larger concentration of the Miami and their allies away from Kekionga; however, Hamtramck’s strategic plan failed. On October 15, U.S. forces reached Kekionga but found it had been burned and abandoned by the Miami themselves. Two days later, after hearing reports of Indian forces gathering, Harmar sent 300 men under John Hardin to the north of Kekionga towards Eel River. On October 19, Hardin’s forces suffered a tragic defeat near present day Heller’s Corner in an ambush led by Miami war chief Meshekinnoquah (Little Turtle). Almost all the U.S. forces were killed. Meanwhile, General Harmar destroyed all the area villages and finally retreated from Kekionga on October 21 to present day Hessen Cassel. Once at their new destination, Harmar and his men heard that the Miami warriors had returned to Kekionga. General Harmar sent a force back to the Indian town on the morning of October 22. Two different companies of U.S. forces under Colonel John Hardin took position along the St. Joseph River. Three companies under the overall command of Major John Wyllys had hoped to entrap the Indians in Kekionga by crossing the Maumee River. However the Miami challenged the crossing, killing several men. In the fields and the river itself, the U.S. forces and Major Wyllys and the calvary commander, Major Fontaine, were killed by Little Turtle’s warriors. By the end of this battle, 183 U.S. soldiers had been killed, and about the same number of Miami had been killed. However, the Miami Confederacy had held its town and General Harmar’s main force had retreated back to Fort Washington.

Built in 1852, this building is the only remaining edifice directly related to the canal industry that ensured the survival of the pioneer town of Fort Wayne. Located at 114 E. Superior St. (then known as Water St.), the building's location was nothing but marshy, undesired land in 1836 and owned by Samuel Hanna, founder of Fort Wayne and leading backer of the canal. Later, the Townely Family, prominent merchants, came to hold the land and in 1852 sold it to John Brown, a stonemason, who built the 22 by 50 foot Canal House (the canal ran behind the house). In the years after Brown built the Canal House he prospered, using the building as an office and storehouse for materials. Brown was involved in the first Barr Street Market structure, carried out a life of trade on the canal and became the owner of the first steam-powered grits mill in town that was located at the end of Maiden Lane. He was a member of the local militia, the Kekionga Guard, and served as a director of the Hamilton Bank of 1863. The Canal House was later owned by Henry Drover who served as president of the city’s German Fire Company in the 1850s and then, for several years, as a member of Fort Wayne’s City Council. In 1875 he moved to Huntington where he was elected mayor for one term. Drover used the Canal House almost exclusively as a warehouse for his spoke factory and quarry needs.

During the canal’s later years, in the 1870s, the Canal House served as home to some families. On the second floor, once lived the family of Minnie Homeyer, whose family came from the town of Loh, Germany. Minnie’s father was a canal boatman. Downstairs of the Canal House lived the Borgmans, another German family. As the canal traffic slowed down, Mr. Borgman gave up boats and changed his trade. He joined a new local trucking company and later became a policeman and then Chief of the department by 1897. In preparation for the U.S Bicentennial, plans began for the restoration of the Canal House in 1974. Restoration was completed on the Canal House in 1976.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

The 1930s film star Carole Lombard spent her early years in this house as Jane Alice Peters. Not long after marrying Clark Gable, she was killed in a plane crash while on a campaign in early 1942 to raise money for the World War II war effort. This home is on the National Register of Historic Places and part of a Local Historic District. Old Historical Marker Text: “In this house on October 6, 1908 was born Jane Alice Peters, daughter of Frederick C. and Elizabeth Knight Peters.” She took the professional name of Carole Lombard and became one of the most important figures in the motion picture industry. Erected by the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, under direction of Mayor Harry W. Baals, January 1, 1938 on the occasion of her appearance in David O. Selznick’s technicolor production, “Nothing Sacred.” Jane Alice Peters became one of America’s favorite movie stars in the 1930s as Carole Lombard. She was born in Fort Wayne in 1908 and spent the first six years of her life in this shingle-style house on Rockhill Street (built in c. 1905). The house features a complex shape within a uniform, shingled surface. Decorative details are few, yet refined on the house, like the low-relief carving on the turret frieze. Jane Alice’s grandfather was John Clouse Peters, one of the founders of the Horton Washing Machine Company. Her father, Fred, was an executive with the Horton Company and her mother, “Bess” Knight, was a vivacious and strong actress descended from “Gentleman Jim” Chaney, an associate of the notorious robber baron of the 1880s, Jay Gould. Jane Alice fondly remembered her young days in Fort Wayne, attending the Washington Elementary School a few blocks to the south and playing rough games with her brothers, “Fritz” and “Tootie.” She remembered most vividly, however, the great flood of 1913, when under the direction of her mother, her house became a rescue center for flood victims, among other reasons, because the family had one of the only telephones in the area. Jane Alice remembered helping her mother collect supplies, run errands, and help care for those displaced by the rising waters. Jane Alice and her mother left Fort Wayne in 1914, eventually settling in Hollywood. At age 12, she made her film debut and by 1924 was a glamourous actress for Fox Studios. She changed her name to Carole Lombard, in recollection of an old family friend, Harry Lombard, a one-legged relative from Fort Wayne living in California. Carole appeared in 66 films in the 20s and 30s, becoming the highest paid actress of her time. Her co-stars included her first husband William Powell, as well as Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, John Barrymore and George Raft. In 1939, Carole married screen idol Clark Gable, to whom she stayed married to until her death. She was one of the first movie stars to help the nation respond to the outbreak of World War II. In January 1942, Carole travelled to Indianapolis for a War Bond rally. At the event Carole told reporters, “Some of my happiest memories of my family revolve around Indiana and Fort Wayne.” During the rally, Carole told the crowd that she was proud to be an American, and grateful that Indiana had bred her. Carole set a record during the rally by selling over $2,000,000.00 of defense bonds in a single day. Carole Lombard died in a plane crash on January 16, 1942, while on her way back to California from the Indianapolis War Bond rally.

Standing as the oldest church structure in continuous use, the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception was built in 1860. The Cathedral is the seat of Catholicism in northern Indiana. The first major portion of the cathedral square was acquired and purchased by Father Stephen Badin, in 1831. The remaining land was obtained by Father Julien Benoit, who happened to also be the chief architect and first rector of the cathedral. The cornerstone was laid June 19, 1859 and dedicated on December 8, 1860.

The Diocese of Fort Wayne was established in 1857; John H. Luers was the first bishop. When this movement occurred, the idea to build a large Cathedral was created. The 180-by-80-foot church that hosts two steeples cost a mere $46,000 to construct. In December of 1860 when the church was completed, then the largest church in the state, it was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception by Bishop Luers.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Jean Baptiste Richardville was born in 1761 in the present Lakeside region of Fort Wayne. He is believed to be buried on the cathedral grounds near its entrance. His father was Antoine-Joseph Drouet de Richardville, and his mother was Tacumwah, who was the sister of Miami Chief Pecanne. He helped his mother build a business of facilitating trade along the portage from Fort Wayne to the Little River in Aboite Township that led to the Wabash River. As a young man, Richardville freed a prisoner; warriors saw this deed as a sign of strength. Therefore, Richardville soon held leadership within the Miami tribe. Jean Baptiste Richardville eventually became chief of the Miami after the death of Pecanne in 1816 and led the Miami people for the next quarter century. Within the midst of Richardville's leadership was the Indian removal movement. Richardville realized that the United States encroachment was inevitable. Because of this, Richardville took an intelligent approach of securing vast amounts of land for individual families who could own the land by private deeds. Over half of the Miami tribe members were able to stay in Indiana because of Richardville's plan. Richardville's private home still stands today off of Bluffton Road and is the oldest Native American building in the Midwest. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Allen County sent more than 4,000 men, nearly a third of its male population, to fight in the Civil War. Almost 500 lost their lives. They served mostly in the western theater of war at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain and Atlanta. This monument to their service was erected in 1894. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Sion Bass (1827-1862) had come to Fort Wayne in 1848 from Salem, Kentucky, and worked for the Ewing fur-trading enterprise. He was joined by his younger brother, John, in 1853. Together the Bass brothers founded an iron works company, which they eventually sold to the railroad and then founded a second iron and machine works. This company, under the direction of John Bass, became the great Bass Foundry that dominated Fort Wayne industry until after the turn of the century. When the Civil War broke out, Sion Bass volunteered and helped organize the Thirtieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers – “The Bloody Thirtieth.” Bass was elected Colonel and commanding officer by the men. In the regiment’s first action at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee in April 1862, Sion Bass led his men in several charges during the second day of bloody fighting. He was severely wounded and died seven days later. His body was returned to Fort Wayne where a state funeral was held to honor the city’s first fallen hero. Colonel Bass was laid to rest in Lindenwood Cemetery on April 14, 1862. A memorial to the Colonel was erected by his regiment and friends. The Sion Bass House was built by John Grimes in 1842, who purchased the lot from Charles Ewing for $125.00, which was paid in carpenters and joiners work, and erected a house on the lot.[1] On March 13, 1854, John Grimes’ heirs sold the home to Sion Bass and his wife Eliza.[2] The Sion Bass House is located in the West Central Neighborhood Historic District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house was built in a transitional Italianate design. Architecturally, the house was ahead of its time, because the Italianate style did not become popular in Fort Wayne until a few years after the house was built.[3] The Sion Bass House is significant to our history because it was the home Sion lived in until his death. Bass’ wife, Eliza, lived in the home until 1878, when she sold the house to Patrick Keegan. The Keegan family owned the house until 1961. Today the home is part of the Lasalle Bed and Breakfast, along with its neighboring house.

The St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers converge in Fort Wayne to form the Maumee River. The Maumee flows northeast to Lake Erie, ultimately connecting through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. A short distance over land to the southwest is the head of the Wabash River, one of the tributaries of the Mississippi River, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The portage between these great waterways was a natural crossroad which attracted Native Americans for thousands of years before it was discovered by European explorers, traders and settlers and then by Americans.

The oldest structure in downtown Fort Wayne, this Federal-style house was built by William S. Edsall in 1839. It was later the location of the city's second hospital. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Local Historic District. William S. Edsall was a leading citizen in Fort Wayne’s early development. He was a fur trader, sawyer, merchant, and he was prominent in Fort Wayne civic affairs during the canal era. His first job was with the U.S. Engineers, surveying a route for the Wabash and Erie Canal. In 1840, he became a member of Fort Wayne’s first common council and head of the U.S. Land Office in 1843. Edsall, along with his brother Samuel and Judge Hanna, formed a company building the Fort Wayne- Bluffton plank road. The Edsall house is a two-story Federal-style brick home that is balanced with two downstairs parlors and two upstairs bedrooms, separated by a central hall and a broad stairway. There are no windows on the ends of the house, but the proportioned windows, give the front and back of the house a very open appearance. At each end and on each floor, there are fireplaces with double chimneys rising out of the roof. As he prospered, Edsall built additions to the house in 1857 and in 1870. The home was frequently the site of grand “Pioneer Balls” held to honor and reunite the founders of the city. In 1865, Edsall experienced a financial downfall which forced him to sell the home. When he bought back the house in 1874, he celebrated his "homecoming" with an immense party of "old settlers" he had known in the early days. After Edsall died in 1876, the house was converted into Fort Wayne’s second hospital in 1878 by a group led by Samuel Foster and one of Edsall’s sisters, Mrs. W.C. Coombs. The opening ceremonies, organized by Mrs. Coombs, included “oyster suppers, ice cream, music, flowers, art and ‘Miss Jarley’s Great Moral Show and Waxworks.’” On the day after the grand opening, Samuel Foster recalled that “before any arrangements could be made for their reception, Dr. Myers ushered in five surgical cases from out of the city. He seems to have been saving them up somewhere so as to make the opening a truly grand success.” Although the beginnings were successful, the mortgage company would not allow the place to be developed as a hospital and, two days after it opened, the hospital closed. Still, this hospital effort grew into the Parkview Medical Center. The structure became a private home again in 1887; apartments from 1907 to 1916, and after 1916, Jesse Hamlet built the popular corner store known as the Doswell Flower Shop. In 1976 it became the pilot restoration project for ARCH, and in 1986 the Homebuilders Association of Fort Wayne renovated the interior for its offices.

The Electric Works campus first became a center of industrial innovation in 1883. Early entrepreneurs were experimenting with electricity when the Fort Wayne Jenney Electric Light Company was founded by visionary Ranald T. McDonald and inventor James Jenney. Around the turn of the century, Thomas Edison’s fledgling General Electric Co. acquired the business and got busy. At its peak in 1944, the height of WWII, GE employed about a third of Fort Wayne’s workforce. For more than eight decades, the campus churned out electric motors, electrical transformers, and more electronic wonders. In 2015, GE finally closed the campus to stay competitive in a rapidly changing marketplace. For more than five years, 39 acres, eighteen historic buildings, and more than 1.2 million square feet of space in the heart of Fort Wayne sat vacant, waiting for the chance to be reborn and to generate new experiences and new ideas. In 2017, RTM Ventures acquired the property and crafted a plan with the community for a mixed-use development that would become Electric Works.

