Fort Wayne, IN: History Center/City Hall and Spy Run Blockhouse

Former City Hall: (3D Satellite)

Fort: (Satellite, 2,127 photos)

Please read Tom's History first.

A posting of a link of Fort Wayne innovations.

Street View

I'm so glad this building has been preserved. It was still the City Hall when I was a kid (mid 1900s). I remember that I toured it when I was a kid. The one thing I remember is that it had the city jail. When the new City-County Building was built, the Historical Society was able to move from the far west side of town to this more centrally located building. And they retained the historic 1897 county courthouse after the new building was built.

Keven Childers posted several images that include these postcard images.

1, City Hall, Fort Wayne, Ind. c 1911

2, City Hall - Fort Wayne, Ind. c. 1906

3, City Hall, Fort Wayne, Ind. c. 1908

4, City Hall, Fort Wayne, Ind. no date

5, City Hall, Ft. Wayne, Ind. c. 1910

6, City Hall, Ft. Wayne, Ind. early 1900s

7, 10953. City Hall, Fort Wayne, Ind. c. 1914

8, Fort Wayne City Hall no date

9, Fort Wayne's old City Hall - now the History Center - c. 1950s [Best of Fort Wayne II, G. Mather 2001]

10, 'Mid-century view of East Berry Street looking west...' [Best of Fort Wayne II, G. Mather 2001]

11, 5930. City Hall, Fort Wayne, Ind. c. 1912

12, Greetings of Ft. Wayne Ind - Post Office - City Hall c. 1900

13, City Hall, Fort Wayne, Ind. c. 1908 [sepia]

Silva Lining Photography posted
HISTORY
[That is the Lincoln Tower in the center background.]

Silva Lining Photography posted
A little bit of history... Zoom in and enjoy!

Silva Lining Photography posted
Different Perspective
[An exaggerated keystone affect.]

Silva Lining Photography posted
HISTORY

Ignacio Silva shared
Larry Dumbrowski When it was the police station I had to take my car there to have it inspected due to having too loud of mufflers.
Victor Fitch My dad took me there and had the Sgt put me in a cell. "Just so you know that if you get in trouble... this is where you will end up!" So far so good. lol
Bill Didier Where is the jail now??
Waneta Kiefer Bill Didier city jail is in the Rousseau Ctr, which runs the block between Clinton and Calhoun, across from the Court House, used to be a couple of bars and union halls. County jail is at the corner of Superior and Calhoun, across from where the old Trolley Bar was, to the north, grandma called that area tent city!

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted

Dennis Boyd Microwave tower in the background?

Thomas Cain Dennis Boyd this is Barr Street, looking north from Washington. What was News Sentinel building on left (now Unired Way), before 1st Wayne Church built, and after 1910s Market Buildings demolished. Tower in back is GTE, prior to their 1970s renovation. The white box building at rear left is Wolf and Dessauer, where the were moving to about the time of the fire. That's now Citizens Square.

Jack C. Shutt Dennis Boyd Yes. That is the old GTE microwave tower, before the "lighthouse tower" was built on top of the building.
[Fort Wayne had General Telephone Electric instead of AT&T for the phone service.
The stone building in the middle is the Old City Hall.]

John Hume The newest vehicle I see in the photo is a '59 Chevy on the far right. Can't tell what year the Ford Falcon is parked two spaces in front of the Chevy.

Marc Servos I admit I didn't notice the Falcon at first, thanks. Obviously from the 1960-63 model year range, which I assume '60 models being on market in late 1959. But we don't see the front to help pinpoint the model year.

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Spy Run Blockhouse

Javier Masini, CVS, Jul 2022, cropped

 

Historic Fort Wayne posted

March [2024] at the Old Fort

Revolutionary War Garrison

March 2nd

Saturday Only: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Civil War Garrison

March 23rd 

Saturday Only: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Historic Fort Wayne posted five photos with the comment: "The reconstruction on the Spy Run Blockhouse is getting ready to begin!!!  The beams were delivered early this morning from Tennessee.  Construction equipment will be setting up next week, and work is scheduled to begin the week of March 18.  We'll be posting updates and pictures here throughout the process, so stay tuned."

