As Fort Wayne grew in both size and industry, residents were ready to find a neighborhood where they could escape the noise, dirt and crowding of the City. Thus, what would become Fort Wayne’s first streetcar suburb was born! In 1890, the Fort Wayne Land and Development Company platted the land that would become the Lakeside Park Addition. The Addition consisted of the land formed by the peninsula at the confluence of the St. Joseph, St. Marys and Maumee Rivers. In it’s front-page advertisement in the Fort Wayne Journal on March 11, 1890, the Addition was lauded as “the handsomest residence Portion of Fort Wayne” and for “Its Nearness to the Heart of the City”. It also offered natural gas, water, electric lights and police/fire protection. Shade trees, graveled streets, pleasure lakes, a park, curbs and sidewalks, and driving boulevards were also touted as amenities. And, in 1892 when the Lakeside Street Railway was formed, it ran a new streetcar line from Calhoun along Columbia and across the river to Crescent Avenue. The neighborhood also featured uniform building setbacks, and small front and side yards and deed restrictions that lead to a uniform look and quality control for the new neighborhood. By 1894, the streets were in place, with the majority of houses being built between 1893-1920. When the land at the eastern end of the Addition was donated to the City, Lakeside Park became a reality. And, before the building of the levees we have today, there was unencumbered park land along the banks of the Maumee and St. Joseph Rivers. Thus, Lakeside became a middle-class neighborhood, and often the first place people could afford to buy their own homes. The lots in the initial sale sold for $500 each and on these “bargain” lots, people built homes in a variety of styles that were popular at the time, including Queen Anne, Craftsman bungalows, Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival and Prairie. Lakeside Historic District was added to the National Historic Register in 2017.
Long before Lakeside Addition came in to being, the land at the confluence of the Three Rivers was home to the Myaamia (Miami). It was here that the center of the Myaamia Nation, Kekionga, was located. In the spring, scattered families from the 6 clans of the Myaamia would gather at Kekionga and tend to their large fields of corn, gardens and cattle, living in dome shaped homes called wiccias. Kekionga was a sacred and ancient place not only for the Myaamia, but also a gathering place for other tribes including the Shawnee, Huron, Ottawa and Delaware. It was also at Kekionga that the Myaamia would convene as a nation. As time progressed, Kekionga became a multicultural community, including not only members from other Native tribes, but French and English traders. The area was important because it began the portage that was the crucial to continental travel and economy in an era before Western-style roads. Spanning the marshy land gap between the Great Lakes and Ohio River watersheds, the portage was an important part of the Myaamia economy, food system and travel route.
Lakeside Walking Tour: Columbia Ave.
714-716 Columbia Avenue – c.1895
This gable front, double residence was altered in the 1920’s with Craftsman-style features that were popular at the time. These include the brick porches that probably replaced wooden porches and have battered (wider at the bottom) columns that support a hipped roof. This residents duplex reflects the flow of homeowners that were typical in this neighborhood. Johanna Kroger at 714 and Harry and Sarah Goldstine at 716 resided there for about 10 years. Harry was shoe repairer and worked downtown. By 1935, new residents were Charles and Vada Walters and Alva and Cecile Rupel. Mr. Walters was a salesman and Mr. Rupel was a clerk. By 1940, residents had again changed. Florence Johnson, who was a clerk at New York Life Ins. Co. lived at 714. Saleem Maloley and his wife Sadie lived at 716, and Mr. Maloley was a shoe repairer.
725 Columbia Avenue – c.1900
This Queen Anne style house has lovely details typical of the style including the projected front gable, the use of brick quoins on the corners, the details at the apex of the front gable, and the spindle brackets on the front porch. The porch may be a later addition to the house, although an expansive front porch is typical of a Queen Anne style house. The style was popular in the Unites States from 1880 to 1910.
802 Columbia Avenue – c.1895
This house is an example of a T-plan Queen Anne style, which means that the house shape resembles the letter “T”, when viewed from above. The main portion of the house is the stem of the letter T, with a perpendicular section as the top of the T. The house was originally unadorned brick but was later painted white. The wrap-around porch is also a replacement. Typical of a Queen Anne style, the house features an asymmetrical front with the front door on the side in the ell formed by the 2 sections of the T and elaborate ornamentation, especially over the windows. Note the hood moldings over the windows with are arched with pendants at the end and topped with 2 lines of projecting header bricks.
854 Columbia Avenue – c.1896
Again, this house is an excellent example of Queen Anne styling. It is asymmetrical, with a steep slate roof, and elaborate detailing. These details include an unusual, paneled frieze, a variety of windows, a detailed porch, decorative shingled gables and rare iron cresting on the roof. Behind the house is the original carriage house/barn. The home
who was born not far away, at the corner of Main and Barr in 1859. Henderson started a feed store on Columbia Street in approximately 1882.
905 Columbia Avenue – c.1906
This house is an unusual example of a Colonial revival home. Most houses of this style feature a symmetrical facade, and this this facade is asymmetrical. Its Colonial Revival details include a Palladian window in the dormer, a 2-story galley porch with columns and a central entrance. This home was built by Dr. Charles Dancer, who in 1911, was appointed Fort Wayne’s first medical examiner, and may have been the first medical examiner in the State. Dr. Dancer was educated at Fort Wayne Medical College.
1025 Columbia Avenue – 1905
This pyramid roof Queen Anne style cottage has an unusual peaked roof corner pavilion at the end of the front porch, featuring slender Tuscan co�umns. It also features bands of trim, a multi-level roof and architectural detailing defined by contrasting colors. Decorative joists extend out from the wall of the lower ends of the gable near the returns. The home was built by Lymna and Jennie Ransom. Lyman was the secretary/treasurer of the Mercantile Merchants Accident Association. After Jennie’s death, Lyman married Hannah, who held meetings of the Women’s Christian temperance Union at the home.