Named to reflect the electrical engineering interests of its builder, Ronald McDonald, the Elektron Building has housed many community businesses, including the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company. Robert S. Walters, a partner in the firm of Barrett and McNagny’s, bought the Elektron building (also known as the Standard Building) in 1982. The Romanesque Revival building, designed by Wing and Mahurin, originally had fireplaces, high ceilings, skylights, and wood moldings and trim when it was built in 1893. During renovation, original plaster ceiling tiles were found and were used to make molds to replicate the tiles. Fireplaces were covered, light shafts shut and a sixth floor with a conference center was added. Also added was a health center in the basement and a two-story atrium with an Italian marble floor. Duplicate doors of the originals were installed and the fireplaces that were kept have mantels and marble around them that are almost exactly like the originals. Connecting all of the floors together is the wainscoting, which is formed from vinyl and reflects the “beaded board” look that was common in the 1890s. The ambiance of the building is enhanced by period wall sconces. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Designed by local Fort Wayne architect, A.M. Strauss, the Emboyd Theatre and the adjoining Indiana Hotel opened in 1928. The owner Clyde Quimby soon began to see the growing popularity in film and would go on to own many of Fort Wayne’s great movie houses. These included the Paramount, the Jefferson, and the Palace. Later on, the Emboyd changed its name to the Embassy, which is still the name today.

Aside from being one of Fort Wayne’s first movie houses, it was also one of Fort Wayne’s first air conditioned buildings. The Embassy also holds an 1,150 pipe Pipe Organ. Throughout the Embassy’s life, many restorations have taken place. In 1974, many organ enthusiasts started a campaign to raise money for the Embassy as it was deteriorating and in fear of being demolished. Later that year, enough money had been raised and the entire building had been saved, later to be refurbished and brought back to its original glory.

In 2014, renovations started at the Indiana Hotel, to better utilize the space. A two-story ballroom, rooftop patio, and a rehearsal studio were constructed. The Embassy has served as Fort Wayne’s main concert hall and theatrical stage for countless years and continues to be restored and rehabbed to be fully utilized for today and still keeps its excellent architectural and historic integrity.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

This beautiful home was built in 1881 and designed by architect Thomas J. Tolan. It is of Victorian Gothic style and stands on the former site of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne that was built in 1837. Charles, son of Hugh McCulloch, lived in the east unit of the house with his wife Sarah Ross McCulloch and their children Clara and John Ross in 1881. Sarah Ross McCulloch passed away in 1882 and Charles remarried soon after, moving his family in 1889. Charles retained ownership of the house after his move. David N. Foster, a merchant, occupied the west unit in 1887 and his brother Samuel M. Foster, a prominent merchant and industrialist, moved into the east unit of the home three years later. The Foster brothers were significant figures in the development of the Fort Wayne park systems; they remained tenants of the house until 1904. In 1908 Charles McCulloch’s oldest son J. Ross McCulloch lived in the west unit with his friend Charles Weatherhogg; the east unit was then occupied by J. Ross’s half-brother Fred McCulloch. J. Ross remained living in the house until his death in 1957. From 1916-1918 he was part of the commission to erect the statue of General Anthony Wayne that now stands in Freimann Square and he was one of the planners of Fort Wayne’s 1916 celebration of Indiana’s centennial. After the death of J. Ross, the house then passed on to his niece Betty Hiscox. After Betty’s death the house and contents were sold in auction, around 1983. Architect Charles R. Weatherhogg was responsible for much of the major architecture in Fort Wayne after 1900. Examples of his work are the H. Rockhill House, the Blackstone Building, The Beaux-Arts Fort Wayne Central High School, the Journal Gazette Building, the Masonic Temple, Fairfield Manor, Wolf and Dessauer, and Harrison Hill School. Weatherhogg got creative with the parlor walls in his west unit; he commissioned artist Robert Grafton to create a mural to surround it. The mural is a painting of three-lined canals and waterfront areas of a Dutch city. Fort Wayne’s First National Bank Building was built in 1923, of which J. Ross McCulloch was vice president, and it also contains two murals painted by Grafton. Grafton was commissioned to execute murals for Charles Weatherhogg’s Anthony Hotel Building (which is no longer standing). While completing this project, Robert Grafton resided at the Aveline Hotel. J. Ross made his acquaintance and commissioned a portrait. While completing the painting for the McCullochs, he stayed at their home. On May 3, 1908, the Aveline Hotel caught fire and was destroyed in what is still considered the deadliest fire in Fort Wayne’s history. Grafton completed the murals in the west parlor in gratitude for circumstances that may have saved his life. Charles R. Weatherhogg died at 65 from a heart attack in 1937 and is buried in Lindenwood Cemetery. McCulloch Park was at one time a city cemetery; the land along Broadway near the G.E. campus (now Electric Works) was given to the city by Hugh McCulloch (who was Secretary of the Treasury in Abraham Lincoln’s Cabinet). Charles McCulloch was one of the water works trustees and Reservoir Park was a part of the city’s water system. The lake at the “Res” was formed by the excavation for the hill around the water storage tank. Fred McCulloch was treasurer and manager of the Electron Supply and Fixture Company. Fred was born at the McCulloch house on July 22, 1884 to Charles and Ada (Wilson) McCulloch. He was married to Alice Foster, daughter of Samuel M. and Margaret (Harrison) Foster and they had one child, Betty Foster McCulloch. The First Presbyterian Church was built in 1837 at 334 E. Berry St. In the 40-foot frame building, the Pastor Rev. Alexander T. Rankin served from 1837-1843. Rev. Jesse Hoover, a Lutheran minister from Woodstock, Canada, came in 1837 as the first teacher in the new Presbyterian school. For a number of years, the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist church goers worshipped together. When the Courthouse had become unsafe due to bad construction, the authorities were able to secure the privilege of holding court within the Presbyterian Church until a suitable building for the Courthouse could be built on the square. In 1844, a confrontation of sorts occurred when the Presbyterian pulpit became vacant. It introduced into Fort Wayne history a nationally-renowned figure of the pre-civil war days, the famed abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher who was persuaded to win the allegiance of the first church members. The church officers knew of this strategy and persuaded Dr. William C. Anderson, an English professor at Hanover College, to quickly fill the pulpit. Anderson arrived on April 14, 1844 and immediately took charge. The following Saturday Beecher arrived from Indianapolis on horseback and after learning of the situation said to Mrs. Jesse Williams, “I have come to divide your church.” Failing to gain control of the main church group, Beecher split part of the congregation and formed the Second Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne; it later became known as the Westminster Church. Later that year, First Church decided to build a larger building at a new site at the southwest corner of Clinton and Berry Streets, but traded the following year for a site at the southeast corner of the same intersection. A colonial structure 80 feet long was erected at the direction of a building committee headed by Samuel Hanna. In October of 1850, the Pastor Rev. H.S. Dickson laid the cornerstone and the church was dedicated in November of 1852. This church was later enlarged and refined and it lasted until December 16, 1882 when it was destroyed by fire. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was sister to Henry Ward Beecher. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

The First Presbyterian congregation was the first to operate a Sunday school (1825), to have a resident minister (1829) and to erect a church building (1836-1837). The present facility was constructed in 1953, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The first Presbyterian minister to conduct services at Fort Wayne was the Reverend Matthew Wallace, an Ohio pastor who served as chaplain to the army under General William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812 and accompanied the troops to the relief of the besieged garrison of Fort Wayne. Ten years later, the Reverend John Ross, also from Ohio, preached in the decommissioned fort and concluded, “There was no place that appeared to me so unpromising as Fort Wayne…there was no Sabbath kept there but on the part of a few.” When no other clergyman visited ‘unpromising” Fort Wayne during the next three years, the Sunday School class that met in Samuel Hanna’s store asked Allen Hamilton to petition the American Home Missionary Society for a minister, preferably a “Presbyterian…in as much as they are generally better educated, and other here…being members of that church in other parts.” In November 1829, a newly graduated seminarian, Charles E. Furman, arrived to become the town’s first resident pastor. The First Presbyterian Church was formally organized by the Reverend James Chute in July 1831, and it is Fort Wayne’s oldest continuing religious congregation. Reverend Alexander T. Rankin, an ardent abolitionist, was pastor of First Presbyterian Church from 1837 until 1843. His home was located to the south of the first church built in 1836 on the corner of Lafayette and Berry streets. The Presbyterian Church successively erected additional churches on the southeast corner of Clinton and Berry streets (1848), and on the northeast corner of Clinton and Washington streets (1886), before erecting the present facilities on the northwest corner of Wayne and Webster streets (1952-1967). Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

This site housed the first synagogue in Fort Wayne. It was formerly a German Methodist Episcopal church and was renovated as a temple in 1859. It was the home of the congregation Achduth Vesholom until 1875. Originally organized in 1848 as the first Jewish congregation in Indiana, the congregation originally held services in the nearby home of Frederick and Hannah Nirdlinger. Jews had been in the area of Fort Wayne since the days of the French and Indian War in the 1760s. In 1764, Captain Thomas Morris, a British officer, recalled how he had been saved from being burned at the stake through the friendship of “Mr. Levi, a Jew trader.” Many years later, pack merchants and peddlers who were Jewish were also in the Fort Wayne area. The first Jewish residents in Fort Wayne were also merchants, all of whom were German immigrants. Twenty-three members of Jewish community organized the first Jewish congregation and called themselves “The Society for Visiting the Sick and Burying the Dead.” It was Jewish tradition in America for cemeteries to be established before building houses of worship. On Oct. 13, 1848, the society bought for $200 the old burial ground adjoining what is now McCulloch Park. On Oct. 26, 1848, it officially organized the first Jewish congregation in the state of Indiana. The merchant who became the acknowledged leader of this early Jewish community was Frederick Nirdlinger. His home (which once stood on the southeast corner of Main and Harrison streets) became a meeting place for most of the earliest Jewish religious and social gatherings. Nirdlinger was active in community affairs, serving as city councilman, a founder of the Kekionga Guards (a militia organization) and as “Overseer of the Poor” (the predecessor of the present-day township trustee). His business, the “New York Store” on Main Street, was then the largest clothing store in town. His grandson was the internationally renowned drama critic and author, George Jean Nathan (1882-1958). The congregation secured its first spiritual leader in Reverend Joseph Salomon, who served as cantor and as teacher in the parochial school. In 1859, the “Fort Wayne Hebrew Society,” as the congregation informally called itself, purchased and remodeled the former Bethel German Methodist Episcopal Church at Wayne and Harrison streets and dedicated the new facility as the Synagogue Achduth Vesholom (Unity and Peace). Throughout its early years the congregation was orthodox and German, and its liturgical practice remained conservative. But under the leadership of Rabbi Edward Rubin, who served the congregation from 1862 until his death in 1881, many in the congregation were attracted to the Reform movement. It was led in America by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, who delivered a series of lectures in Fort Wayne. The congregation briefly split on the issue, but by 1872 the congregation was united in following the Reform teachings of Rabbi Ruben and in May 1847 it became a charter member of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the principal national Reform organization.

