Boxing the Compass

An Overview of Fort Wayne - April 8, 2009

Return to Fort Wayne Index
All Photographs Copyright © 2009 by Robert E Pence

Thanks to Stephen L. Parker of Around Fort Wayne for inviting me to
accompany him to the open-air deck on the 23rd level at the top of Fort
Wayne's historic, beautiful, Art Deco Lincoln Tower.

A vintage postcard view of the tower at night.

The 312-foot tower was designed by local architect A.M. Strauss in collaboration with Cleveland, Ohio, firm Walker & Weeks, and was
completed in 1930. It was Indiana's tallest building until 1962, and Fort Wayne's tallest until construction of the present National City Center in
1970. It was acquired and extensively refurbished in 1998 by Tippmann Properties and is home to Tower Bank.

Starting looking North, we'll move clockwise for an overview of downtown Fort Wayne.

North

1986

I wonder why there are no pigeons on the courthouse dome in the 1986 photos, and in 2009 any time of day, any time of year, it's covered
with hundreds of them. The black pattern on the top of the dome resulted from an attempt to seal leaks. A contractor had used silicone caulk
to seal the dome, apparently unaware that silicone caulk does not hold up under exposure to direct sunlight, and the caulk failed. Sometime
around 1990 the dome was overlaid with copper panels shown in the later photos.

Allen County Courthouse and Plaza.

In the middle distance, the former site of the New York Central Fourth Street Yard. More recently it was a scrap-metal recycling facility, and
has been considered for purchase by the city for redevelopment. The circular paths mark Headwaters Park, a former light-industrial and
warehouse area in the flood plain, cleared to provide space for floodwater.

In the foreground, the Old Fort. In the distance, Memorial Coliseum.

Northeast

On the left, Freimann Square. Going east from there, the 1973 Arts United Center designed by Louis Kahn, the Art Museum, and across the
railroad the two towers are Three Rivers Apartments

1986

The complex with the red tile roofs, partially obscured by Three Rivers North, is the water purification plant.

1986

Events pavilion in Headwaters Park. The excavating machinery on the right is being used to mitigate soil contamination from a plant that
once produced gas from coal on the site.

East

The Romanesque sandstone building is the former City Hall, designed by Fort Wayne architects Wing & Mahurin. It now houses The History
Center. Across the street is the GTE building; the brick cladding conceals a handsome WWI-era brick building. The building in the lower right
is Renaissance Square, built by Wolf & Dessaur department store about 1960, and then stripped to columns and floors and reconstructed
as a modern office building with a five-story atrium in the 1980s. It housed the corporate offices of Lincoln Financial Corporation before the
move to Philadelphia, and until recently, the Lincoln Museum.

1986

The brick house with the carriage barn, beyond the History Center, is the McCulloch-Weatherhogg house. To the immediate south of the
carriage barn and facing on Lafayette Street, the small old brick house was the home of Alexander Rankin, pastor of First Presbyterian
Church at its founding in 1837. Alexander was the brother of Ohio abolitionist John Rankin, and it's thought that Alexander probably harbored
fugitive slaves in his house.

Southeast

The building with the parking garage with helix ramp was built around 1960 or 1961 for Indiana Bank. Now it's home to offices of the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne and South Bend and the Cathedral Museum. The building with the columns is the Masonic Temple, and the
YMCA is immediately on its east. Farther east, the garishly painted tower is a hotel. It was built as a Sheraton and was closed for some
years following a fire, and then reopened as a Holiday Inn, which it is no longer. The church in the upper right is St. Paul's Lutheran, Missouri
Synod. It's the site of the meeting that organized the Missouri Synod. On the left in the center distance, the modernist church is Wayne Street
Methodist.

1986

Just beyond St. Paul's Lutheran is Anthis Career Center, a vocational high school. It formerly was Central High School. The large, flat-roofed
building beyond that is the U.S. Post Office, and beyond that is the elevated right-of-way of the former Pennsylvania and Wabash Railroads,
now CSX and Norfolk Southern, respectively.

South

Tallest building in Fort Wayne and tallest reinforced concrete building in
Indiana, 442-foot One Summit Square was designed by Kevin Roche John
Dinkeloo & Associates and completed in 1982. Principal tenants are Indiana
Michigan Power Company and regional headquarters of JP Morgan Chase.

<

1986

Southwest

1986

The large gray building in the center is the Grand Wayne Center, Fort Wayne's convention center. It extends to the left and connects with the
Hilton Hotel on Calhoun Street. On the right, a corner and the main entrance of the Allen County Public Library can be seen, and in the center
distance is Parkview Field, Fort Wayne's new downtown ballpark and home to the Tin Caps.

The Allen County Public Library is in the center, and on the right is First Presbyterian Church's fourth building, built 1956. Beyond the library,
the stone church is Trinity English Lutheran. Its original congregation bought First Presbyterian's original 1837 building in 1846, and the
present building's bell tower holds the bell from that first building.

1986

In the large brick factory complex General Electric once employed thousands of people manufacturing motors and transformers, before the
company's much-lauded-until-recently former CEO decided in the 1980s that the company's assets and resources could be better utilized
speculating in financial abstractions.

Wayne Street at Harrison Street. The storefront next to the alley houses the Double Dragon. I think the food's pretty good, especially the
spicy stuff. JK O'Donnel's Irish Pub is a relative newcomer downtown and very popular, and across the street from it is Toscani's Pizzeria,
another place I like. The brick four-storey building on the corner was once Patterson-Fletcher, a department store that carried quality clothing.

1986

West

Looking west on Berry Street, the building in the middle right with the nice cornices was home to Fort Wayne National Bank prior to
construction of what is now National City Building. The most distant brick building on the right side of Berry Street is St. Joseph's Hospital,
known throughout the area for its burn center.

1986

Looking down at Berry & Calhoun Streets.

1986

Northwest

National City Center was completed in 1970 for Fort Wayne National Bank
and designed by Kelly Marshall Architects. On Emporis I found five other
buildings designed by that firm, and only one, in Lafayette, Indiana, doesn't
look like a carbon copy of all the others.

1986

The street running west from Calhoun Street, just a short block this side of the railroad, is Columbia Street. From here the street into the
1960s continued eastward all the way to the Columbia Street Bridge; its former right of way now is occupied by the City-County Building, Arts
United Center, Museum of Art, and main fire station. The canopied platforms on the railroad elevation behind Columbia Street are where
passenger trains on the Nickel Plate Railroad once stopped.

Black-and-white views from 1986

Street Level

A short walk north on Calhoun Street, starting at Wayne Street

Approaching Berry Street

Beauty ...

... and at Main Street, the Beast

The parking garage matches.

Riegel's is a long-time Fort Wayne retailer. Prior to the late sixties, they were on the corner across the street, where the City-County Building
stands now.

In the wee hours of the morning, when you really need a friend ...

The building on the right replaced an older building where baking powder was invented, and where a young Thomas Edison once roomed
while working as a railroad telegrapher. There was no official explanation for the collapse of the original building, which was being extensively
reworked for conversion to a pub/restaurant. After the debris was removed it appeared that excavation to deepen the basement had gone
lower than the level of the foundation footers. Nothing was holding the bottom of the foundation wall against the pressure of the soil on the
outside, and it had pushed inward letting everything come down in a heap. The collapse occurred moments after the 9pm bus lineup
passed by.

Return to Fort Wayne Index