Some new photos from Fort Wayne





Polaroid photograph of a closed pink flower and some buds on one of the Rose of Sharon bushes that grow in my front yard. I photographed them in the evening, after they had closed for the day. Rose of Sharon flowers close up at night and reopen in the morning.

My grandmother, Stella Westerfield, planted these many years ago. My son bought the house after my grandma died.

8-31-22
 








Polaroid photographs of a house on the northwest corner of Wayne Street and Van Buren Street in the West Central neighborhood in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana.

This house was built in the early 1850s by Congressman Samuel Brenton. He represented the Fort Wayne area in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1851 to 1853, and then again from 1855-1857. In the Nineteenth Century, the West Central neighborhood was a wealthy area, where Fort Wayne's elites lived in beautiful homes like this one. By the late Twentieth Century, the area had become a rundown area whose grand homes had been divided into small apartments. Since then, the area has been slowly restored to its former glory, with many of the old houses restored to their original condition.

8-29-22
 




Polaroid photograph of the demolition of Saint Joseph Hospital on the corner of Broadway and Main Street in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. This is the back side of the hospital, facing west toward Van Buren Street. The hospital is being demolished using hydraulic excavators, which is unusual for such a large building. This is a ten story building!

Founded in 1869, Saint Joseph Hospital was the oldest hospital in Fort Wayne. It closed in November, 2021 and demolition began in 2022. This is the front of the hospital, facing Broadway. You can see on the front of the facade, near the left side, the outline of the sculpture of Saint Joseph that once adorned the building and the steel brackets that held it in place.

Originally a Roman Catholic hospital, Saint Joseph was sold years ago to a big for-profit company that also owns Lutheran Hospital and Dupont Hospital in Fort Wayne. The company built a new, much smaller hospital one block over on the corner of Main Street and Van Buren Street to replace the aging Saint Joseph Hospital. The Saint Joseph name was not kept; the new hospital is called "Lutheran Downtown."

8-8-22
 




A Polaroid photograph of the former Tocsin Graded School on the west side of County Road 600E just north of the small town of Tocsin in rural Wells County, Indiana. This is one of the early multi-room schools, a two story building with several classrooms, but built in the same architectural style as many one-room schoolhouses. Built in 1908, it is actually a little older than some of the one room schools I have photographed in rural Indiana.

The gable stone above the door says: "1908, Tocsin Graded School, District Number 10, J.V. Coshorn - Trustee."

The Tocsin School is now a private residence.

8-6-22
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
…The company built a new, much smaller hospital one block over on the corner of Main Street and Van Buren Street to replace the aging Saint Joseph Hospital.
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Why build the new one, why not keep the larger older one? Any needed upgrades should cost less than new construction I would think.
 
Pál_K said:
Why build the new one, why not keep the larger older one? Any needed upgrades should cost less than new construction I would think.
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The new one is a lot smaller; few people live in downtown Fort Wayne today, and the old one was always half empty. The other reason is that the old hospital had tiny rooms. The other hospitals in Fort Wayne are all much newer buildings with larger patient rooms and more modern infrastructure; Saint Joe's interior had the dreary depressing feel of a 1970s hospital. I understand why they replaced it.
 




A Polaroid photograph of Waynedale Cafe, a locally owned restaurant on Bluffton Road, across the street from the Southwest Conservation Club, in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

When I was a child, this place was called Karen's Kitchen and was known for its donuts and other breakfast foods. After Karen's closed around 2008, it was called Big Daddy's Diner for less than a year. I think that Waynedale Cafe opened sometime in 2009.

Waynedale was once an independent small town. In 1957, it was annexed by the city of Fort Wayne, but it still looks like a small town and still retains a small town culture.

8-14-22
 




Polaroid photograph of Paleteria La Michoacana, a Mexican ice cream shop and restaurant on Wells Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Immigrants from Mexico have opened several businesses on Wells Street in recent years.

8-4-22
 









Polaroid photographs of The Pyramids, an office building that looks like two truncated pyramids. The building is on the corner of Airport Drive and Airport Expressway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is near Fort Wayne International Airport, south of the Waynedale area.

I have always thought that this building, which was called Pyramid Plaza when I was a child, was an interesting place. It probably isn't that great as an office building, since it looks like it only has two usable floors; but it looks really cool!

9-4-22
 




Polaroid snapshot of a car sitting in a parking lot in the small town of Ossian, Indiana. The car, a little Honda, has a broken heart sticker on the window on the back of the driver's side rear door.

9-5-22
 






Polaroid snapshot of a funny yard decoration in front of a house on the southeast corner of Jefferson Street (State Road 1) and Roe Street in the small town of Ossian, Indiana.

