FIRST PARK IN 1863. The development of our park system covers a period of fifty years. The beginning was made, when in 1863 the city purchased as its first park site fractional Lot Number Forty Cyrus Taber's Addition from Mr. Harry Seymour for $800.00. This small parcel of ground was given the name of Old Fort Park, as it was a part of the site upon which General Anthony Wayne erected his fort in 1794. The ornamental iron fence surrounding the park, and the handsome flag pole was the gift of Mr. Henry M. Williams.
Photo was taken facing south at the intersection of Clay, Main, and Columbia Streets with the Columbia Street bridge over the Maumee River at the top left of the photo. The Old Fort Park is on the other side of the RR tracks and the now elevated Nickel Plate Railroad tracks are barely visible in the upper right corner so location is on the northeastern side of the railroad tracks facing south. Compare to 1959 map below this photo.
In 1955 Fort Wayne had an earlier version of the modern-day round-a-bout. At that time the city called it a traffic-control treatment and installed it at Clay, Main and Columbia Streets. The center island provided a circular driving pattern for cars changing direction and to minimize left hand turns.
(image credit: News-Sentinel)
Elevating the Nickel Plate photo before elevation with RR tracks still in the ground from Clay Columbia search in the Allen County Public Library Digital Collections at the Allen County Public Library mentions the Columbia Street bridge and the Borden Ice Cream Plant located 445 E. Columbia Street at Clay Street. Another photo Elevating the Nickel Plate shows Columbia Street Bridge over the Maumee River on the left with the RR tracks still on the ground in the middle of the photo looking southeast taken behind on the east side of the tracks. The 1955 photo was probably taken on the east side of Pettit’s Storage Building not visible in this photo. Borden Plant area is now Three Rives Apartments.
Street View photo from Google Maps shows the plaque for the Old Fort Park location in front of the Old Fort Well by a large tree just east of Fire Station #1 on Main Street east from Clay Street looking north on Main Street at the overhead Nickel Plate railroad tracks.
It is hoped that the city council may conclude to put the old fort property, which belongs to the city, in good condition. It is asked of that body to have the well--which was dug under the direction of Gen. Wayne--cleaned out, and a pump put in, the property fenced, the grounds sodded, and graveled walks constructed, Mr. Isaac Bush will then construct, by the aid of private enterprise, an exact fort about eighty feet square and the whole would become probably the greatest curiosity and attraction in the city, both to citizens and strangers, and a credit to Fort Wayne.
[ Photos of this Old Fort model are shown and discussed on the 1895 Centennial page. ]
Last Two American Forts (Stop #11) with audio: “Last Two American Forts” featuring Tom Castaldi. Courtesy of WBNI-Fort Wayne on the ARCH ( Architecture and Community Heritage) Central Downtown Trail. The last paragraph states: 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.
This location on Main Street just west of Clay Street is the same location as the Old Fort Wayne Well at Old Fort Park.
The Wabash & Erie Canal built in the 1830s, was replaced in the 1850s with railroad tracks that ran along the north side of the park. The downtown Main Street Firestation # 1 is just west of this location. Last remant is the wishing well at Fire Station # 1 on Main Street. Read Fort Wayne’s First Park by Tom Castaldi published May 8, 2014 in History Center Notes & Queries blog.
Page 225, NOTES ON CHAPTER XVII. (3) Me-te-a died in Fort Wayne in 1827. The late Louis Peltier made the casket in which the body was buried. Peltier, who was born within the walls of the old fort, in 1815, conceived brush to grain the coffin.' " the idea of his life work while assisting to remove the skeletons of the fort soldiers from the military cemetery which was situated in the region of the "junction of the present Berry and Clay streets. This was while Mr. Peltier still was in his teens, and was engaged in learning the carpenter and cabinet- making trade with James Wilcox, whose shop was also the first under-taking establishment in Fort Wayne. In the beginning the undertaker was also the coffinmaker. The first person whose body Louis Peltier made the burial casket was Chief Me-te-a, whose tragic death was the result of taking - poison while conversing with friends in the silversmith shop of "Father" Be- quette. From the January (1880) issue of "The Casket," an undertakers' Jour-nal Published at Rochester, N. Y., the following interesting additional Infor-mation is taken:
"The coffine was of poplar and, as staing material was scarce at that time, Dr. Cushman furnished Venetian red. 'To gain the dark colr', said Mr. Petier, 'we burned oat straw and then secured General Tipton's whitewash brush to grain the coffin.'"
Soon after the burial of Me-te-a, Dr. Lewis G. Thompson had the body ex-humed in order to make an examination of the remains. "A noise was heard." says the late John W. Dawson, "which the company thought to be Indians: and. as they knew the savages were greatly hostile to such disinterments, they were at once panic stricken, and, quickly blowing out their lights, fled to the brush to await the denouement. False as the alarm proved to be. they were nevertheless suspicious of the nearness of danger. So, returning to the grave, they re-buried the body."
WHERE THE TWO STOCKADED FORTS WERE LOCATED. From the most reliable sources of information it appears certain that the original stockade erected by General Wayne's troops in September and October, 1794, occupied a site which included a portion of lots 11, 12 and 13, Taber's addition to Fort Wayne, and that the new fort, erected in 1800 by Colonel Thomas Hunt and rebuilt by Majors Whistler and Vose. included lot 40 — the present Old Fort Park. (See Page 223 Chapter XIX).
Page 465, Old Fort Park, one of 12 Fort Park mentions in The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River by Griswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph), 1873-1927; Taylor, Samuel R., Mrs, Publication date 1917 on Archive.org. OLD FORT PARK. The development of the present splendid park system of the city of Fort Wayne represents a continued and ofttimes discouraging effort extending over a half a century. The first piece of ground to be acquired for park purposes was the fractional lot No. 40, Taber's addition to Fort Wayne, purchased from Harry Seymour for $800. The little triangular spot — one-fifth of an acre — is the most treasured bit of ground in Fort Wayne, as it was a part of the site enclosed within the historic old Fort Wayne. Henry M. Williams later placed about the tract an iron fence and erected in the park a flagpole.
Old Fort Park (located next to Firehouse #1 on Main Street), c1900
As Fort Wayne grew in the mid-1800s, the dwindling amount of green space for relaxation and recreation became apparent to city officials and citizens. In response, the first city park, Old Fort Park, was established in 1863, through the gift of land from Henry Williams. An urban park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation. Parks may consist of grassy areas, rocks, soil and trees, but may also contain buildings, monuments, fountains or playgrounds.
Fort Wayne’s oldest park, Old Fort Park (1863), is on Main at Clay Street. The cannon that once sat there has since been moved. #fortwaynehistory #fortwayne #dtfw
FortWayne’s oldest park, Old Fort Park (1863), is on Main at Clay Street.The cannon that once sat there has since been moved. #fortwaynehistory#fortwayne#dtfw
Activities of 1900 Page 542 of Griswold's 1917 Pictorial.
During the national encampment of the Union Veteran Legion a captured Spanish cannon, mounted on a stone pedestal in Old Fort park, was dedicated. Prominent participants in the event were Governor James A. Mount, National Commander W. R. Wooster, of Philadelphia, Corporal James Tanner and William J. Bryan, of Nebraska
Old Fort Place
Was the block between Lafayette and Clay Street that began disappearing with the Nickel Plate Elevation in early 1950s.