William Rockhill held title to the land the house resides on from 1824 to 1852, when it was sold to his daughter and son-in-law, Frederick and Mary (Rockhill) Tyler. William Rockhill had been appointed County Commissioner at the creation of Allen County in 1824. He served in several elected positions, including State Senator from 1844-1847 and a term as Congressman from northern Indiana from 1847-1849. Rockhill was also a builder. He received the contract for construction of a “treaty house” for Francis Godfroy in Blackford County in 1828. In 1834 he was contracted to build a portion of the first stretch of the Wabash and Erie Canal to Huntington. By 1838, he had built a home for himself along the canal near the corner of Van Buren and Greeley, and had begun construction of the “Rockhill House.” The “Rockhill House” was built as a luxury hotel, and took almost 20 years to construct. It became the nucleus of today’s St. Joseph Hospital in 1874, though that hospital has been demolished and replaced. Mary Rockhill married Frederick Tyler on August 19, 1846 at the Second Presbyterian Church. Frederick Tyler came to Fort Wayne around 1841-1842 and worked for William Rockhill. By 1850, he owned land, and was a ‘nursery man,’ meaning that he grew and sold fruit trees. He was originally from New York, was widowed, and had one daughter, Susan, born in 1844. Tyler was elected to office of Noble Grand, Fort Wayne Lodge, No. 14, IOOF, September 16, 1844. He also had a factory for making saleratus, known today as baking soda. The Mary Rockhill Tyler house is constructed in a hall-and-parlor style similar to William Rockhill’s own residence and matches descriptions of the Francis Godfroy Treaty House. All three were made of brick most likely made in the immediate area. It may have originally housed other Rockhill family members, farmhands, or other tenants who came to Fort Wayne during the 1830s to construct the Wabash and Erie Canal. The Mary Rockhill Tyler house is the oldest standing home in the West Central Historic District. The house was designed in the hall-and-parlor style. Constructed of brick on a rubble-stone foundation, the house originally had two rooms on the first floor and three bedrooms on the second floor. The roof of the house is made from cedar shake. In 1999, when ARCH obtained the home and started its restoration, the parlor had eight layers of wallpaper on the horse hair plaster walls. The original fireplace mantel and trim, cupboard, and remnants of the staircase and root cellar remained. While the house has a fireplace mantel and surround, no fireplace was ever built; instead, residents used a Franklin-type stove in the parlor and a cooking stove in the hall. The home never had plumbing, running water, or electricity, until 2022 when ARCH returned the home, which had been used as a garage, to usability as a home for the first time in a century. The 1850 Federal Census for Allen County lists seven people living in the Mary Rockhill Tyler house: Mary and her husband Frederick, and their children Susan, Frederick, and Daniel. They also had two boarders from Germany living with them: Henrietta Pregna and Henry Rasscan. Henry was listed in the census as a laborer and may have worked for Frederick Tyler or William Rockhill.

This site of the first French fort built at the three rivers in 1772 (destroyed in 1747) was the first public playground in the City of Fort Wayne. It was created by Addie Guldlin and other reformers in 1911 to ensure a safe place for children to play. It was a dream of the French, and especially the renowned 17th century explorer, Robert Sieur de La Salle, to create a wilderness empire that arced through the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River valley from Quebec to New Orleans. This empire would be firmly anchored on military and trading strongholds and Indian alliances. Because the Maumee-Wabash portage was the most direct link between New France in the upper Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, the Three Rivers region was particularly important. An outpost at the confluence of the rivers would become a key stronghold in a string of forts cutting through the heart of the wilderness from the area of Detroit to St. Louis. Other key French strongholds in Indiana were located in Lafayette (Fort Ouiatenon) and Vincennes. The French lived among the Miami at the Three Rivers as early as 1697 when Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, and Francois Marie Bissot De Vincennes, the son of Jean Baptiste, served as royal agents to the Miami. The elder Vincennes may have built a trading post at the Three Rivers as early as 1706, but the first fort was built in 1722 on this site by Captain Dubuisson upon the orders of the French governor in Quebec. The fortification was called Fort St. Philippe or Fort Miamis, was garrisoned by as many as thirty men, and commanded the portage between the St. Mary’s and Wabash Rivers. In the 1740s, tensions between France and England increased greatly over competing trading rights in the Midwestern frontier. In response to English expansion into the wilderness north of the Ohio River, the French sent several military expeditions to push the English out. Although some English traders were expelled, superior trade goods and other promises offered by the British merchant adventurers lured the region’s Native peoples to new English trading centers. In 1747, the Wyandot chief Sanosket, encouraged by the British, attacked and burned Fort St. Philippe, partially destroying it. He and his people, along with many of the area Miamis, moved to the new British trading post at Pickawillany, near modern Piqua, Ohio. Chief Cold Foot, a firm supporter of the French, remained at the Three Rivers, and the area around the first French fort came to be known as “Cold Foot’s Village.” A smallpox epidemic struck in 1751 and killed many of the Miamis, including Cold Foot and his son. A new French commandant, Captain Charles DeRaimond, repaired he fort in 1747 and used it for three years. When a senior French officer, Pierre Joseph Celoron, Sieur de Bienville, led his strong expedition through the region in 1749 to counter the British influence, he stopped at the dilapidated old Fort St. Philippe. Accompanying him was the priest and scientist, Pierre Joseph de Bonnecamps, who described the place at the same time as being “in very bad condition” with “eight miserable huts, which only the desire of making money could render endurable.” There were twenty-two French present, and everyone “had the fever,” including the commandant. The palisades were in ruins. A new fort was built the next year several miles away on the St. Joseph River. Many years later, in 1813, when the young United States was at war for the second time with Great Britain and the second American fort had withstood a siege by a large force of Indians, the supply expedition led by Major Joseph Jenkinson (who was coming to relieve the present commander, Captain Hugh Moore) was attacked along the St. Mary’s near present-day Guldlin Park. After a difficult effort to haul flat boats up the St. Mary’s from the supply depots in Ohio, the last boat became stuck on a sand bar off what is now called the Guldlin peninsula. While the boatmen were trying to get free of the bar, Indian warriors opened fire from ambush along the riverbank and killed two men outright. A third man drowned trying to escape. When soldiers from the fort reached the scene, the Indians fired again and escaped into the woods. The six-acre site of the first fort was developed as the city’s first playground through the efforts of Addie Guldlin, after whom the present-day park is named. Addie Guldlin, “a little woman but a dynamo of energy,” was active in the turn of the century “woman’s club movement,” which sought to improve communities through the “science of home economics for the masses on an urban scale.” Addie herself became nationally recognized in what was then called “domestic science” and led in such local efforts as the “clean yards movement,” the “window screens movement,” and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. She also was prominent in the movement to extend the vote to women and served as the state Director of Indiana’s Woman’s Franchise League. Concerned that children had no safe places to play in Fort Wayne, Addie Guldlin and several other “progressive” women used their club associations to raise the funds to create a large, safe place for hundreds of children to play, complete with elaborate playground equipment. The playground was located on the site of an abandoned city water pumping station and the very peninsula where nearly two centuries earlier the French had built their first fort. For weeks, Addie personally supervised the grading of the park and installation of the playground equipment. The playground was divided into a girls’ section and a boys’ section, with each having numerous swings, see-saws, wading pools, and sandboxes. The park was dedicated on May 20, 1911, and named in honor of the woman who had done so much to make it a reality. All this was swept away in the great flood of 1913.

This was the Harry Purvis Drug Store run by the first of the Purvis family who branched out with other Purvis drug stores. This one was complete with an old fashioned soda fountain and ornate tin ceiling of decoratively stamped metal panels. These were popular in the late 1800's and early 1900s and extremely durable but now quite rare and gone from the building now.

Headwaters Park was created as a means of flood control within the city by the citizens of Fort Wayne through their ideas, labor and donations. In 1912, George Kessler envisioned a plan of a green space for recreation within the great bend of the St. Mary’s River to absorb springtime floods. Robert Hanna’s park design that he submitted to the city in 1927 had a similar plan. The Indiana Department of Transportation also developed a plan for the flood plain in 1984. 1790 held the earliest recorded flood in Fort Wayne, four years before the city’s existence, when the settlement of the Kekionga Indians suffered from a rapid spring thaw and heavy rains. Before dikes were built, flood levels would get as high as 14 feet. By the 1920s, floods were more frequent and that number rose to nearly 20 feet. The worst flood on record for Fort Wayne was when the Maumee River rose overnight from 7 feet to over 26 feet in March of 1913. Fifteen thousand people were made homeless and six people lost their lives due to the dikes along the Lakeside neighborhood giving way. Mayor Jesse Grice ordered martial law with orders given to shoot looters. Fort Wayne saved itself then and would do so again in 1982 when a large volunteer effort was made to preserve the dikes against the second highest flood on record. At the ground breaking ceremony on Oct. 26, 1993, Headwaters Park was dedicated as the premier “Lasting Legacy” of the Fort Wayne Bicentennial Celebration and a monument to the citizens of the “City That Saved Itself.” Headwaters Park is located in “The Thumb” of the St. Mary’s River; before it became what it is today, it was used for several different things such as home to the circus in the 1850s and as the hanging grounds. Just north of the “Jail Flats,” it was used for this purpose until the 1880s. Sam McDonald’s hanging was the last public hanging in Fort Wayne. He was charged with the killing of Louis Laurent and hanged in 1883. League Park found a home at Headwaters Park until a fire destroyed it in 1930. In the 1930s, the park became a site for “Shantytowns”; the park was filled with makeshift shacks for the homeless who tried to live through the Depression. The shanties were razed in 1939 as the economy improved and in the 1950s the grounds were claimed for the circus. The rebirth of the thumb happened with the widening of Clinton Street. In the 1940s and 1950s, Headwaters Park was occupied with service stations, retail businesses, and car dealerships. Almost the entire park was comprised of businesses and parking lots by 1960. The concrete that lay in Headwaters Park did not help the effects of the floods and businesses were often devastated by the rising water of the rivers. The first Europeans to view the three rivers were probably Jesuit missionaries from Quebec. At the Three Rivers Filtration Plant there is a bronze statue to commemorate the unknown explorer who gave the rivers their names. Commissioned to create the 7-foot statue was the Joseph Parrot family and was designed by Fort Wayne artist Hector Garcia who completed the statue in 1976. The figure points to the spot where the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s rivers become the Maumee. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

As you walk west toward the center of town, you can move south on Green Street and west on Powers. You will be walking through a large section of old New Haven that is very varied. Some houses date from the canal era of the 1800s, others span about a hundred years of building, some having been given more modern alterations quite recently. It is notable how different this is from present-day developments, which may have charm but tend to be in very uniform styles and even color schemes. Also, it is notable that most streets have long had side walks while many later suburban subdivisions do not. It is a place where everyone can and does walk to their destination. Houses vary from the imposing pillared brick house on the south side of the easternmost block of Powers to the simple and era houses at 1108, 944, and 916 Powers and on the south side of its street.

Turning west on Bell Avenue on the North side of the street are two nice examples of so-called bungalow-style houses with very solid porches and roofs that sweep down to them. These are from 1920 and are one more example of the varied styles pyramids that you can see if you choose to explore several of the blocks around town.

The Hugh McCulloch house was built in 1843 in the Greek Revival Style by architect Henry Williams, who was known as the “southern architect” of Fort Wayne. The house was sited on the highest point, with a broad front lawn extending down to the canal, and a steep slope to the north, to the river. Originally the two-story house was perfectly balanced, with a porch on the left, a greenhouse on the right, and four stately square columns in front. A cupola graced the center roof. The grounds, which encompassed all the area between the river and the Wabash & Erie Canal, west to Van Buren Street, were surrounded by a tall white picket fence and filled with fruit trees and grape arbors. In 1862, an Italianate style addition was added to the rear of the house. Other additions to the house were made and by the mid -1860s the house was a blend of Classical Revival and Italianate style elements which resulted in a curious combination of masses and embellishments. By the 1870s, when the estate was the boyhood home of J. Ross McCulloch, the area was popular with children who swam in the shallow, sandy bend in the St. Mary’s River behind the house. After the McCullochs moved, the building housed the Fort Wayne College of Medicine between 1892 and 1905. In 1906, it was purchased by the Fort Wayne Turnverein (“The Turners”), a popular German athletic club. The Turnverein extensively altered the old building to accommodate their needs, raising the roof, removing the cupola, enclosing the wings, replacing he square columns with round ones, and turning the top-floor ballroom into a gymnasium. In later years, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers operated a realty company from the house, and in 1978 the building was given to ARCH, which preserved the old mansion until it was rehabilitated by the owners of Bireley Antiques. The builder of the home was Hugh McCulloch, one of the nation’s leading financial figures in the mid-nineteenth century. Born in Kennebunk, Maine in 1808, McCulloch attended Bowdoin College, studied law in Boston and came to the pioneer village of Fort Wayne in 1833 with a letter of recommendation from Daniel Webster. He became a Judge of the Probate Court in 1834, and in 1835 he was named cashier and branch manager of the newly formed State Bank of Indiana. He was promoted to bank president in 1856. McCulloch was prominent in finance and participated in Whig party politics, which allowed him to know most of the important families in Fort Wayne at the time. His memoires, “Men and Measures of Half a Century,” contains character sketches of Fort Wayne’s early men of prominence and constitutes a major source for local, as well as national history. McCulloch married Susan Mann in 1838. A native of Plattsburg, New York, Susan Mann was one of the first school teachers in Fort Wayne, having arrived by pirogue in 1836 at age eighteen to conduct a school. Always a community leader, Susan hosted in the McCulloch home the meeting of the great abolitionist pastors of the Beecher family, which included Lyman and sons Henry Ward and Charles, where they planned the future of the second Presbyterian Church, the present day Westminster Presbyterian Church. Lyman’s daughter, Harriett, also an abolitionist and later author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, did not attend. In 1863, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase called on Hugh McCulloch to accept the new position of Comptroller of the Currency, a position from which he launched the national banking system. Two years later, in 1865, President Lincoln named him to be Secretary of the Treasury, a position he continued to hold in the administrations of Presidents Johnson and Arthur. He was the last person to whom President Lincoln wrote before the assassination and was at the President’s bedside when he died. After Lincoln’s assassination, McCulloch remained in Andrew Johnson’s cabinet and fought Congress to retire the greenbacks issued by the government during the Civil War. When he left office in 1869, he became a partner in a London banking house with Jay Cooke. McCulloch served briefly (1884-1885) as President Chester Arthur’s Secretary of the Treasury. McCulloch served as the United States Ambassador to Great Britain before he died in 1895. He retired to “Holly Hill” in Prince George’s county, Maryland, where he died in 1895.