1025 Crescent Avenue -c.1895
This Queen Anne Free Classic style home sits on the corner of Lake and Crescent. This style is characterized by a combination of classical details, such as columns on porches, asymmetry, intricate windows and other decorative details, along with the traditional Queen Anne details, such as a corner tower. This house is both larger in size and architectural style than its neighbors, which was often the case with houses built on corner lots. This house features a front door on the left side of the facade, a Palladian style window located under the gable, and a door that accesses the roof of the front porch. There is a wide frieze above the front porch that features swag detailing. The house also has multiple windows of different styles. The home is believed to be built by Harry Sprague and sold to William and Gertrude Tiger in 1904 for $6,000. Mr. Tiger was a City Councilman in 1896 and worked as a dispatcher for the Penn Co. The home was sold to the Roose family.
Lakeside Walking Tour: Lake Ave.
938-940 Lake Avenue- c.1910
This home is a rare example of an early duplex. The porch features fluted columns, and the porch has a wide frieze. On both sides there are small boxed oriel (bay) windows and the first-floor windows have an entablature with headers. This double house was built for Conrad and Henry Seelig, who owned a grocery store at 301 E. Wayne St.
1012 Lake Avenue -c.1915
This house is a combination of American Foursquare and Neo-Classical Revival architecture. The full-width front porch is supported by a replacement concrete foundation. Short wooden columns with Ionic capitals support the entablature on both sides of the entry steps, which is a Nee-Classical feature. There is a shield and scroll detail in in the gable centered over the front steps. A frieze board and boxed eaves top the second floor. Foursquare details include the homes symmetry, hipped roof and low hipped roof dormer.
1115 Lake Avenue – c. 1895
This Queen Anne style house has a T-plan layout, with a partial front porch. The east side of the house a chamfered corner, which means the wall has a 90-degree corner removed at a 45-degree angle. The fish scale cladding under the front gable is a later addition. A band across the front gable features dentil moldings. One of the earlier owners of the home was Judson k. Ross and his wife Bertha. After Judson’s death, Bertha lived in the house until 1932. In 1932, carpenter John R. Barrett moved in.
1127 Lake Avenue -1895
This house is one of the best examples of Queen Anne architecture and one of the earliest homes built in Lakeside. The square tower on the left of the front of the house is characteristic of a Queen Anne style, although the original front porch of the house has been enclosed. The front door surround has fluted columns and an art glass transom. A frieze board separates the lower edge of the tower and the upper portion of main façade. The tower and peak of the gable are decorated with a combination of fish scale, diamond, round, chisel point and square shingles. The tower’s roof is capped with a metal finial. The gable ends are supported by scrolled brackets. In the 1920’s, Frank and Ruth Farley occupied this home, Earnest and Margaret Hawkins in 1935 and Allen and Aimee Tewin 1940.
1215 Lake Avenue – c.1925
These 2-story Craftsman/Neo-Classical Apartments are known as the Delta Apartments. The apartments feature are very similar to Chicago’s “flat” apartments and have architectural details often seen in commercial buildings constructed on main streets during this time period. As Fort Wayne’s population rapidly grew in the 1920s and 1930s, small apartment blocks like this began to appear in established neighborhoods. The building is built in the shape of an “H” and has deeply recessed entry, above which is a stone block inscribed with “Delta Apartments”. The windows have stone sills and lintels of soldier coursed (standing upright) red brick. This apartment has several architectural features, including the stepped, arched parapet, the pendant detail in the center of each parapet above the second story windows, and the rows of bricks below each bank of windows. There is also a brick string course around the building’s exterior below the cornice and above the second story windows.
703 Edgewater Avenue – c.1900
This Dutch Colonial revival house is brick but has been painted white. The house has a gambrel roof, typical of the style, which means there are 2 slopes to the roof, which gives the house a barn-like appearance. The entry door is recessed and located through a round arch, single column porch. The window openings have arched headers and a soldier course of brick. The windowsills are stone. The roof wall junction has a wide frieze board with dentil details. The first residents documented as living in this house were Alf and Nellie Herbert who stayed from the 1920’s to the 1930’s. In 1935, Vada Cobb, a widow working as a cream tester at a local dairy lived here and by 1940, widow Josie Pierce lived in the house. Like many of the homes in early Lakeside, this house changed residents on a regular, short-term basis.
825 Edgewater Avenue c.1902
This Tudor Revival apartment building started out life as the Coony Bayer Cigar factory. The building is now called the Edgewater Arms. The Tudor revival style is inspired by the simple, rustic architecture of 16th century England. Typical of that style, this building features a steeply pitched roof, prominent gables and half-timbering.
Windows throughout the building are metal casement windows, some of which have diamond pattern muntins. The building was first used in 1902 as Jas. A. Morrow’s bed spring factory, and in 1921, became the Coony Bayer Cigar Factory. The building was converted to apartments in 1937.
917 Edgewater- c.1912
This house is a wonderful example of a Craftsman style bungalow, with its full-width front porch, exposed rafter tails, and knee braces in the eaves. The large front dormer has false timbering. The columns supporting the porch are a combination of rock-faced concrete block on the bottom and wood shingles on the upper half. The stairs leading to the porch also have the same concrete block in their wing walls. The original open porch has since been enclosed. John A. Wilson and his sister Elizabeth lived in the home until about 1927. John was an auditor with Wayne Knitting Mills. Around 1927, C. William Baldwin, a salesman, and his wife Josephine moved into the home.
Historic Gallery
