As a resident of a Historic Northeast neighborhood and a lifelong history enthusiast, Karen Richards was happy to see an intersection between the place she calls home and her hobbies through
the Historic Northeast 2035 Neighborhood Plan.
The 10-year plan is a culmination of efforts between the City of Fort Wayne and residents of the Northside, North Anthony, and Forest Park neighborhoods. From planting new trees to developing a sense of community pride and everything in between, the process asks residents to share their vision for the future of their neighborhood.
The Historic Northeast 2035 Neighborhood Plan was passed by the city council in May of 2024. From there, the city, local stakeholders, and neighborhood residents began working on implementing the plan, which included a long list of goals.
Given the “historic” in its name, it’s no surprise that among the many goals laid out in the plan, residents wanted to ensure that the history and culture of their neighborhoods were celebrated and protected.
“One of the things that we thought was important was giving people a connection to their own neighborhood history because those historic northeast neighborhoods are unique,” Richards explains. “That's in the Lakeside area where Kekionga would have stood, so the Miami Nation had roots there. Our first settlers had roots there. Some of our first battles took place there. It's a very historic area and we wanted to give people pride in their neighborhood.”
The neighborhood plan identified
ARCH, a local nonprofit historic preservation organization, as a potential partner.
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CourtesyARCH's office in downtown Fort Wayne was one of their preservation projects.This is where Richards’ intersection of home and hobby comes to life. She’s been involved with ARCH since 2000, both as a volunteer,
hosting lectures and leading tours, and as a board member. Currently, Richards is acting as ARCH’s interim executive director.
“I think people don't understand that Fort Wayne and Allen County are blessed with an amazing history,” she says. “So much history happened here, so many cool things happened here and I think it gives you pride in who you are– pride in where you come from. I think it broadens your horizons so much and it teaches you so much about why are we the way we are. You know, why are things the way they are? And I think it makes us richer, fuller, more interesting folk the more we know.”
In collaboration with the Northside, North Anthony, and Forest Park neighborhoods, ARCH is working to create a self-guided walking tour and coloring books that help showcase the area's rich history.
To make those projects a reality, Richards and former ARCH Executive Director Connie Haas Zuber started searching for funding opportunities.
The projects aligned with the parameters of the
Regional Arts Council Capacity Grant from Arts United, which has supported 32 organizations with over $460,000 going to local nonprofits in support of capacity-building initiatives, like project development and reaching new audiences, since 2022. Grantees must be members of the Regional Arts Council, which is facilitated by
Arts United and provides opportunities for arts and culture nonprofit leaders to connect and work together to enhance the quality of life,
according to their website.
These two Historic Northeast projects will allow ARCH to explore a new type of programming and reach new audiences.
“The fact that we are including children is a whole new audience for us and I am really looking forward to it,” Richards says. “I am looking forward to seeing how that coloring book turns out.”
With the just under $10,000 they received, ARCH will create, print and distribute a coloring book, which will feature significant historical sites to help children gain a better understanding of the neighborhood they call home.
“One of the other things we were really interested in is how do you give children pride in their neighborhood and a connection with the history of everything that surrounds where they live,” Richards says of the project.
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Rachel Von StroupThe sign from the street in front of Scott and Catherine Hill's home on E. State Blvd. marks its place on the National Register of Historic Places.The coloring book is still in its early stages, as ARCH sorts out what prominent historical moments should be featured. Richards says they have to be mindful about what they pick– it has to be something that can be colored in and it should teach the kids something about their history.
“I wanted to speak to them and teach them some things about their history as well,” she explains. “It is a great neighborhood too because we have got some good diversity. There are some interesting houses designed by some of the first Black architects in this area. We have got a whole Native American culture that I don't think kids even know about and those descendants are still here. I think highlighting all this different diversity for kids going to be really important too.”
The self-guided walking tour is also new territory for ARCH. From Richards’ recollection, ARCH has only offered one other self-guided tour, which was published in the 1990s.
“We published a book long ago called ‘The Heritage Trail’ and that was a self-guided tour, but those books, unfortunately, have all sold out and we have not yet updated the material and reprinted it,” she explains.
There is material online for that tour, but it needs to be updated, Richards says. Plus, the creation of walking tours for the Historic Northeast could change the format for tours offered by ARCH.
In addition to funding the publishing of a coloring book, ARCH also plans to use a portion of the money to fund the technology behind the walking tour– that is building a webpage and infrastructure to make the tour self-guided and easily accessible.
“We want to use technology to maybe put it on our website, but make it something that you could download onto your cell phone, take your cell phone and use it to go walk around those neighborhoods and look at homes and other structures that played a significant role in our history,” Richards says.
Before they can build out the self-guided feature though, they have to create the tour itself, which requires research and community input. Richards says they’ll use part of the grant to contract the former executive director to complete the research.
“What we're envisioning is, we're gonna sit down with neighborhood leaders and start listing what we think are historically significant buildings and places, even if they're not necessarily there anymore,” Richards explains.
She says the process of researching and building the tour will likely take the entire grant period, putting its estimated launch date in the spring or early summer of 2025.
If building this first self-guided tour goes well, it could be used as a blueprint for other self-guided neighborhood tours too.
“If Arts United would offer a similar grant again, next year we could do the same thing,” Richards says. “But this will give us a model to use in other historic neighborhoods and Fort Wayne is full of historic neighborhoods…so if this model works, we can use it in a lot of other neighborhoods, which I think is great.”
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CourtesyA lecture from ARCH's Fun and Free Lecture Series at the Cinema Center.While that option is merely a future possibility, ARCH currently offers guided walking tours. Their next big tours take place during the annual
Fright Night in downtown Fort Wayne, where they’re offering haunted tours of the West Central, Nebraska, Downtown and Lakeside neighborhoods. (They offer non-haunted versions of those tours too.) They’ll also be hosting a Murder and Mayhem bus tour during Fright Night.
The organization also has themed tours available that explore topics like the Jazz Age or early commerce in Fort Wayne. There are no scheduled times for those tours, but Richards says anytime people can gather a group of 10-15 interested people, she’ll schedule one.
“Walking tours are one of our main forms of education for people and it's a fun way to engage them in local history,” Richards says.
To learn more about ARCH, its walking tour or preservation efforts,
visit their website.