James J. Wood, a consulting engineer for the General Electric plant in Fort Wayne, built this home in 1888. He was one of G.E.'s most prolific inventors and held 240 patents. An accomplished electrical engineer, he patented his first invention in 1880, the Arc Light Dynamo. In 1885, he installed the first floodlight system at the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. He designed the electrical parts of the internal combustion engine for early submarines and the machine that constructed the cables for the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1902 in Fort Wayne, he invented the first electric fan. George A. and Ethel J. Jacobs purchased the home from the Woods after their arrival in Fort Wayne. In 1911 George and Ethel Jacobs had invented the process of making insulated wire and moved to Fort Wayne, where they formed the Dudlo Wire Company. Dudlo was the pioneer leader in magnet wire manufacturing, leading to Fort Wayne's pre-eminence as the magnet wire capital of the world. This house is on the National Register of Historic Places and is in a Local Historic District.

The Journal was founded by Thomas Taylor and Samuel Hanna in 1868 and absorbed the Gazette in 1899. They founded the Journal as a Republican paper, whereas the Sentinel was a Democratic paper. The Journal Gazette was published by Edward G. Hoffman and Lew Ellingham in 1916. Erected in 1871, this building was remodeled in 1927 to be the home of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette newspaper.

A change in local newspaper publication occured in 1950, resulting in the creation of Fort Wayne Newspapers Inc. for the unified production of both evening and morning newspapers. The printing plant for the Journal Gazette was in the News-Sentinel Building that was built in 1926 on Washington Boulevard and Barr Street. This building later became the Foellinger Center for United Community Services. The Journal-Gazette building was located at the southwest corner of Clinton and Main streets.

On July 26, 1956, ground was broken at 600 W. Main St. for a new building for the publishing of the Fort Wayne Newspapers.

The entire modern Lakeside area of Fort Wayne was the site of Native American settlements for as long as 10,000 years. The settlement known as Kekionga was home of the Miami Nation, and in the 1970s it was the center of the Miami Confederacy, including such other tribes as the Huron, Shawnee and Ottawa. European records of the Miami date from 1654, when they were living in and around the Green Bay, Wisconsin area. The Miami then were far from their native land, which was around the lower Great Lakes. Many of the Miami tribes were being pushed out of their homelands by the Iroquois, who were armed and backed by the Dutch and English, who believed the Miami and other western Indians had befriended their French rivals. The Miami had six clans and numerous groups but did not have a central chief or king. However, they did have chiefs of certain villages, especially those that held several bands. Kekionga, known to the Americans as “the center of Indian resistance,” was surrounded by fields of corn, squash and beans. Many had envied the land which these settlements had occupied. Within the land were rich gardens, cattle, and dome shaped residences called wiccias, plus it was valued for its control of the best portage between the Great Lakes and Wabash River, giving access to the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico. According to tradition, Kekionga had the meaning of a sacred and ancient place to the Miami people. In the springtime, the scattered families from all the bands would leave their winter grounds and come to Kekionga. Here, they would prepare their fields, conduct business and ready themselves for war. Kekionga remained a successful, economically and culturally, Native American dwelling until all Native Americans were forcefully removed from all of Indiana in 1846. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

On Sept. 18, 1794, General Anthony Wayne and his army arrived at the head of the Maumee River. Within a month, a fort was completed and named Fort Wayne. Colonel Hamtramck was given command of the garrison while the main part of the army headed home from Greenville, Ohio, for the winter. This first U.S. Fort Wayne was built of round logs and located at the northwest corner of the present-day intersection of Berry and Clay streets. Fort Wayne became headquarters for the group of Americans post in the west and Hamtramck went on to Detroit to receive the last British post on U.S. territory in March of 1796. Major Thomas Pasteur succeeded Colonel Hamtramck as commander of Fort Wayne. Major Thomas Pasteur served two years and was followed by Colonel Thomas Hunt. A new fort was built to replace Wayne’s original construction during Hunt's three years of service. This new fort was built at what is now the northwest corner of the intersection of East Main and Clay Streets, also known as Old Fort Park. This fort was to provide protection for the garrison and pioneer inhabitants during the Tecumseh uprising and the siege of the 1812 War. Harrison returned to Vincennes and took steps for a campaign against Prophets Town on the Tippecanoe River; the result of which was the Battle of Tippecanoe. The adopted son of Little Turtle, William Wells who later became a Native American agent at Fort Wayne, was killed by Native Americans in his attempt to help evacuate the Fort Dearborn garrison in the war with the British and the Native Americans. The Native Americans were determined to capture the Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison (Terre Haute). Unfortunately, Captain James Rhea was in command of Fort Wayne at the time and he neglected his responsibilities of command due to his frequent consumption of alcohol. Those in the fortification were relieved to hear that an army of Kentuckians under William Henry Harrison was on its way to lift the siege. Evacuated safely to Piqua, Ohio, were 25 women and children; however, when Stephen Johnson snuck out of the fort to see his wife in Piqua, he was shot and scalped on what is now east Lewis Street. Major John Whistler was in command of Fort Wayne in 1814. Whistler had previously helped Wayne build the original fort and he had helped build and served as commandant of the Dearborn fort. During the period of 1814-1816 another and the last of the U.S. forts was built. This fort was the most substantial of all the forts built at Fort Wayne and is the model the Old Fort Committee of the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society used for its reconstruction. The fort was built on the same location as the Hunt fort. In 1819, all troops were transferred to other posts, leaving Fort Wayne abandoned. Major Stuckney, the Native American agent, was in care of the fort; he leased some of the rooms to families or individuals who needed them. At one point Reverend Isaac McCoy, a Baptist missionary, held a school in some of the rooms of the fort. As the years went on, logs from the fort were removed by people for building purposes and in the 1830s the fort grounds were disturbed by the digging of the Wabash and Erie Canal bed which passed through the garrison. The fort remained at its location until it rotted down and in 1852 the last building was torn down; souvenir canes were made from some of its timbers. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Construction of Indiana's first skyscraper began a month before the October 1929 stock market crash and was completed in 1930. Lincoln Tower was Indiana’s first skyscraper, home of the Lincoln Bank, originally founded by Theodore Wentz and Samuel Foster on May 20, 1905 as the German-American Bank. Lincoln Tower has 22 stories and is 312 feet high. Inside the main entrance are seven bronze panels that depict scenes from Abraham Lincoln’s life. The main banking lobby is 85 feet wide, 110 feet long, and two stories high. Inside the lobby are two murals that symbolize elements of nature and signs of the zodiac that are depicted on the lobby’s ceiling. Building materials that were used in the construction of the main lobby are Milford granite, Italian travertine marble, hand wrought bronze, Vermont marble, and Indiana limestone. The soda fountain in the snack shop is the original fountain and is still in use today. The murals inside the Lincoln Tower were done by Glenn M. Shaw who worked for a year in preparing the artwork seen on the bank's walls and ceiling. Shaw described his murals as follows:

The allegory represented in the decoration in the Lincoln National Bank and Trust Company of Fort Wayne refers to the energizing properties of the sun. The sun is represented by the gold disk in the center of the ceiling decoration (representing the course of energy) surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. The flame design and the long golden rays, terminating with hands, refer to the radiating energy of the sun, this being an ancient Egyptian symbol, while the cloud forms represent the nebulae of the heavens.

The panel (lunet form) opposite the entry is entitled “The Reception of Energy” and is symbolized by the central female figure. She symbolizes the fecundity of the earth and is identified by the triangle, or “Delta,” character above her head, which refers to the female principle in nature. She is surrounded by the natural resources of nature: at the right, Agriculture and Stock; at the left, Fisheries, Mining, and Water Power.

The two sculptural figures super-imposed on this panel represent “Spring,” at the left, and “Summer,” at the right.

The panel at the opposite end of the room is entitled “The diffusion of Energy” and is symbolized by the central male figure. The symbol above his head is the “Cruxansala” and indicates the male principle in nature. At the right is “Commerce” with the globe and winged caduceus; behind her is “Science” with a retort; above him is “Labor” with sledge and anvil; and behind him is “Justice” with palm.

The figures at the left are: “Music” with lyre; “Education,” the old man with scroll and boy looking on; and “Architecture” holding an ionic capital in his hands.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Chief Little Turtle was born around 1752 near a small village along the Eel River, just northeast of present day Columbia City. Little Turtle was known as Mihshihkinaahkwa to his Miami people, but to the rest of the U.S. during his time, he was one of the most feared and respected leaders during the frontier wars.

Little Turtle rose to prominence as a warrior in 1780 when he destroyed the United States irregulars of Colonel Auguste LaBalme. LaBalme attacked the Miami town of Kekionga (present day Fort Wayne), and Little Turtle drove his forces out. However, the attacks on Kekionga continued. On October 22, 1790, Little Turtle assembled troops from the surrounding regions to battle and eventually defeat General Josiah Harmar and his U.S. troops, who were sent by President George Washington.

It was not until 1794 that the U.S., under General Anthony Wayne, defeated the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in Ohio. Little Turtle had insight about the strengths of Wayne’s army and did not lead the Indians in this battle. Little Turtle received his intel from Wayne’s Chief of Spies (and Little Turtle’s son-in-law), William Wells.

After Little Turtle ended his military career, he became a diplomat for his people. He was a principal negotiator for the Indians at the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. He made several trips to Washington D.C. and met with Presidents Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

Little Turtle died peacefully on July 14, 1812. His grave was found a century after his death on Lawton Place. His memorial was created in 1959 through the generosity of Eleanor Smeltzly and Mary Catherine Smeltzly under the sponsorship of the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society. His memorial now serves as a small local park.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

As reads the Old Historic Marker located on Berry Street: “Mother George Civil War Nurse 1808 to 1865. The first Fort Wayne home of Mrs. Eliza E. George was near this spot. At the age of 54 she helped to make Civil War nursing history. Mother George, as she was known to thousands of Union soldiers, served with front line troops in Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina. Time after time she braved Confederate gunfire to comfort the sick and wounded. Mother George died at her post in Wilmington, North Carolina on May 9, 1865, a victim of typhoid fever contracted from returning prisoners."

Eliza “Mother” George was born in Bridgeport, Vermont and moved to Fort Wayne sometime before 1850. Her daughter, also named Eliza, married Sion Bass who moved to Fort Wayne from Kentucky in 1849. In 1863 Eliza George applied for duty with the Sanitary Commission, which was the forerunner of the Army Nurse Corps. A month after the war in 1865, Mrs. Eliza George passed away. Her body was brought back to Fort Wayne and buried in Lindenwood Cemetery with full military honors. Later that year the Indiana Sanitary Commission and the Fort Wayne Ladies Aid erected a monument in her memory at Lindenwood Cemetery.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Canal Landing Park, directly east across the street from the 1913 building, is literally placed where you could have stepped off a canal boat almost 200 years ago. The Wabash and Erie Canal’s route lay immediately on the north side of this park. You could have traveled slowly but smoothly to Toledo or to Evansville a total of 468 miles. At that time, paved roads did not exist and the Maumee River’s connection to other places was far more dangerous and irregular in flow.

A short distance from where the lock timbers lie is the buried place of Joseph Gronauer, the keeper of the lock named for him. He was born in 1805 and died in 1872, having been the only keeper of that lock during its years of service. His tombstone in St. John’s Catholic Cemetery is marble and quite impressive for that date and his station.
The route of the canal whose lock he cared for runs south of Rose Avenue a couple of hundred yards from where both he and the timbers lie. One can faintly see its track as a depression in the ground. Less than a mile from here along what is now US 24 is where the lock was uncovered in 1991 during the construction of the intersection of Route 24 and the new bypass 469. Route 24 started as the cow path walked by the animals pulling the canal boats and gradually grew into a major highway. This lock is the most complete wooden one ever unearthed successfully along the 468-mile canal route. Many were stone structures.

This Indiana limestone structure, built in 1913, served as the city hall and fire station. It also served as the police station until 1999, when the new City Hall and police station were built. This was the physical center of the old downtown, as well as being its governmental center. Originally, it had an open work bell tower on top to which the fire hoses were hauled up and hung to dry.