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Fort Wayne, IN: Wayne Knitting Mills

(Satellite, the buildings were across the former-NKP tracks from the park)

Some of the remaining buildings are now used by the Ward Aluminum Corporation.

Kenneth Hilders posted
Wayne Knitting Mills. Ft. Wayne, Ind. no date [ACPL]
Darryl Lee Jennings Ward Pattern and Engineering / Ward Aluminum Casting now.

Wayne Thompson posted
Vintage Postcard of WAYNE KNITTING MILL.
[Obviously, an colorized version of the above photo.]

3D Satellite

chris shatto photo was removed because of a copyright complaint.

The business was started in 1891 by Mr. Theodore F. Thieme using technology he found in Germany that used a sophisticated machine that could knit the legs for fifty stockings. Business was still good in August, 1919. But 16 months later, after prices began to tumble, the workers went on strike and the whole works was shut down. I could not determine if the plant ever resumed production. [TheIndependent] It must have resumed production because it was sold to Munsingwear Corporation of Minneapolis in April, 1923. [Tom's History] But it did not make the transition from silk to nylon stockings and the mill was closed in 1960 when it moved its operations to Humboldt, TN. The buildings still existed in 1982, and they were leased for public and private use. [News-Sentinel Archives] Some of the complex is now an undeveloped (just grass) park. Some of the buildings got flooded in 1982. I wonder if that is why they were torn down.

Flood water from the St. Mary's River surrounds the Wayne Knitting Mill buildings on Runnion Ave off West Main Street. Date 03/15/1982. Photo by Donald A. Weber.

Flood water from the St. Mary's River surrounds the Wayne Knitting Mill buildings on Runnion Ave off West Main Street. Date 03/15/1982. Photo by Donald A. Weber.

Former Fort Wayne resident Peggy Seigel, who has written much about women’s history in Fort Wayne, noted in an article published in part on http://www.iub.edu/~imaghist/for_teachers/grwdvlp/lstmp/industrlgrls.html

“At Wayne Knitting Mills, the most highly skilled workers were male knitters, who were trained though apprenticeship programs to operate the complex machines that knit the legs of stockings. Male workers also took charge of the dyeing process. Most of the other jobs in the factory were semiskilled or unskilled and were performed by girls or women. Three or four ‘transfer girls' put the stocking tops onto quills that were then used to transfer the stockings onto simpler circular knitting machines, also operated by women. These operators, known as ‘loopers', sewed together the foot of the stocking. Other female workers shaped stockings by a process called ‘boarding.' Women and girls also worked as sorters, inspectors, folders, finishers and menders.”
Further on she explains, “Like female workers at Wayne Knitting, girls and women at GE and the Edison Lamp Works were not permitted to train as apprentices….”

[HistoryCenterFW]

FortWayneReader

Wayne Knitting Mills at West Main Street and Growth Avenue, known as Knitters’ Row, was another large employer in the early part of the century, employing up to 2,500. As early as the 1920s, most of its employees were female, and the company’s buildings included a dormitory for female workers who had come from rural areas and small towns. Wayne Knitting Mills’ union was the first to organize under the new National Labor Relations Board in 1935 in an election that grew out of a strike that had been called in June of that year.
Excerpt from Allen County History Book manuscript , essay “Fort Wayne in the Depression”
Photo courtesy of The History Center/Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society
302 East Berry Street, Fort Wayne, IN 46802
(260) 426-2882
www.fwhistorycenter.com
[FortWayneReader]

Kim Rhodes posted
My Mom worked here. Women's nylon stockings were like gold!
Nancy Parker They had dorms for the women
[A comment indicates that the Ward Corporation now uses the buildings.]

Renee Procise commented on a posting
Right behind my house

Robert Teusch Jr had seven comments on a posting:

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The seventh photo was removed because Robert violated the copyright of Ward Corporation #2.

