The Guldlin playgrounds, although not then known by that name, were purchased as a site for number two Water Works pumping station. The City purchased betteer than it knew when this land was secured in 1897. A temporaiy pumping station was erected, but was abandoned and removed the following year when additional land was purchased on the opposite side of the river, upon which a large pumping station was erected.
The cost of the entire tract was $7,011.67, and was purchased from the Rockhill Heirs and from N. D. Doughman, Charles McCulloch, Charles Pape, Charlotte Wefel and Frederick and Henry Bade. The playgrounds were graded and equipped in 1911, at a cost of $7,000.00, of which sum the City gave $2,500. The balance was raised by private contribution, of which a very large part was given by Mr. and Mrs. 0. N. Guldlin, after whom the grounds were named.
The First Playground in Fort Wayne
The six-acre site of the first fort was developed as the city’s first playground through the efforts of Addie Guldlin, after who 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.