Just to the east of the new city hall, at the corner of Broadway amid the Lincoln Highway and adjoining the east edge of the city hall property is the site of the Interurban electric train station. This service ran short two or three car trains on its own track with overhead electric power on poles. It ran hourly at 40 miles per hour or so between Lima, Ohio, and Fort Wayne. To the east, it mostly ran close to what is now Route 30 east. In New Haven, at this point, it very closely parallels the steam train trails. It must have seemed an amazing convenience and one that would be nice now: being quiet, clean, prompt, and frequent. It served as a wonderful commuter service for workers and shoppers from 1904 to the 1930s, when bus services took over and private cars became ever more common. Later, the station building was repurposed as a gas station serving cars on the Lincoln Highway. This was the first paved coast to coast highway from New Haven to San Francisco. It followed what was called the Ridge Road, now Route 30, with New Haven from the east. Then came into central New Haven, where it bears the Lincoln Highway name today and closely parallels the Wabash Railroad a few hundred feet north and is still very active as Norfolk and Southerner’s mainline. It is also immediately adjacent to what was the Interurban right of way, which can only be remembered by some of the houses east and west of Broadway being set further back from the highway because they existed at the same time of the Interurban and allowed for its space. The highway was paved in concrete in the 1920s.

If, walking along Main Street, you see the Railroad Depot to the south, you can turn north into Moser Park and walk into an area that has undergone dramatic changes. Near the entrance is the park the canal route cut through on its way west toward Fort Wayne. The slight remains of that can be seen in a bit of a depression in the ground, heading out of the park east and another brush filled out heading somewhat northeast beyond the railroad. The railroad itself had a much sharper curve in it coming into the park from the north on the east and west side of the pond. After three disastrous crashes, the rail was straightened to a much less abrupt curve running along the west side of the pond. The land that much of the park sits on is (or was) known as Bruch’s Pasture. The Bruch family pastured their cows there and many people coming on the train would picnic there. Mr. John Henry Bruch was the station master in the late 1800s. The land carries on as a picnic place in its life as a New Haven Park.

If you choose to walk east along Rose Avenue from the north end of Moser Park, you will cross Lincoln Road, which changes names to Broadway as it goes south in the town center. Then a block further east you can turn north onto Rufus Street. This small street, until 1966, was the main north entrance to town. As such, it was very well travelled in the early to mid-1900s. As automobile traffic increased, a Mr. George Harade saw a good opportunity and turned the summer kitchen of his house into a gas station. He moved it out front to the edge of Rufus Street where it did a busy trade from about 1917-1958.
In the 1990s, when it was in danger of being demolished, it was acquired by the Park Department, and moved a couple hundred feet north of its original location and restored. It was turned to face somewhat northeast at the entrance to Havenhurst Park, rather than directly onto Rufus.
The Hazet house which has changed owners several times still stands much as it was when the gas station was in front of it.

If you go west from Broadway along West Main Street, you walk along one of the oldest streets in town, with many fine houses from the late eighteen and early 1900s. They are in varying styles, from ornate wood-sided Victorian to very solid brick. Among them, on the southeast corner of Morris and High Street, is a striking house which belonged to Emma and Olen Pond. The latter is commemorated in Fort Wayne’s Memorial Park by the marble sculpture Emma commissioned in his honor.
Those days, this street was home to many of the most influential names in New Haven’s history. It would have been a very desirable area, within walking distance of the growing number of stores in town and of the railroad station.
In spite of this, the streets in central New Haven only became paved after 1920. They remained dirt, even when the sidewalks were paved. These were paved in cement laid by crews with horse drawn equipment.

About a mile north on the northeast corner of the junction of Lincoln and Parrot roads stands the closest of the few remaining one room schoolhouses. It is now in residential use and lacks the bell tower that it had in its life as St. Joseph Township School #7 Burchandt School. It was built in 1898 and served till 1936. There were many such schools throughout the country, as elsewhere, and most children walked to school. Another stands east of town at the junction of Doyle and Edgerton roads.

This Quonset Hut is one of many that sprang up in the 1940s and is itself a good example of the low cost, practical, and adaptable building of that era. Thousands were used for overseas military housing. They could easily be shipped and then assembled with little equipment or carpentry. They are a virtually zero maintenance structure with a self-supporting open arch interior space that can be divided suitably for many uses.

The Wabash Railroad Depot was built in 1886, just to the west of State Street and beside the original route of the Wabash Railroad, which first came through town in 1856. The building served through two World Wars until 1964 for passengers and freight. It was then abandoned in 1988, acquired by the New Haven Dream Heritage Association.
The Association, with the aid of a Federal TE grant, achieved a full restoration of it in 2012. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and has taken on a new life as a trail head for the greenway trail from New Haven to Fort Wayne. Thus, it again serves a transportation related function. It is now owned and managed by the Park Department.
It is a very nice example, the only one remaining in Allen County, of Victorian small scale industrial design. Many were similar, wooden, small, and easy to build with available materials.

At the dead end of High Street, just to the north of Main street, there is a single unusual house. It is a remaining one of many sold as kits by Sears Roebuck through their mail order catalog. These were delivered in a series of boxes, delivered by wagon and containing everything down to nails and doorknobs. They were of remarkably good quality as its state testifies today.

Coming south over the railroad and turning east along Center Street takes you past far more modest houses of later development than the comparatively grand houses on Main Street. Then turning south on High Street, one comes to a site between High and Broadway, along the north side of Lincoln Highway. This once held significant industries that would have employed many of the residents from Center Street, on ‘the other side of the tracks,’ from the elegant homes on Main. It was the location of a major pump company in 1914. Subsequently, it became the home of the silk knitting mill and later that of Bennett Clothing Factory, both important employers in New Haven. The new city hall and police station, built in 1999, demolished most of the building but incorporated a bit of it into the western police station end.

As you cross Rose Avenue, heading north on New Haven’s greenway trail, you are crossing the only road that you need to cross on a seven-mile paved bike and hike trail that follows the Maumee River echoing Native American’s riverside paths. A couple hundred feet west on the north side of Rose Avenue is an Italianate brick farmhouse built in 1870. It was the Thimlar homestead from the late 1800s to 1986. In fact, the older record books in the County Recorder’s office show Thimlar Road as the name of what is now called Rose. This house sits on the southeast side of what was a 97-acre tract and was the very first farm in Adams Township. One Jesse Adams from Rochester, New York came west and, after serving as a doctor for the fort, came downstream and laid claim to acreage which stretched between what is now the north end of Hartzell Road on the west and where Landin Road is on the east. His deed is dated 1825 and signed by President John Quincy Adams in whose honor Jesse said he named the township. As a more educated man he was a leader in the fledgling community. The first burial ground was near the river around where West Street River is. Church services were held in his cabin. It was a hewn log structure on a slight rise which is barely visible in the field east of West Street houses. No sign of it remains. The 97 acres were divided in the later 1800s. The Thimlars had the eastern 45 acres or so and built, the rather ground brick, home for a farming family of the time. The early generations were obviously successful and saw themselves as important, evidenced by the impressive family burial plot with a granite angel carving near the entrance of the IOOF Cemetery on Hartzell Road.

The first newspaper to circulate the homes of Fort Wayne was the weekly paper, The Sentinel, which was first published July 6, 1833. Thomas Tigar was the editor for this Democratic paper. Tigar also happened to establish the first printing press for this paper which was located on west Columbia Street. By 1861, The Sentinel was now a daily publication and went on to merge with another local paper, Dawson Times. This merger created the Times and Sentinel. The paper would be known as The Democrat from 1866-1873, eventually going back to its original publication name, The Sentinel by late 1873. In the late 19th century Fort Wayne had yet another popular daily newspaper that residents rushed to the stands to read. The Fort Wayne Daily News was first published in 1874. This paper was known to be a Republican newspaper and would be known as the local "people's paper." Because of the financial success this paper became, it would go on to purchase The Sentinel in 1917. The newly formed company, The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, published its first paper on January 1, 1918. Oscar Foellinger became the publisher of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel in 1920. In 1925 he had a new building constructed at the corner of Washington Blvd. and Barr Street in downtown Fort Wayne to house this new company. Oscar Foellinger held his position as publisher until his death in 1936. His daughter Helene would retain the role of publisher for decades until selling the newspaper and her interest in Fort Wayne Newspapers to Knight Ridder Newspapers in the early 1980s. In 1950, the two lead papers of Fort Wayne, The News Sentinel and Fort Wayne Journal Gazette entered into a joint partnership, known as Fort Wayne Newspapers, to share common printing facilities and business operations but not news operations. In 1958, both newspapers began publishing at what is now known as the Fort Wayne Newspapers building at 600 W. Main Street. Since 1958, the News Sentinel Building has been headquarters of many non-profit organizations such as United Way and Brightpoint. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

“The price we paid for it, it ought to be nickel plated,” said William H. Vanderbilt who purchased the new railroad. Construction of the railroad took place from 1881 through 1882 on the site of the old Wabash & Erie Canal. The right-of-way was later purchased by the New York Central Railroad, which was known as "The Nickel Plate Road." The tracks were elevated in 1956. Its most famous locomotive was erected in 1944 and operated out of the East Wayne Yard on the eastside of Fort Wayne. In 1963, an Engine 765 was donated to the city of Fort Wayne because it was the engine that officially opened the elevation of the Nickel Plate Railroad. On May 4th, disguised as 767, it was placed in Lawton Park where it sat on display until 1973 when weather conditions caused its removal. The Berkshire steam engine was completely overhauled back to working conditions by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society Inc. (FWRHS). Restoration started in 1975 and ended in 1979 and moved to New Haven; 765 is still in use today. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Fort Wayne was one of the most important Pennsylvania Railroad centers in the nation, due to the complex of shops where locomotives and cars were designed, built, tested, and repaired or overhauled. Hundreds of locomotives and thousands of railroad cars were built here, including some of the most luxurious passenger cars in the nation.

An Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society marker states: "Terminal point where French-Canadian boats, hollowed from 30–60-foot poplar logs, brought families and cargo up the Maumee River from Toledo and Detroit, and returned furs to Lake Erie in exchange for trader’s supplies from the late 1700s until the canal era of the 1840s.” Pirogues had been a means of navigating the Midwestern rivers. Constructed from poplar trees, because they were one of the most plentiful resources in the region, fur-traders used pirogues to haul heavy quantities of furs and goods in and out of the wilderness. In 1819, the last detachment of soldiers at Fort Wayne left the garrison by pirogue, carrying in the boats their heavy artillery. An account of the arrival of Johnny Appleseed in Fort Wayne recalled, “That in 1830 he was seen one autumn day, seated in a section of a hollow tree, which improvised for a boat, laden with apple seeds fresh from the cider presses of a more eastern part of the country, paddling up the Maumee River, landing at Wayne’s fort, in Fort Wayne.” Susan Mann and Alida Hubbell, the first women to teach in Fort Wayne, came to the town by pirogue from the mouth of the Maumee in 1836. The pirogue began to be replaced by boats and then canal boats by the mid-1830s. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Hired by the local Presbyterian congregation in 1837, Alexander T. Rankin spoke against slavery and was an organizer for the American Antislavery Society in Indiana. The brother of nationally prominent Underground Railroad agent John Rankin of Ohio, Rankin also assisted fugitives on their trek to freedom. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places and listed as a Local Historic District.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Robert C. Bell, a prominent attorney, served Indiana's General Assembly from 1874 through 1886. His wife Clara Wolf Bell helped found the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. The home of Judge Lindley and Beulah Ninde was once next door and had important ties to the Underground Railroad. The Nindes were also early and active organizers of the Indiana Women's Rights Association in the 1850s. The Bell House is on the National Register of Historic Places. The residence of Robert C. Bell was built in 1884. The distinctive Richardsonian style was one of the earliest designs of the prominent Fort Wayne architectural firm of Wing and Mahurin (who also designed the Old City Hall and the Elektron Building). The stone used for the exterior of the residence is native Indiana limestone. The wood used for framing and support, along with interior decorations came from the Jacob Klett & Sons Lumber Yard & Planing Mill. Robert Bell was a leading attorney in Fort Wayne in the late nineteenth century and served as a senator in the state General Assembly from 1874 to 1886. He was born in 1844 in Clarksburg (the town was named after his grandfather), Decatur County, Indiana, and served in the Eighth Indiana Regiment of Volunteers during the Civil War. After attending law school at the University of Michigan, he began practicing law in Muncie as an assistant to the state Attorney General. He moved to Fort Wayne in 1871. Among his partners in his Fort Wayne law firm was William H. Miller, who served as United States Attorney General under President Benjamin Harrison. As a leading Indiana Democrat, he was a close friend with the perennial Democratic nominee for the presidency, William Jennings Bryan, who visited the Bell mansion four times and once gave a speech from the porch on the virtues of the silver standard. Robert Bell died in his home in 1901; the family continued to own the residence until 1904 when Mrs. Bell sold it to William K. Nobel. William K. Nobel was born on December 5, 1862 in Van Wert, Ohio. In 1904, he opened an office in Fort Wayne for his lumber company and cooperage jobbing business, which operated throughout the states of Indiana, Michigan, and Missouri. Mr. Nobel’s son, Kenneth, was President of the Nobel Machine Company, which is still in operation today in Fort Wayne. In 1926, William Nobel and his wife Laura sold the home to William R. Klaehn, for his funeral business, Klaehn Funeral Home. William Nobel died on May 26, 1935 and was put to rest in Lindenwood Cemetery. His wife, Laura Law, died five years later on April 4, 1940.