Gary Phillip Sauers posted
My grandfather worked at The Wayne Knitting Mill for 30 years.
Carol Stolte Spallone Look how clean.
Gary Phillip Sauers Yea, they made paracshutes for the war. After the war they made nylon hosiery. Very clean and precise work for both fabrics. Everyone who did this in the mill had to have a professional manicure every week. I remember my grandpa having real good German clippers and files to keep his nails totally unable to snag any of this fine silk fabric. I still have part of his set of manicure stuff to this day. It still cut my nails too. lol

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted two photos with the comment:

Located at West Main Street and Growth Avenue, Wayne Knitting Mills - manufacturer of silk hosiery from 1892 to 1960 - was not exempt from the floodwaters from the St. Mary's River. Some of the windows on this building have changed, but the awning with decorative brackets is still intact. Before and After Pics

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The awning is close to the overhead walkway.

Street View

Becky Osbun commented on Tommy's post
Standish photo, via ACPL

Charles Ervin shared three photos that are already included in these notes. But the text is new.

"For 70 years, Fort Wayne covered the legs of the world. In the days before hosiery turned into ``nylons'' and was packaged in cute little egg-shaped containers with cute little names, Wayne Knit silk hose had more than its share of the legwear market. Between 1892 and 1960, Wayne Knitting Mills at West Main Street and Growth Avenue was a busy place, with hundreds of employees - mostly women - scurrying over the cobblestone streets to take their places behind hundreds of humming sewing machines.
The intersection was known as Knitters’ Row, was another large employer in the early part of the century, employing up to 2,500. As early as the 1920s, most of its employees were female, and the company’s buildings included a dormitory for female workers who had come from rural areas and small towns. Wayne Knitting Mills’ union was the first to organize under the new National Labor Relations Board in 1935 in an election that grew out of a strike that had been called in June of that year.
Excerpt from Allen County History Book manuscript , essay “Fort Wayne in the Depression”

Timothy Jefferies I worked in the building when it was called Ward Aluminum.

Bluffton, IN: NKP (Cloverleaf) Depot and Water Tower

(Satellite)

Dennis DeBruler shared (Clover Leaf Depot, Bluffton, In. Built 1903. Demolished 1991.)
Does anyone know the location of this depot in Bluffton?

Steve Grigg commented on DeBruler's share
Art Lemke Great post Steve - I couldnt have said it better.

Mark Teer posted two photos with the comment: "Cloverleaf station,Bluffton,Wells Co,IN,1903,and headon 1901."

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It appears NKP removed the Cloverleaf track through town, which explains why I had a hard time finding traces of it on a 1951 aerial photo.

The 2005 SPV Map shows that the Wabash Central Railroad (WBCR) owned the Cloverleaf route between Van Buren and Craigville, IN. Norfolk Southern owned the NKP (Lake Erie & Western) route.

Fort Wayne, IN: Valbruna Stainless/Slater Steel/Joslyn Stainless Steel

(3D Satellite)

Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana posted or 11th photo

I didn't realize there was a steel plant in Fort Wayne until I saw this posting. Looking at a Google image, I noticed that some of the buildings on the east side seem to be losing their roof. So I quick copied a Bing image since it is older, and it still has its roofs.

Google

Bing

Christopher Mccann posted
Joslyn, Slater stainless
Christopher Mccann I currently work here
Mike Snow Too bad they got rid of the melt shop.
Jim Heit On April 12, 2001 @12:36 PM as furnace operator(1st Helper) I had the privilege of melting and pouring the last heat out of the Melt shop # 2 Furnace. It was type 316 CA, slip # 2558, Ht. # 59,301. I have a sample of that Ht. polished up from the test mold.

Mitch Harper posted
Arthur L. Potts: Ryan Palmer The picture is from 1907. The post card is dated 1911.
[The comments indicate that this was the Rolling Mill District and it was settled by Romanian immigrants, many of which worked at this plant.]

