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1922 - Building In Fort Wayne - Department Devoted to Needs of City - Civic Problems - Mistakes

Article from Feb 1, 1922 The Fort Wayne News And Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana) 1922, Henry m. williams

1922 - Building In Fort Wayne - Department Devoted to Needs of City - Civic Problems - Mistakes The Fort Wayne News And Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Wednesday, February 1, 1922, Page 11.

Building In Fort Wayne

A Department Devoted to the Needs of the City and the Visions of Those Far Seeing Ones Who Look to a Bigger and a Better City.

In these articles relative to Fort Wayne's civic problems, which will appear each week, in the News-Sentinel, it will not be our policy to harp upon the mistakes that were made in laying out and developing the Fort Wayne of today; rather will it be our purpose to point out the steps which must be taken to reach the goal of a well planned conviently arranged, economically governed, "Greater Fort Wayne" of tomorrow, nevertheless, here at the start and occasionally as we proceed with our work, we may bark back to the mistakes of the past in the hope that we may thus prevent the making of similar mistakes in the future. We will at times, too, recall some of the great achievements of the early settler of Fort Wayne, hopIng that by so doing we will spur the freeman of our city of today to still greater effort in his work of upbuilding Fort Wayne.

Here are a few of the mistakes, relative to city planning, which were made by Fort Wayne years and years ago.

Mistakes of the Past.

First--The biggest blunder of them all was that of not making the streets wider when Fort Wayne was originally platted. Second--Committing the civic crime of selling 41 of the lots which were deeded to Allen county in 1825, and which now constitute the central business district of Fort Wayne. Third--The failure to follow the suggestion, made when the necessary land would have cost less than fifty dollars an acre, to dam up the Maumee river and this make a lake of the territory now occupied by Lakeside, Baltes Flats, jail flats, and other low lands along the river. And, in more recent years there was the mistake of the city refusing to buy at one half its appraised value Williams' Grove, which, had the generous offer of Henry M. Williams been accepted, would today be Fort Wayne's "Central Park."' [ Henry M. Williams proposed the Lake Everett Thousand-acre Park that was never built either ]

But by what right does the Fort Wayne of today complain of the fact that her downtown streets are narrow? For the past half century Wayne has known that tact and yet, throughout all those years, she has made, no effort to correct that evil, not even when, and where, opportunity to do so was most inviting. Why look back to the loss of Fort Wayne's civic center of 1825? Why not look forward to the dedicating of a Fort Wayne civic center in 1925? Again, if a city with a population of 90,000 is satisfied to use the shallow river which runs through eight of her elèven wards as an open sewer, what right does that same big city complain of the little town from which she sprang because that little town failed to develop that same river along esthetic lines? Yes, if we may judge the future by the past, the citizens of Fort Wayne, in our opinion, should now be giving serious and frequent thought to.

Fort Wayne's Civic Problems.

Among those problems are these:
Sewerage.
Flood prevention.
River improvement.
City Zoning.
Track elevation.
To these five might easily be added many more--school sites, play grounds, parks and parkways; width and arrangement of streets, eliminating jogs and other street death traps, automobile parking; properly locating bridges, public building and depots; also, establishing building lines, housing. and numerous other urban problems.

Municipal financing, the proper developing of municipally owned public utilities, and even municipal government itself in all its phases, and like subjects, are all relative parts of the art of city planning; more money, perhaps, could be saved the taxpayer by a city administration planning, and preparing the way for, large municipal undertakings far in advance of their actual construction, than could be saved him in most any other one way; and as is true of houses, store rooms, and factory buildings, it costs less to operate a well planned than a poorly planned city.

Finally, the culture of the people should be expressed in the physical appearance of their city; and to this end civic art and beautification and ethetics are brought into play in city pianning.

Our Aim.

In this field of endevor, our main hope and chief aim shall be to help mold a public sentiment in this community which will ultimately assure the people of Fort Wayne that their municipal, government will take broad and farsighted view of municipal- undertakings; and that it will adopt and hold to such a policy, and promulgate and stand by such programms, as will keep Fort Wayne apace with the cities of her class throughout the land and which will make Fort Wayne, as a place in which to live, all that any one might reasonably ask for

1922 - Building Fort Wayne - Simple but attractive grade-crossing bridge - railroads

Article from May 28, 1922 The Fort Wayne Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana) 1922, Railroad grade crossings

1922 - Building Fort Wayne - Simple but attractive grade-crossing bridge - railroads The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sunday, May 28, 1922, Page 13

1922 - Building Fort Wayne - summary - Report improvement of rivers and sewerage system

Article from Dec 6, 1922 The Fort Wayne Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana) 1922, Building fort wayne, Sewage, Rivers

1922 - Building Fort Wayne - summary - Report improvement of rivers and sewerage system The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Wednesday, December 6, 1922, Page 13.

BUILDING FORT WAYNE BUILDING

In this series of articles quoting the "summary" of the Fort. Wayne "Report upon improvement of rivers and sewerage system," we have reached that part the of the "summary" which deals with the present and future trunk sewer system of the city.

The authors of that report, Metcalf and Eddy, estimated the area and population of Fort Wayne as of 1950 and then, in their report, extended the present sewer system to provide for a city of the assumed area and population.

At the time the report was being prepared, in 1910, the area of Fort Wayne, exclusive of rivers, was 8.6 aquare miles; the average density of population WAS 11.6 persons per acre, and the population was 63,933. The report assumes that in 1950 the area will be 17.3 square miles;. the average density of population 13.6 persons per acre, the population 150,000.

As shown in previous articles, Fort Wayne has grown, and is now growIng faster than Metcalf and Eddy, in 1911, estimated it would grow.

The report contains a large map of the city; and on this map, sewer districts numbering from one to 47 are outlined; and the present, and proposed trunk sewer system each of these districts is shown.

The "summary" of this report outlines both the present and the proposed sewerage system of each of these districts. But this part of the "summary" is long and, therefore we think, best to give only a synopsis of it. Enough, however to give the reader a general idea of the sewerage problem confronting Fort Wayne. The reader should Keep in mind the fact that considerable sewerage work has been done in Fort Wayne since this report was published.

1923 - River Frontage is But a Step - Diversion of Sewage

Article from Jul 7, 1923 The Fort Wayne Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana) 1923, Sewage, Rivers

1923 - River Frontage is But a Step - Diversion of Sewage The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Saturday, July 7, 1923, Page 13.

BUILDING FORT WAYNE RIVER FRONTAGE IS BUT A STEP

City is Fortunate in Owning Land Along Rivers, But 'Must Not Stop With That Alone.

DIVERSION OF SEWAGE

Photo caption: View of St. Mary's River, Guldlin playground at the left: No. 2 pumping station at the right, of the 19.5 lineal miles of river frontage in Fort Wayne, the city now owns or controls or controls 292 acres of river frontage.

Mr. J. A. Greene,
Editor The News- Sentinel,
Fort Wayne, Ind.

Dear Sir -- The conservation: department is gathering data for an article to appear in the Indianapolis News, soon, concerning problems of cities on the large rivers and streams of Indiana. It will be shown that many cities instead of utilizing the banks of public water courses' for public dumps, have beautifled these spots, set out trees where needed, employed landscape architects and in numerous instances converted same into beautiful parks.

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