A rare example of a house designed by the firm of Wing & Mahurin, this house is a fine example of the Queen Anne style. McDonald was an electric lighting pioneer who founded Jenney Electric, which became the local General Electric plant. The house was later owned by department store owner Myron Dessauer. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Local Historic District.

This is where the lock was uncovered in 1991 during the construction of the intersection of Route 24 and the new bypass 469. Route 24 started as the cow path walked by the animals pulling the canal boats and gradually grew into a major highway. This is the most complete wooden lock ever unearthed successfully along the 468-mile canal route. Many were stone structures.

Methodist minister Samuel Brenton became Fort Wayne's first Republican congressman and vigorously opposed the extension of slavery into western territories. The Reverend Samuel S. Brenton was born in 1810 in Gallatin County, Kentucky. Ordained in the Methodist ministry at the age of 20, he first served as a circuit rider in southern Indiana. When his health failed in 1834, he became a local preacher, studied law and was admitted to the bar, and twice was elected as a representative from Hendricks County to the state legislature. At the end of his second term in 1841, his health had sufficiently improved to permit his return to the active ministry. In 1846, he was appointed pastor of the Berry Street Church in Fort Wayne, and the following year he was named presiding elder (superintendent) of the Fort Wayne district. In 1848, he suffered a paralytic stroke and lost the use of the right side of his body. By May 1849, however, he was able to “get about on crutches” and had recovered sufficiently to be named to the post of Registrar of the United States Land Office in Fort Wayne. In 1851, Brenton declared his candidacy for Congress as representative from the Tenth Congressional District. In his speeches, Brenton opposed the extension of slavery outside the old South and urged that the western territories be preserved as “free soil.” He also called for “the entire and unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, believing it immoral, unnecessary and uncalled for.” One consistent theme was his assertion that “he was independent of all parties, always thought and acted for himself, and that no party could or should dictate to him.” Brenton went against the democratic tide and won. During his first term in Congress he purchased the lot on the northwest corner of Wayne and Van Buren streets and soon erected the town’s first Italianate-style residence. That home is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is listed as a Local Historic District. In his bid for reelection in 1852, Brenton was defeated in the wake of the disintegration of the Whig party. Soon afterwards, he was named president of the Fort Wayne College. Five years before, Brenton had given the principal address at the laying of the cornerstone of the college, and he had been tireless in recruiting teachers. In 1849, he had urged the trustees to establish a “male department,” which soon became the Fort Wayne Collegiate Institute; a month after Brenton assumed the presidency, these two institutions were formally merged to become the Fort Wayne College. In 1854, Brenton entered the race for his former seat in Congress as a Free Soil candidate and won the election. In 1856, under the banner of the newly founded Republican Party, he was reelected. Brenton’s deteriorating health, however, did not allow him to return for the opening of the Thirty-Fifth Congress. He died in Fort Wayne on March 29, 1857, at the age of forty-six and was laid to rest in Lindenwood Cemetery. Samuel Brenton’s house is an exceptional example of Italianate-style architecture. The brick home features many ornate elements, such as the windows with window hoods in differing designs, and embellished eaves with decorative brackets in pairs and singles connected by a modillion course. Smooth, round columns topped with Ionic capitals support the full-width front porch.

In 1750 French leaders announced the old French fort in Fort Wayne along the St. Mary’s river was no longer livable. They decided to build a new fort, called Fort St. Joseph. This fort would be closer to the Miami settlement of Kekionga. However, by the time the French had built their new fort, they had lost the friendship and alliance of the local Native Americans. The Indians had changed over their alliance to the British, in part due to their more attractive trading endeavors. In 1755, at the outbreak of the French and Indian War, the French surrendered to the British and also surrendered Fort St. Joseph. In 1760, the Fort was then occupied by Lieutenant John Butler and his men. All French power that was once in the Old Northwest Territories was handed over to British authorities.

The British alliance with the Indians did not last long and quickly declined. This was because of many reasons, including broken promises, arrogant traders, and withheld gifts. The Native Americans throughout the Great Lakes region had enough of the British and were determined to drive them out of their region. One act of this was deemed “Pontiac’s Rising,” of 1763.

At Fort St. Joseph, now renamed Fort Miami, the British were preparing for battle, once three of their soldiers were killed by the Miami on May 25, 1763. Robert Holmes, in charge of a small barracks, ordered the fort closed and prepared for siege. Holmes didn’t use caution though and got caught in a trap designed by the Indians. He followed a young Indian woman who said a fellow native woman was ill and needed help. Holmes didn’t see any reason to doubt this young woman; however, as he followed her, two muskets appeared and shot Holmes to death. This story exemplifies the quick decrease of power and fall of Fort Miami.

The Indians of the region for the next 30 years enjoyed not having British soldiers control the barracks of the Fort. During these years, the Indians, notably the Miami, emerged at the headwaters of the Maumee River. This area would eventually draw Indians from all around the region and a large settlement would become known as Kekionga. These tribes gathered and were brought together all sharing the hatred of the American intruders from the east.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Organized by Rev. Jesse Hoover on October 14, 1837, with a congregation of 24 families, it was the first Lutheran church in the Fort Wayne area. A school was organized by Rev. Hoover the same year. Originally known as the First Evangelical Lutheran Church, the present name was adopted in 1846 when it became part of the newly formed Missouri Synod. Historical Marker Text: In 1836, Reverend Jesse Hoover arrived in the Fort Wayne area and immediately gathered the growing number of German Lutherans for worship either in the courthouse or a schoolhouse. A year later, the "First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne" was formally organized. Fort Wayne pioneer Samuel Hanna gave the church land on the west side of Barr Street at Lewis Street to erect a church. In the summer of 1839, a building along with a parsonage was constructed under the leadership of Pastor Frederick Wyneken. In spring of 1846, the English-speaking Lutherans withdrew from the church to form Trinity English Lutheran Church; the remaining German-speaking congregation formed the German Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's Church. While under leadership of Reverend Wilhelm Sihler, who was also founder of Concordia Theological Seminary of Fort Wayne, the congregation converted its chapel to a school and built a larger chapel. An even larger brick building was built in 1889. This building was damaged greatly by a large fire in 1903. The foundation and standing walls were repaired as a new church was erected using the design and foundations of the old church. In the late 1940s, extensive restoration and renovation was done, so that the church could serve the congregation well into the future. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

The first church was built on this site in 1849 by the German-speaking members of the Catholic community and was dedicated to St. Mary. This early church was replaced in 1858 with a Gothic-style building which was destroyed by a boiler explosion in 1886. That church was destroyed by fire from a lightning strike in 1993. The current structure was erected in 1998.

Tacumwah was the most prominent woman among the Miami people during the years of the war between the Native Americans and the United States. Tacumwah was a successful businesswoman and ran a successful trading post west of Kekionga, in which she did business in the sale of supplies, horses, and carts to those who were crossing the portage. Tacumwah, also known as Maria Louisa, married Antoine Joseph Drouet de Richardville, a lesser French nobleman. The son of Antoine-Joseph Drouet de Richardville and Tacumwah was Jean Baptiste Richardville, known also by his Indian name, Pechewa or Pinsiwa (“Wildcat”). He was born in a cabin under an old apple tree in the Miami village located at the foot of the Columbia Street Bridge in the present-day Lakeside district. This site was respected by members of the tribe and recognized as historically significant by the early settlers. According to a story recounted in the mid-19th century, an Indian warrior climbed the ancient apple tree every day for several days to harass the soldiers in the fort, but, finally, a gunman in the battalion killed the taunting warrior with an astonishing musket shot at “a distance of many hundred yards.” Tacumwah and the “Old Apple Tree” have long been intertwined and associated together. Tacumwah passed her wealth over to her son. Pechewa would become the chief of the Miami from 1813, which happened to be the year his mother passed away, until his death in 1841. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne.

In the Ewing Tavern, at this old intersection in 1824, Allen County Government was organized. John McCorkle of Piqua, Ohio and John T. Barr of Baltimore had purchased the original Fort Wayne plat for $2,838.43. After the sale, Robert Young surveyed and laid out the town. The most desirable business lots on Columbia St. were purchased by Alexander Ewing, Samuel Hanna, and Allen Hamilton. They were 60 by 150 feet and sold for a hundred dollars each. The community itself was smaller than it had been 30 years earlier during the heyday of Miamitown. Before the coming of the Americans, in the earlier French, British and Indian period, the three rivers town was a central point in the political control of the Northwest. Throughout the 1820s, the legal organization of Fort Wayne was taking place. In 1822, Samuel Hanna was appointed the first postmaster of Fort Wayne and a regular mail service was established between the town, Maumee and Piqua, Ohio. Before that time, the local citizenry had to depend on military express, suppliers, and travelers. On May 22, 1824, the first County Commissioners were elected, as were the associate judges, recorder and clerk.

Benjamin Cushman and Samuel Hanna were elected judges. The commissioners appointed were William Rockhill, James Wyman, and Francis Comparet. Anthony L. Davis was named clerk and Charles Ewing was appointed by the court as prosecuting attorney. William G. Ewing was admitted as attorney of the court. Allen Hamilton was named Fort Wayne’s first sheriff by the governor in 1824 and later formed the first local bank. Court was held in the Ewing Tavern (Washington Hall) and the courts first action was to grant Alexander Ewing a license to keep a tavern in the city of Fort Wayne. The commission to locate a permanent county seat of government met on May 24, 1824. Among the propositions made was one from John T. Barr and John McCorkle; they offered to donate to the county the square land bound by Main, Court, Berry, and Calhoun Streets. The offer was accepted which gave way for the location for the County Courthouse. As a part of this proposition, they also offered to pay the county treasury five hundred dollars and give other lots for religious and educational uses. Accepting the generous donations from Barr and McCorkle marked the beginnings of Fort Wayne.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

The Old City Hall was built in 1840 on land donated to the city by Samuel Hanna at Barr and Berry streets. On April 20, 1893, the building was dedicated with speeches made by the chairman of the building, Herman Michael, ex-Senator Charles McCulloch, ex-Mayor C.F. Muhler (who had originally pushed the City Hall project), Colonel Oakley, and Circuit Court Judge Edward O’Rourke. In 1855, a marketplace was built, but because of the inconveniences of the city bureaucracy, the Council ordered that a new market building be built to replace the older structure in 1869. Offices in this building were to be provided for by the City Clerk and the City Treasurer (the mayor had to find his own office elsewhere). Despite the improvements made to the market building, by the 1880s the increase in population and development of land within the city made it clear that a more suitable municipal facility was needed. During the years of 1885-1889, plans for a new building had begun, but it was in the administration of Charles Zollinger that the project was finally realized. The northern end of the building was designed for public business; the south end was used by the police department and the jail, or “calaboose.” The City Court and City Council Chambers were located on the second floor. Officers would bring offenders to the second floor by way of a hidden stairway to avoid having to go up the public stairways. At the turn of the century, the garage housed the rescue boat and paddy wagon with a hayloft for the horses that were stabled nearby. The City Hall cost $69,806 to build including $1,889 for the inside furnishings. By the end of its public career in 1971, the structure had gained a great affection from the community. The north entry of the Old City Hall/History Center remains primarily unchanged since the structure was opened to the public. There is an arched opening that is flanked by short columns which exposes two large wooden doors with an arched window above. A hexagonal tower sits on the northwest corner (the three other corner towers are square in shape) with a steep slanted roof and checkerboard stonework (all four towers feature this checkerboard stonework). Amongst the foliated frieze and griffins flanking the entry is engraved “The City Building.” Prior to WWII, the west entry doors were remodeled, but maintained the Romanesque styling. The west to east side also contains large sandstone gables and arched windows. On the south side of the building are two garage doors (only one of the doors is original to the structure) and a single entry door. The east side of the building is similar to the west except for the addition of an elevator shaft that was added in 1979 to allow handicap access to the building. Inside the City Council/City Court Rooms remain the original woodwork, ceiling, and walls. Rising from the original marble floor on the first floor to the second floor is the grand oak double staircase. The city jail still retains much of its 1890s configuration. The Fort Wayne Interim Report Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory-1996 reports that a two-story house with a porch once sat where the parking lot to the east of the building is now. 175 citizens formed the Fort Wayne Historical Society in 1921 in the auditorium of the Wolf & Dessauer department store. The group carried on what Mary Penrose’s Wayne Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) had begun when they displayed local artifacts in the “relic room” of the Allen County Courthouse in 1902. The first membership meeting was held at Central High School on March 23, 1921; they elected William Peltier president and Mrs. Samuel Taylor as curator. In 1924, the group became the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society and in 1927 moved to the historic Swinney Homestead. The City of Fort Wayne committed a Federal Grant to rehabilitate the Old City Hall for use as a historical museum in 1977. This is now the home of the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society. On display at the History Center are mini exhibits which change periodically, and exhibits that are shown at the museum permanently. Some of these exhibits include the Anthony Wayne exhibit that showcases his fold-up camping bed, the Industry exhibit that has a recreated blacksmith shop, and the newest exhibit, Allen County Innovation, that has inventions that were conceived and produced in our area on display. There are several more permanent exhibits to see at the Museum of History. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