Rick Stabler posted
Joslyn Stainless Steel Mill on West Taylor Street during the 1982 flood. My grandfather, Albert (Red), and father, Lawrence, both retired from this company. Joslyn was sold to Slater in February of 1981 but retained the name of Joslyn until after 1982.
Nancy Oswald Hartstein Took workers in by boat.
Matthew Moore https://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/.../joslyn-pa-2005-08.pdf
Mike Eme Rescued a guy out of the overhead crane there in the middle of summer. Not sure I have ever been hotter or dirtier.
Kevin Wigner When this steel mill ran
there was a short-line railroad (Lake Erie & Fort Wayne Railroad) that switched RR cars in and out of Joslyn and businesses in the immediate area. Back in the 1960's my dad knew the engineer and he let dad and I ride in the engine one day while they were switching RR cars in and out of the mill. This was pretty cool to ride on this little switch engine back when I was a 9 year old kid.. Neat memory I will never forget!... That RR is gone now. They tore down the little RR office on Taylor St. in 1985 which near the entrance to the Joslyn mill... The railroad was a division of the Wabash railroad and it had only 3 workers who if I am remembering correctly were 3 brothers (I think).
Jim Heit Three brothers is correct. That engine is currently being restored by the Fort Wayne R.R. Society. I was employed there from 1964 until they closed.
Brian Hammer Wasn't there a law suit against the company from the employees because the cars in the parking lot paint jobs were being ruined by the residual fumes and smoke.
Jim Heit Acid rain produced by the plant ruined auto paint jobs at Allen County Motors and at GE.
John Leto I am still working there. Started in 89, left for awhile, now back. Good to be back.
Dave McDowell I remember Josyln and the flood very
well ... I worked for the city at that time. Drove a dump truck full of sandbags and teenagers for several days ... also watch President Reagan take a place in the bagline.

Comments on a post

Mitch Harper

https://industrytoday.com/forging-ahead-7/

I have been told that some of the most outstanding metallurgists in the world worked there in formulating and then assuring quality for special alloys only produced at that facility.

Part of the property may be contaminated by uranium because during WWII “Joslyn rolled uranium rods from billets for use by the MED and the AEC in weapons production.” Studies in 1949 and 1976 indicated they were careful and did not find residual contamination. But a 2004 survey of the site found evidence of radioactive contamination. So the US Army Corps of Engineers is doing further examinations of the property. [Waste-Lands]

The 2004 survey was for the purchase of the bankrupt Slater property by Valbruna. That Italian company built the business back up from four employees to more than 100. "Acciaierie Valbruna SPA, the Italian steel industry giant, is forging a strong identity in the United States, through its subsidiary, Valbruna Slater Stainless, Inc. This Indiana-based branch takes imported ingots and turns them into round cornered square billets and round bars, among other products, for its forging customers’ applications." [IndustryToday]

In 2005, the USACE did an evaluation and concluded that hazardous substances may have migrated from on-site buildings but they do not pose an imminent threat. But a Site Investigation should be done to "further characterize radioactive residuals." [USACE]

IndustryToday

A 5:00 video on how stainless steel is made

Streator, IL: Junction Tower: BNSF/Santa Fe vs. Aban/N&W/Wabash

(Satellite)

Kerry Bruck posted
ATSF Hudson steam locomotive #3461 crosses the Wabash diamonds in Streator 1947
John Burt Alan, this was the tower at the Lundy Street crossing.

In the aerial, it appears the tower is parallel to the Wabash tracks but north of the junction along the Santa Fe tracks. It appears the Hudson is running timecard east. Those are the largest code lines I have ever seen in a photo --- 8.5 crossbars.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

William Shapotkin posted three photos with the comment:

Sreator, IL ATSF/WABASH Xing. Here are three pix of the Tower/Xing of the ATSF/WABASH in Streator, IL. Now allow me to say that the interior photo was furnished me by a fellow on one of the facebook discussion groups and (sorry, it is my fault), did not write down his name so that proper credit can be given -- and for that I humbly apologize.

Richard Fiedler William I posted the interior photo to you but in fairness I believe I got it from the Streator IL site.

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