Some new photos from Fort Wayne

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Wednesday morning was incredible, with some of the most beautiful fog that I have seen in the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I spent the morning photographing the landscape in Foster Park. This small oak tree was on the northern edge of the park's golf course.
 
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Just a snapshot of one of the windows on my garage. During the summer, there are lilies and daisies growing all along this side of the building. The snow is finally melting, next month the plants will come back to life.
 
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I photographed this scene in downtown Fort Wayne after attending the opening of an exhibit at the Artlink Gallery that included one of my photographs. Fog and rain had moved into the city, obscuring the upper floors of the city's tall buildings.​

The building in the foreground, Citizens Square, houses most of the city government. It had originally been a department store, then an office building, and finally it served as the temporary home of the Allen County Public Library during the renovation of the library's old facility.

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The city bought the building after the library left, and asked residents to submit possible names on the city government's website. Overwhelmingly, the people of Fort wayne voted to name it the Harry Baals Government Center. Mr. Baals was the mayor of Fort Wayne from 1934-1947 and from 1951-1954, and yes, his name was pronounced like "Balls."​

The effort to name the building after Mayor Baals made national news, but the city decided to name the building Citizen's Square. As usual, our leaders found the blandest, dumbest name possible. Yes, naming it for Harry Baals might be embarrassing (although there is a street named for him!), but Citizens Square sounds like the sort of name a Communist country would give its Secret Police headquarters.​

The tall building in the background, with its top in the fog, is One Summit Square. At 27 stories, it is the city's tallest building, and it is generally regarded as the city's ugliest! It was built in the early 1980s by Summit Bank, a locally owned bank that was bought out by a big national bank long ago. At least that building's name means something, given the name of its original owner!

Although it is universally disliked by Fort Wayne's residents, it was designed by world-renowned architect Kevin Roche!​
 
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This afternoon, my son and I had lunch at Magic Wand, a little restaurant in the small town of Churubusco, Indiana. The entire inside of the place is decorated with clowns! The manager told me that it is still owned by the family that started it 50 years ago, and that they have so many clown items in their collection that they can only display a small part of it in the restaurant.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
This afternoon, my son and I had lunch at Magic Wand, a little restaurant in the small town of Churubusco, Indiana. The entire inside of the place is decorated with clowns! The manager told me that it is still owned by the family that started it 50 years ago, and that they have so many clown items in their collection that they can only display a small part of it in the restaurant.
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Oh wow, haven't seen a Red Skelton picture in a long time. He was the best.

PF
 
Thanks for keep posting this Chris! I really enjoy the thread, I am amazed by your talent of finding beauty in such casual, simple things...

Keep it up, the spring is almost here :):)
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
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This afternoon, my son and I had lunch at Magic Wand, a little restaurant in the small town of Churubusco, Indiana. The entire inside of the place is decorated with clowns! The manager told me that it is still owned by the family that started it 50 years ago, and that they have so many clown items in their collection that they can only display a small part of it in the restaurant.
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Wow, hard to believe such a place exists. I think of the clown scene from the movie Joe Dirt. Many people are afraid of clowns -- as a child, my son was. Growing up I liked Bozo.
 
NY_Dan said:
Wow, hard to believe such a place exists. I think of the clown scene from the movie Joe Dirt. Many people are afraid of clowns -- as a child, my son was. Growing up I liked Bozo.
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I know a lot of people too who are creeped out or just plain scared of clowns. I think the ultimate scary clown movie has to be "Killer Klowns From Outer Space."
 
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Last Wednesday morning, the morning after I made the foggy cornfield photos, was still very foggy. I spent the morning at Foster Park, a large park in Fort Wayne. This is the trail through the forest along the banks of the Saint Mary's River, just south of the old suspension bridge.
 
G Dogg said:
Chris,
Having lived in Ft Wayne for almost 30 years (now in Chicago), it is nice to see your images of Ft Wayne.
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Thanks, G Dogg. I'm amazed at how many people I have met on RFF who are from Indiana. There are a couple others here who have lived in Fort Wayne, too! Were you born and raised in Fort Wayne? I was, then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a couple of years. I moved back to Ft. Wayne at the beginning of 2008 to be closer to my son, who ended up coming to live with me a couple months later.
 
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Here's the last of the photos I made last Tuesday evening in Wells County, Indiana. All of the foggy landscapes I posted last week were photos of the fields surrounding this place!
 
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This manhole, decorated with a face by a local graffiti artist, is on the riverbank next to the old suspension bridge, at Foster Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The river level is very high because the winter snow is finally melting all over the city. Normally the manhole structure and trees are on dry land!

This is another of my photos from last Wednesday morning.
 
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Another photo from last Wednesday morning, when fog covered Fort Wayne.

The tree at the end of this gravel drive is on the northern edge of the golf course at Foster Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it from the forest at the end of the famous suspension bridge, looking up the embankment along the edge of the wooded riverbank.
 
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