The Historic Marker on West Columbia Street reads: “For nearly a century, the principal business street of Fort Wayne, named for Dana Columbia, hotel and canal boat operator. Here was the terminal for passengers and freight arriving and departing via stagecoach and canal. Ground broken for Wabash and Erie Canal 1832 and dedicated in 1843. Canal right of way sold 1880 and now occupied by elevated rail road. Rear of buildings north side faced the canal and docks. Two canal basins located on the street, “Orbisin Basin” at Harrison Street and “Comparet Basin” at Lafayette Street. Government land sale occurred in 1823 in Washington Hall (Ewing Tavern) at Barr Street from this sale came the original plot of Fort Wayne. Here Allen County and Wayne Township organized in 1824. Also meeting place of county commissioners and circuit court. Many Fort Wayne firsts appeared on this street such as a post office in 1820, hotel 1823, Newspaper 1833, theater 1851, and the railway station in 1853”. The three rivers became the avenues for human traffic and branching off of them were trails; Columbia Street began as a trail that led westward from the military garrison to connect with other trails such as the Great Northwest and Wabash routes. Early city planners, Barr and McCorkle had intended for Main Street to be the hub of business thoroughfare; however, Columbia Street seemed to have dictated the off compass plotting of the downtown area. Dana Columbia’s house stood at the back door of the present City-County Building on the approximate Clinton Street site of the tavern Old Dutch Lunch. The Landing handled much of the canal traffic due to the three basins that neighbored it. The Orbison Basin, a lagoon that cut off the northeast corner of Columbia and Harrison Streets, Little Basin that was just west of the Randall Hotel, and the large Comparet Basin that was at the east end of Columbia Street. These basins were used to turn canal boats around and they supported the boat yards as well. Traveling up to only six miles per hour, the canal boats fed machinery to budding industries along with building supplies, merchandise from the east, and food. For many years, there were two faces to Columbia Street; one façade faced the canal and later the railroad and the other teeming retail traffic on the street side. Columbia Street’s shipping front was neglected in later years but the evidence of it remained until the redevelopment of downtown. The original plan of Fort Wayne was held in 1823 at the Ewing Tavern (Washington Hall), located on Barr St. The Landing gave home to many firsts such as the first theater which was named Colerick Hall in 1851, the first public bathhouse, and the first telegraph office. The business district of Columbia Street was reflected by the many and diverse businesses that occupied it. Some of them were wholesale and retail outlets, hotels, taverns and restaurants, boarding houses, lodges, barbershops, newspaper and printing offices, banks, bakeries, a stone yard, railroad terminal facilities, pool halls, secondhand stores, bawdy houses, and more. Thomas Edison lived upstairs of the business on the northwest corner of Columbia and Calhoun streets in 1864 and worked for the railroad as a telegraph operator. In the same building, which later became the Old Drug Company, druggists Cornelius and Joseph Hoagland along with their partner Thomas Biddle developed the formula that became Royal Baking Powder. Dana Columbia changed careers due to the financial panic of the 1830s. He became Captain Columbia, whose packet boat, the Chief, was the first to carry passengers along the Wabash and Erie Canal from Fort Wayne to Lafayette. Dana Columbia moved to Junction City, Ohio, where he died in 1865. Columbia is buried in Lindenwood Cemetery along with his daughter Sarah and her husband David Comparet, who was one of the first directors of the cemetery. In 1978, the Landing, at a cost of $167,000, was given a new street, new sidewalks, landscaping and street lamps that resembled gas lamps from the turn of the century. In October of 1980, the Drug Building collapsed, and the Markey Building was torn down after officials determined it could not be rehabilitated. Site of the Randall Hotel: At the west end of the Landing once stood a five-story hotel that raved about it being “The best $2 hotel in Indiana”. Between 1890 and 1930 The Randall Hotel could proudly proclaim its motto, “Everything first class”, for there was running water, a telephone and streamed heat in every room. At first in 1828, the site of the hotel belonged to the Jacob Fry Tannery, which was noted for its horrible odors. In 1870, a hotel called the Robison took the tannery’s place and later this became the Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel was a “Methodist Hotel” due to the fact that drinking was not permitted. Perry Randall, a local attorney and promoter, bought the Grand Hotel and renamed it Randall Hotel. Randall had a hand at building a canal from Fort Wayne to Chicago and producing Fort Wayne’s Centennial. After his death in 1916, his wife, Winifred, took over the business of the hotel. Winifred was the first woman to operate a lumber mill in the United States. The hotel had become a residence after the Great Depression of the 30s and in 1963 the building was razed. NOTE: The concrete pillars that now stand on the location of the Randall were not features of the hotel but of the Wayne Hotel. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Native American trails were the first roads in northeastern Indiana. Many trails crossed northern Indiana before the land was surveyed and sold to settlers in the first half of the 19th century. The Fort Wayne to Goshen Road was one of the first roads in northeast Indiana, which became the Lincoln Highway in 1913 and then US 33 in 1926. The original Lincoln Highway route through eastern Indiana passed through the small communities of Zulu, Townley, Besancon (the 19th century French settlement), the canal town of New Haven, and Fort Wayne. The route then headed northwest to the city of Churubusco. Lincolndale Café was located on the western edge of Fort Wayne along Goshen Road. From this point the original route of the highway continued on north to Churubusco. The 1926 route turned west on Washington Center Road. The Lincolndale area was completely altered when Interstate 69 was built. Road construction has caused sections of the original Lincoln Highway route to become dead ends. Fort Wayne celebrated the Lincoln Highway with bonfires, long parades, arches built to welcome travelers, and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) erected a flagpole at the city limits to show their patriotic efforts. Lincoln Highway Association's promotional efforts included the building of concrete bridges. The Lincoln Highway Bridges in Fort Wayne opened in April 1916 over the St. Mary’s River at a cost of $200,000 as a part of Harrison Street. The granite plaques show that it is 742 miles to New York and 2,660 miles to San Francisco. Today the bridge is part of a greenway pedestrian and bike system. During the days of the Lincoln Highway, the Anthony Hotel served as the control station. The hotel was located on the northeast corner of Berry and Harrison Streets. In 1927, the Fort Wayne City Directory listed the following Lincoln Highway route: Maumee Ave. (from eastern city limits) to Harman, Harman to Washington Blvd., west on Washington Blvd. to Harrison, north on Harrison to Putnam, west on Putnam to Wells, north on Wells to State Blvd., west on State Blvd. to Goshen Rd. (portions of Maumee and Washington are now one-way streets, with a non-Lincoln Highway section of Washington and Jefferson Blvd. as parallel alternates). In 1928, the route from the east was moved to New Haven Ave. This route change brought travelers into Fort Wayne along the city’s new Industrial Park. The International Harvester Tower and Art Deco buildings built for several magnet wire companies can be found on this route. The 1928 route travels west on New Haven Ave. to its terminus at Wayne Trace to Fletcher, and Fletcher to Maumee, where it meets the original route and continues into Fort Wayne. Carl Fisher was born in Greensburg in 1874 and is now considered the “Father of the Lincoln Highway.” Fisher was the founder of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and was behind both the Lincoln and Dixie Highways that ran from New York to San Francisco and from north to south via Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Chicago on the Dixie Highway to Miami Beach. Fisher was the one who had the vision to create the nation’s first transcontinental automobile road. Fisher and his friend and business associate James Allison invited automobile leaders to a dinner at the Athenaeum or German House in Indianapolis in 1912. It was at this dinner that Fisher announced the idea for a coast-to-coast highway stretching from New York to San Francisco and had planned to fund the highway through private donations. The road officially became known as the Lincoln Highway in 1913 after Henry Joy, president of the Packard Motor Car Company, suggested to Fisher that the first transcontinental highway would make a fitting and appealing living memorial to Abraham Lincoln. James Allison was born in Marcellus, Michigan in August 1872 and died in 1928. He invented the Allison Perfection Fountain Pen and along with Carl Fisher was founder of Prest-O-Lite, an automobile headlight manufacturer. Allison also co-founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 race, with Carl Fisher, Frank H. Wheeler, and Arthur C. Newby. He also formed the Indy Speedway Team Company which later became the Allison Engineering Company that was eventually purchased by General Motors, becoming the Allison Division of General Motors. The first gasoline pump was invented and sold in Fort Wayne by Sylvanus F. Bowser on Sept. 5, 1885. The Bowser Company produced gas pumps for filling stations along the Lincoln Highway and the Dixie Highway. They had an agreement with the Lincoln Highway Association that gas pumps along the Lincoln Highway would only be available to businesses on the official Lincoln Highway route. The six-story Bowser Pump Company Administration Building was built in 1917 at 1302 E. Creighton Ave. and displays the pre-WWI wealth of the company. In 1960, Bowser closed its Fort Wayne factory and Bowser pumps were then made and sold by the Keene Pump Company of Greeneville, Tennessee. Fort Wayne’s Police Department was located in the Bowser Pump Company Administration Building until the Department’s move to the City County Building on Main St. in 2012. The Tokheim Corp. was located on Wabash Ave. at Wayne Trace/ New Haven Ave. and is located along the 1928 route. The highway route, now US 30, changed again in 1946 when a “Distribution Highway” was created to move traffic from Maumee and Washington into a merged four-lane highway that continued east to the “Cloverleaf.” Completed in 1950, Fort Wayne acclaimed one of the Midwest’s early interchanges where US 30 (Lincoln Highway) met the “Circumurban”, Fort Wayne’s first suburban by-pass. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Enjoy a stroll through the sights and sounds of yesteryear! The Old Fort is a faithful copy of the post built by American troops under the command of Major John Whistler in 1815. It is the last of three American forts to stand at the junction of the St. Mary’s, St. Joseph, and Maumee Rivers. Events and programs highlighting the fort's significance to the Old Northwest Territory, the State of Indiana, and the United States during the 17th and 18th centuries are presented on weekends throughout the season. Visit the Old Fort, where history is brought to life!

Built by pioneer farmer and land speculator Thomas Swinney in 1844, with later additions, this homestead was bequeathed to the City of Fort Wayne to be a park. The Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society operated a historical museum in the house from 1924 to 1979. The Settlers began restoration of the building in the 1980s and continue to operate educational programs there. Older Historical Marker Text: Original construction of the house was begun in 1844. The second story, wing, and rear portion were added in 1885. Col. Swinney bequeathed this house and about 240 acres of land to the city as a park that was to “remain open and free to the public…” This was the first land donated for that purpose to the city. The Historical Society occupied the house in 1924. An earlier log cabin was built behind this one about 1826. Thomas Swinney came to Fort Wayne shortly before 1824. Born in Piketon, Ohio in 1803, Swinney was a land speculator who developed a large part of west end Fort Wayne. Soon after his arrival in the pioneer town, he married Lucy Taber, daughter of Paul Taber, who was a sea captain during the War of 1812 and a land speculator. When they married, Lucy brought to the marriage a dowry of 240 acres of land. Taber’s principal holdings in Fort Wayne were on the east end of the town. Construction of the Swinney Homestead was started in 1844 and the family moved in in 1845. The original house was in the Federal style with one story and four basic rooms. The basement was part of the house with seven small rooms and one large room used as the kitchen. Another story and a half were added in 1885 giving the house an approach to an Italianate style. A wing was also added on the south side. After Swinney’s death, his daughters remodeled the house adding the porch, the paired brackets, and the central wall dormer which simulates an Italianate tower. The west-end lands that Thomas Swinney held, including the present-day West Swinney Park, were often the center of large community gatherings. Here on the Swinney property on July 4, 1843, hundreds of people of Fort Wayne and the surrounding region gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the Wabash and Erie Canal, the longest canal ever built in North America. Its ground-breaking had been held here in 1832, and in this presidential election year of 1843, candidate Lewis Cass appeared in town to make laudatory speeches along with the state and local notables. Peter Kaiser, one of Fort Wayne’s earliest German settlers and a butcher, was in charge of the free barbecue of four great oxen driven up from Logansport (the beasts wisely had refused to board a canal boat for their last trip). In later years, Swinney gave to the City of Fort Wayne eastern portions of his property. In 1874, the Allen County Fair was established on these grounds, with a half-mile race track as well as the usual display of pens and corrals. The annual September fair was held here for many years afterward. More than a decade later, in 1889, the first Labor Day celebration was held on the Swinney grounds, and labor leaders long viewed the area as special for laboring people. By the terms of Thomas Swinney’s will, the remainder of his great pioneer estate was bequeathed to the City of Fort Wayne upon the death of the last of his daughters, Caroline and Frances. In 1893, Swinney’s daughters, Rhesa, Frances, and Caroline allowed the city to take early possession of the land for development of Swinney Park. As a park, the area was famous for its Japanese Gardens (changed to the Jaenicke Gardens soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941), picnic grounds and country setting. Other portions of the western lands were acquired by the city in 1918 for park development, and a public swimming pool was constructed. Some of these acres were leased to George Trier, an entertainment entrepreneur, who developed what came to be renowned in the middle of the twentieth century as “Trier’s Park,” which included a roller coaster, bumper cars, dance halls, and other amusements until a great fire swept the place in 1953.