An American flag flies from a tree above a plywood cutout of a boy peeing in the ground! The "pee" is a piece of yellow plastic tubing.

9-5-22
 








Polaroid photographs of several old toilets used as flowerpots. The toilets sit alongside the driveway of a house on Smith Road, between Sandpoint Road and Dorothy Drive, just outside Fort Wayne in rural Allen County, Indiana.

When I was young, I'd often hear people joke about wanting to put a toilet full of flowers out in their front yards to piss of their neighbors, though none actually did it. The owner of this house has an auto repair business in the garage behind the house; perhaps these help customers find the place!

9-4-22
 
Chriscrawfordphoto [SIZE=16px said:
Polaroid snapshot of an old chair left out by the road for the trash pickup in front of my house in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This chair belonged to my grandfather, John Westerfield. When my son and I moved into my grandparents' old house, we put this chair in the garage. The chair was damaged by water when the back part of the garage roof was torn off by the big storm that hit the area in June, 2022.

I photographed it in the evening shortly before sunset. Not long after I photographed it, some people in a tiny car stopped and grabbed it! It wouldn't fit in their little car's trunk, so it was hanging out the back; and as soon as they drove off, it fell out on the street!

8-24-22[/SIZE]
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The previous owner of the first and only house I ever bought had a pair of large dogs that she was breeding, and because they made so much noise when outside the neighbors were constantly calling the police. Eventually she kept the dogs inside for a long time, so the carpets were in really dirty condition. I ripped them out and left them on the curb for the next day trash pick-up, and an hour later they were gone. If it would have been legal, I'd have burned them they were so nasty. Hate to think what the folks who snatched them finally did with them.

PF
 
farlymac said:
The previous owner of the first and only house I ever bought had a pair of large dogs that she was breeding, and because they made so much noise when outside the neighbors were constantly calling the police. Eventually she kept the dogs inside for a long time, so the carpets were in really dirty condition. I ripped them out and left them on the curb for the next day trash pick-up, and an hour later they were gone. If it would have been legal, I'd have burned them they were so nasty. Hate to think what the folks who snatched them finally did with them.

PF
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Plenty of use left in those old carpets! I live in a poor rural area where people often acquire horses or other animals, then discover they can't meet their responsibilities to these creatures. You see lots of abuse and neglect. On the bright side, there are many horse shelters who will take in these horses, nurture and rehabilitate them, and find them new homes. They are always thrilled to receive donations of old blankets, quilts, carpets, etc. to serve as bedding. Anyone who has anything of the sort should first check with local shelters or large-animal vets to see if these items may be wanted there. Do a good deed for our animal companions!
 
farlymac said:
The previous owner of the first and only house I ever bought had a pair of large dogs that she was breeding, and because they made so much noise when outside the neighbors were constantly calling the police. Eventually she kept the dogs inside for a long time, so the carpets were in really dirty condition. I ripped them out and left them on the curb for the next day trash pick-up, and an hour later they were gone. If it would have been legal, I'd have burned them they were so nasty. Hate to think what the folks who snatched them finally did with them.

PF
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YUCK. That's even nastier than my moldy chair!



Retro-Grouch said:
Plenty of use left in those old carpets! I live in a poor rural area where people often acquire horses or other animals, then discover they can't meet their responsibilities to these creatures. You see lots of abuse and neglect. On the bright side, there are many horse shelters who will take in these horses, nurture and rehabilitate them, and find them new homes. They are always thrilled to receive donations of old blankets, quilts, carpets, etc. to serve as bedding. Anyone who has anything of the sort should first check with local shelters or large-animal vets to see if these items may be wanted there. Do a good deed for our animal companions!
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When I lived in New Mexico, I knew a woman who had taken in several abandoned horses. She said they're very expensive to care for; food for a horse out there cost about $1000 a month and people who get a horse soon discover that they can't afford to feed it and they take them out in the desert and leave them to die of thirst. She is wealthy and could afford to take care of them, but it is sad so many people didn't do their research before getting a horse.








Another chair left for the trash in my neighborhood! Seems like everyone has been tossing out furniture lately.

I photographed it in the evening shortly before sunset.

8-25-22
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Plenty of use left in those old carpets! I live in a poor rural area where people often acquire horses or other animals, then discover they can't meet their responsibilities to these creatures. You see lots of abuse and neglect. On the bright side, there are many horse shelters who will take in these horses, nurture and rehabilitate them, and find them new homes. They are always thrilled to receive donations of old blankets, quilts, carpets, etc. to serve as bedding. Anyone who has anything of the sort should first check with local shelters or large-animal vets to see if these items may be wanted there. Do a good deed for our animal companions!
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Yeah, well, Columbus, OH isn't known for its horse stables. It's too bad they didn't also take the TV box full of dried dog poop.

PF
 
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