With 264,488 inhabitants (2016), Fort Wayne is the second largest city in the US state of Indiana and the seat of the county administration (county seat) of Allen County. Economically an industrial center, the city is also the seat of the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
The Three Rivers Festival, the premier festival in northeastern
Indiana, attracts approximately 400,000 spectators annually and lasts
nine days in mid-July. Includes more than 200 events, a parade, various
competitions and competitions.
Barbecue Rib Feast is a 4-day BBQ
celebration in mid-June in Headwaters Park.
German Day is an 8-day
celebration of the city's largest ethnic group, held the first week of
June at Headwaters Park.
Feast of Greece is a 4-day celebration held
at the end of June at Headwaters Park
national football festival
John and Ruth Reinegart Center for Music
Cinema Center
Corvette
Museum - has more than 50 restored corvettes in its collection
Firefighting Museum
Museum of Natural History with a large collection
of fauna
African American Historical Museum - among other things,
dedicated to the history of slavery
Museum of Art
Aviation Museum
Fort Wayne Zoo
Fort Wayne's Old City Hall. Fort Wayne Old City Hall Building is the former city hall of the city of Fort Wayne, which today serves as a museum. The building is built from local sandstone. The building was opened as a town hall in 1893 and the building was used as an office until 1971. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The building is located on E Berry Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA.
The Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory is a 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²) botanical garden and greenhouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is open to the public seven days a week throughout the year. Opened to the public in 1983, the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory is a tropical oasis in the heart of downtown Fort Wayne Indiana. Temporary exhibitions of plants are shown in the garden and greenhouse. In the gardens and greenhouse we can admire 1,200 plants of 502 different species.
Fort Wayne was built in 1794 on the site of the settlement of
Kekionga, where the Miami Indians were headquartered.
In 1832,
construction began on a canal connecting Lake Erie and the Wabash River.
In order to attract German and Irish immigrants to the area to work on
this project, plots of land were given away at very low prices. This
incentive brought not only the necessary labor to Fort Wayne, but also
problems when Irish Catholics and German Lutherans quarreled.
Nevertheless, the canal was inaugurated in 1843.
Due to the
immigration of builders, the number of residents grew rapidly and many
churches were built. Today there are over 200 churches of various
denominations in the city.
Wyneken's distress call
Many of the
German immigrants were Lutherans. At that time there were only a few
Lutheran ministers in the US and just one in Indiana, Jesse Hoover. In
1838, Rev. Friedrich Conrad Dietrich Wyneken arrived in Fort Wayne to
discover that Rev. Hoover had died a few days earlier. Horrified by the
church situation of the Lutherans in Fort Wayne, Wyneken traveled to
Germany to seek help. He wrote The Distress of the German Lutherans in
North America (known in Germany as Notruf).
Following Wyneken's
emergency call, many German Lutheran pastors emigrated to Fort Wayne,
especially after the March Revolution of 1848/49. This includes, among
others, Wilhelm Sihler. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod was founded
in Chicago in 1847 and the first seminary ( Concordia Theological
Seminary ) settled in Fort Wayne. This still exists today and is known
as a very conservative place of education. Sihler is sometimes referred
to today as the "father of the Lutherans in North America".
Fort Wayne is home to the following teams:
The Fort Wayne Mad Ants
play in the NBA G-League (formerly NBA Development League) and have been
the farm team for the NBA Indiana Pacers since 2015.
The Fort Wayne
Komets have played hockey in the ECHL since 2012.
The Fort Wayne
TinCaps play minor league baseball in the Midwest League
Fort Wayne
Fever play women's soccer in the W-League, the second-tier division of
US and Canadian women's soccer. They also represented Fort Wayne in
amateur football in the USL Premier Development League until 2009.
Frank Bursley Taylor (1860–1938), amateur geologist
Alice Hamilton
(1869–1970), pathologist and social reform pioneer, and the first woman
to teach at Harvard University
Frederick William Sievers (1872–1966),
sculptor
John Francis Noll (1875–1956), Bishop of Fort Wayne
Germany Schulz (1883–1951), American football player and coach
Chester Hamlin Werkman (1893–1962), microbiologist
Paul Frank Baer
(1896–1930), pilot
Rudy Jackson (1901–1968), jazz musician
Homer
Van Meter (1905–1934), bank robber
Carole Lombard (1908–1942),
actress
Holman Hamilton (1910–1980), historian
Armin Henry Meyer
(1914–2006), diplomat, United States Ambassador
Marion Donovan
(1917–1998), architect and inventor of the disposable diaper
Edward H
Kruse (1918–2000), politician
Bill Blass (1922–2002), fashion
designer
Harold Masursky (1922–1990), geologist and astronomer
Robert Kemp Adair (1924–2020), physicist
Dick York (1928–1992),
television actor
John H. Holland (1929–2015), computer scientist and
college professor
Dean Corll (1939–1973), serial killer
Troy
Shondell (1940–2016), pop and country singer
Bruce Nauman (born
1941), artist
Jim O'Neal (born 1948), blues expert, author, record
producer and label owner
Daniel W. Armstrong (born 1949), chemist
Shelley Long (born 1949), actress
Dee Bell (born 1950), jazz singer
Craig Strete (born 1950), Native American writer
Mark Souder
(1950–2022), politician
Craig Morey (born 1952), erotica photographer
Bill Moring (born 1958), jazz bassist and music educator
Robert
Rusler (born 1965), actor
Rod Woodson (born 1965), American football
player
Lloy Ball (born 1972), volleyball player
Jenna Fisher (born
1974), actress
Jill Bennett (born 1975), actress
Angela Akers
(born 1976), beach volleyball player
Brad Miller (born 1976), NBA
basketball player
Dale Purinton (born 1976), ice hockey player and
coach
Ben Quayle (born 1976), politician
Jamin Winans (born 1977),
director, screenwriter, film editor and composer
Brian Gratz (born
1981), ice hockey player, coach and official
DaMarcus Beasley (born
1982), soccer player
Miles Plumlee (born 1988), basketball player
Tyler Eifert (born 1990), football player
Mason Plumlee (born 1990),
basketball player
Alex Aleardi (born 1992), ice hockey player
Jaylon Smith (born 1995), American football player
Drake Batherson
(born 1998), ice hockey player
Collin Schiffli (born 20th century),
filmmaker