Transfer Corner was the intersection of Main and Calhoun Streets and named so because this was where all the street cars crossed, and the conductors would give transfer slips to passengers. Interurban trains also shuttled back and forth as they traveled to outlying communities. Before there were trolley cars and trains, there were horse cars. At $2 a ticket, the horse cars could move in both directions. When it reached the end of the line, the conductor would unhitch the horse and lead it around to the other end of the trolley, then rehitch the horse and make the return run to the “turntable corner.” In 1873, an epidemic flu called “Great Epizootic” struck nearly all of the horses in town, temporarily disabling the animals and public transportation. By 1890, efforts to electrify the street railways became important. Marmaduke Marcellus Slattery, an inventor at the Jenney Electric Light Co. who was highly interested in battery technology, focused on the possibility of powering trolleys by battery. He gave up the effort after a failed experiment; he managed to propel a trolley along the “Belt Line,” but it did not quite make the entire run of it. Electrically powered “trolley buses” replaced trolley cars by the 1940s. The last trolley car ran on Jan. 27, 1947 and in 1960 diesel powered buses replaced the trolley buses. Due to the heavy traffic of Transfer Corner, businesses sprung up along Main and Calhoun Streets. At the northwest corner of Transfer Corner, Riegel’s Cigar Store had a popular lunch counter business and sold tickets for shows and sporting events. Meyer Bros. Drug Store was located at the southwest corner. To the south of Transfer Corner along Calhoun St. was Rhode’s Dry Goods, S.S Kresge Co., Frank Dry Goods Co., F.W Woolworth, and Whelan Drug Co., all of which were on the west side facing the courthouse. On the southwest corner of Berry and Calhoun was the Old National Bank of Fort Wayne and the Citizens Trust Co. The major building at the intersection of Transfer Corner was the Transfer Building. Located at the northwest corner of the intersection and erected in 1894, the Transfer Building originally housed the old Hamilton National Bank. Hamilton Bank was founded in 1853 and merged with First National Bank in 1917. The new First and Hamilton Bank moved to Berry and Calhoun Streets, and after the merger, the Citizens Trust Bank moved into the Transfer Building. These three banks, along with twelve other local banks, folded due to the Great Depression. Over the years the building hosted offices of the Purdue Extension Center, the Republican Party, Lincoln National Life, Needham’s Typewriter Co., a shoe store, and many medical and legal offices. In December of 1963, the building was bought by the National Management Inc. and along with the Fort Wayne Mutual Life Insurance Co., moved their offices into the building. The Transfer Building was torn down in 1979 to allow for the widening of Main Street. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne. Photo courtesy of Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

In 1846, Henry Rudisill, along with 17 other Lutherans, decided to establish an English-speaking Lutheran church. Prior to 1846, the Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne was led by the German community and had strong ties to the ethnic heritage of Germany. Rudisill and his fellow companions realized that they should be looking forward to the future and not the past, therefore, they felt it was important to part from the traditional German Lutheran church and establish a new English Lutheran church that had a forward-looking vision. The English Lutherans, after their separation from the German Lutherans in 1846, grew slowly, receiving members from among new arrivals from the eastern states, as well as American-born children of immigrants and a few Scandinavian Lutherans. The congregation first worshipped on Sunday afternoons in the First Presbyterian meetinghouse on Berry and Lafayette Streets. The Presbyterians, in anticipation of moving into a new church, soon sold their fifteen-year-old building to the English Lutherans. When the completion of their new structure was delayed for two years, the Presbyterians were forced to rent their old church from its new owners. Under the leadership of the Reverend William P. Ruthrauff, the membership of Trinity English Lutheran doubled, making a larger church building necessary. A lot on the corner of Wayne and Clinton Streets was purchased for a new church and the cornerstone of the Gothic Revival building was laid on July 29, 1863. In 1868, the Reverend Samuel Wagenhals assumed the pastorate, continuing for fifty-two years, which was the longest tenure of any Fort Wayne clergymen. His successor, the Reverend Paul H. Krauss, served the parish for nearly fifty years and led the congregation in the erection of the present facilities on the south side of Wayne Street between Fairfield and Ewing streets. After the retirement of Reverend Krauss in 1967, Associate Pastor Richard Frazier took over as head of the church. The congregation at Trinity English Lutheran welcomed two other pastors over the years. Over the course of 144 years, Trinity English Lutheran Church has only had five pastors. Designed by B.G. Goodhue, one of the leading architects of the Gothic Revival style, the church was dedicated in 1925, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places. From the steeple still rings the city’s oldest church bell. Originally installed in the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church, the bell rang in 1837 both as a call to worship and as the town’s “fire alarm.”

The Protestant Episcopal Church was the last of the mainline denominations to establish parishes in Indiana. By the time Fort Wayne was laid out in 1823, the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, and Lutherans had developed flourishing congregations in southern Indiana; but it was not until 1835, when the Right Reverend David Jackson Kemper was consecrated as its first missionary bishop, that any formal activity by the Episcopal Church was instituted in the state. In 1838, Kemper visited Fort Wayne and sent a missionary in 1839, who organized the short-lived Christ Church. In 1842, a local newspaper attempted to explain the absence of an Episcopal Church in the city: “We are not yet old enough for a society of this kind. In other words, there are not people enough in this county who are constitutionally fitted to be Episcopalians.”

In 1844, Peter P. Baily, a newly arrived merchant from New York City, led the local Episcopalians in organizing Trinity Church, electing a vestry and conducting lay reading services in the courthouse. The first chapel, erected on the southeast corner of Berry and Harrison Streets in 1848, was replaced in 1866 by the present Gothic Revival building. This church is Fort Wayne’s oldest unchanged church building.

Trinity Episcopal Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1978 for its outstanding architecture. It is also listed as a Local Historic District. When the church was constructed in 1865-66, it was built as a cruciform church. The outside façade was built with Indiana limestone and had a high gabled multi-colored slate roof. The church features an eight-sided spire bell tower on the north corner of the nave. In the 1940s the slate shingles spire roof was replaced with copper to help reduce the weight of the roof.

While the church has retained its original design, it has had a few alterations over the years. According to the National Register nomination for the church, “Aside from the rebuilding of the spire, interior redecorations, and routine maintenance, the major alteration of the church has been the addition of the education wing in 1955-56. The original cruciform plan with the square bell tower and apse was changed by adding a large "L" addition to the south and west sides of the original building. A parish house had long existed west of the church. However, this facility was determined to be inadequate and was demolished to accommodate the new wing. Although it did not duplicate the window treatment (rectangular openings instead of pointed arches), the wing matches the original stone work and slate roof very closely.”

The first African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregation in Fort Wayne was formed in 1845. A church was established in 1869 on this site and named the Turner AME Chapel in honor of the Rev. Henry McNeil Turner, a black chaplain during the Civil War. In 1888, a new church building was erected, and in 1917 the present building was built. In 1963, the congregation moved to its East Jefferson Boulevard site.

Fort Wayne’s Three Rivers Water Filtration Plant stands at the convergence of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph Rivers, where they meet to form the Maumee River. The 25-acre site east of Spy Run was chosen as the location for the plant for numerous reasons. The land was already owned by the City of Fort Wayne, which was the proposed spot for the Three Rivers Park at the time of construction in the early 1930s. Also, this location was ideal for sending water to all parts of the city, because it was a central location in the city. Also, because of its natural landscape, the plant could be made attractive.

The plant was designed by Hoad, Decker, Shoecraft, and Drury of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Originally it was supposed to be designed as a simple factory where water would be treated; however, in 1931 designers realized it would add no more than two percent of the cost to add an architectural flourish to it. It was then decided that this “water factory” should be designed in a Collegiate Gothic Style. The plant was eventually completed in 1933. Over the years, the plant has expanded two times, therefore being able to produce more safe drinking water than before. In 1933, engineer R.L. McNamee wrote,

“The architectural finish of the new Three Rivers station has afforded the architect an unusual opportunity to use the nationally known product of our state: Indiana limestone. City officials gave much thought to the selection of an artistic yet durable color and texture of stone, and the wisdom of their choice is well expressed in the pleasing ensemble of the structure as a whole.”

Along with the filtration plant, two other water facilities were completed in the city: the St. Joseph River Water Dam and Pumping Station were built across from Johnny Appleseed Park. This filtration plant was the first major structure built.

In 1954, an addition was completed and the plant doubled its capacity. The plant could now treat an additional 24 million gallons a day. In 1979, the plant underwent another addition, adding capabilities to treat another 24 million gallons. In 2009, the filtration plant had more modernization done to it. Although, the Three Rivers Water Filtration Plant has had several additions and upgrades throughout the years, it has retained its original Collegiate Gothic Style. It is because of this feat that they received an ARCHIE in 2009 for New Construction of a Commercial Property.

Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne.

In 1808, the U.S. Congress set aside 320 acres in the present-day Spy Run and Bloomingdale neighborhoods for William Wells in recognition of his services as Anthony Wayne's "chief of spies" and as U.S. Indian Agent from 1802 to 1809. William Wells was the product of and lived within two cultures. William Wells was born in 1770, and in 1786 when he was 16, he was captured by Miami warriors in (what would become) Kentucky. He was adopted by Chief Graviahatte. Soon enough, Wells would learn the Indian ways and become a successful young warrior. Many attempts were made to lure Wells back to his pioneer family; however, William Wells was loyal to his new Indian family. William Wells would go on to marry Manwangopath, the daughter of Chief Little Turtle, and he fought many early battles under his father-in-law, Chief Little Turtle, against the United States. As a consequence, William Wells' wife and daughter were captured by U.S. forces. On November 4, 1791, General St. Clair of the U.S. Army and his 1400 men were camping out near the Wabash River, with the ultimate goal of reaching Kekionga and attacking the Miami. Chief Little Turtle however, anticipated St. Clair's plan and his 1000 warriors were already on their way to the Indian village. As St. Clair's men settled at Kekionga, the Miami warriors surrounded the camp and readied for battle. As the U.S. forces were eating breakfast, Little Turtle's men attacked the camp and killed over 600 of St. Clair's men. Little Turtle and his warriors had handed the United States Army the worst defeat it had ever experienced. In 1792, William had traveled to Vincennes to try to have the Miami's prisoners released. There he spoke to General Hamtramck but was not able get the prisoners back. It was during this year that William decided to go back to his white family. In 1794, Wells served as Major General Anthony Wayne's "chief of spies." Wells would provide Wayne with "scouting reports" on the camps of the Shawnee and their allies. It was Wells' information that helped Wayne and his men win the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Because of William Wells' time as a member of the Miami tribe, he had a difficult time as an Indian Agent. Since he was a supporter of Indian rights, Wells, along with Little Turtle, tried to help the Miami keep as much as their land during treaty settlements from 1796-1809. In 1809, Wells was discharged as an Indian spy and again had the Miami support. In 1812, William Wells was bringing back some of the Miami tribe to Fort Wayne from Fort Dearborn (present-day Chicago), when they were attacked by the Potawatomi. Wells knew of the danger before he set out for Fort Dearborn but wanted to fulfill his mission. Wells was killed during this attack. However, despite being enemies, the Indians cut off his head and as a sign of honor ate his heart on the spot. Audio featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne.