Some new photos from Fort Wayne





An abstract Polaroid photograph of the morning sky over my neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I was in my front yard looking south, around 7am. The clouds looked like a monster face!

This is the last of three abstract Polaroids that I made of the sky that morning.

7-26-22
 




Polaroid photograph of the little white church in the Prairie Grove Cemetery on Old Trail Road in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it early in the morning when the light was very warm.

Believed to have been built in 1851, this is one of the oldest buildings in Fort Wayne. It was originally a United Brethren Church. In the late 1990s, it was used by a small non-denominational church called Grace Bible Fellowship, but it has been unused since it closed. The cemetery owns the building and maintains it.

in 2008, vandals set fire to the church in the middle of the night. Fortunately, there is a Fort Wayne Fire Department station a block away from the cemetery; and they were able to stop the fire before it caused too much damage.

7-24-22
 




Polaroid photograph of the Butler Township [NODE="2"]Forum[/NODE] Schoolhouse in Butler Center, Indiana. The brick schoolhouse, which had been used as a garage for decades after it closed, partially collapsed on July 17, 2022.

This is the fourth of five Polaroids that I made of the schoolhouse at Butler Center early in the morning a few days after it began to fall apart.

Butler Center isn't a town, just a crossroads with a couple of houses, an abandoned church, and this schoolhouse. It is the geographic center of Butler Township, at the intersection of County Road 11 and County Road 60, a few miles south of Garrett.

7-20-22
 




Polaroid snapshot of a recliner chair left out by the road for the trash pickup in front of a house on Tyrone Road in my neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it in the evening about an hour before nightfall.

7-30-22
 





Polaroid photograph of a billboard on Ardmore Avenue, south of the railroad crossing, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The advertisement has been removed, leaving bits and pieces of previous ads visible. These billboards have a metal or wood surface, upon which advertisements printed on paper or plastic are glued. When one ad ends and another replaces it, the new one is often pasted on top of the previous one. Eventually, too many layers will accumulate; and they will be scraped off.

7-28-22
 




Polaroid photograph of the Butler Township Schoolhouse in Butler Center, Indiana. The brick schoolhouse, which had been used as a garage for decades after it closed, partially collapsed on July 17, 2022. This is a broken window on the south wall of the building. This wall suffered the most damage, along with the roof, which has also fallen.

This is the second of five Polaroids that I made of the schoolhouse at Butler Center early in the morning a few days after it began to fall apart.

Butler Center isn't a town, just a crossroads with a couple of houses, an abandoned church, and this schoolhouse. It is the geographic center of Butler Township, at the intersection of County Road 11 and County Road 60, a few miles south of Garrett.

7-20-22
 




Polaroid photograph of the Butler Township Schoolhouse in Butler Center, Indiana. The brick schoolhouse, which had been used as a garage for decades after it closed, partially collapsed on July 17, 2022. This is the roof, which collapsed to the ground after the the south wall of the building broke apart.

This is the third of five Polaroids that I made of the schoolhouse at Butler Center early in the morning a few days after it began to fall apart.

Butler Center isn't a town, just a crossroads with a couple of houses, an abandoned church, and this schoolhouse. It is the geographic center of Butler Township, at the intersection of County Road 11 and County Road 60, a few miles south of Garrett.

7-20-22
 




Polaroid photograph of the Butler Township Schoolhouse in Butler Center, Indiana. The brick schoolhouse, which had been used as a garage for decades after it closed, partially collapsed on July 17, 2022. This is the school's front door. The sun, which had been behind the clouds when I made the first four photographs of the schoolhouse, suddenly came out and bathed the building in warm early morning light right before I made this one.

This is the last of five Polaroids that I made of the schoolhouse at Butler Center early in the morning a few days after it began to fall apart.

Butler Center isn't a town, just a crossroads with a couple of houses, an abandoned church, and this schoolhouse. It is the geographic center of Butler Township, at the intersection of County Road 11 and County Road 60, a few miles south of Garrett.

7-20-22
 




Polaroid photograph of a fallen tree at the Prairie Grove Cemetery on Old Trail Road in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana. This tree was one of hundreds of trees in Waynedale that were destroyed by the derecho, a storm with hurricane-force winds, that hit Fort Wayne on the night of June 13, 2022.

The tree originally grew near the middle of the cemetery; and has had the cemetery's "rules" sign posted on it as long as I can remember. The sign has been there so long that the tree's trunk had actually drown around the top of the sign!

7-24-22
 




An abstract Polaroid photograph of the evening sky shortly before sunset in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I was looking south from the Prairie Grove Cemetery on Old Trail Road.

This is the fourth of six abstract Polaroids that I made of the sky that morning.

For several years, I have been doing abstract images of the sky and clouds in Indiana, so I decided to experiment with doing abstracts on Polaroid.

7-27-22
 




Polaroid photograph of Fairview Church of God, a small rural church on Yoder Road, about two miles west of the small town of Yoder, in the southwest part of Allen County, Indiana.

This part of the church is a modern 1974 addition built on to the west side of the original 1881 building. I photographed it shortly after sunrise.

7-31-22
 




Polaroid photograph of a tree that has been stripped of its branches and leaves by a storm, silhouetted against the sky at sunset.

The tree is in the front yard of a house on Sandpoint Road, between Kyle Road and Arbor Avenue, in my neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was damaged by the derecho, a storm with hurricane-force winds, that hit this part of Fort Wayne on the night of June 13, 2022. Hundreds of other trees in the area were broken off, uprooted, or stripped of their branches.

8-5-22​
 




Polaroid photograph of the demolition of Saint Joseph Hospital on the corner of Broadway and Main Street in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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."

8-4-22
 




Polaroid photograph of a basketball court on the parking lot of Fairview Church of God, a small rural church on Yoder Road, about two miles west of the small town of Yoder, in the southwest part of Allen County, Indiana.

7-31-22
 




Polaroid photograph of a sign in front of Fairview Church of God, a small rural church on Yoder Road, about two miles west of the small town of Yoder, in the southwest part of Allen County, Indiana.

The sign says: "I Got This. -God."

This is the first photograph that I made of this sign. It was made early in the morning. About twenty minutes later, the sun became brighter and warmer, so I made a second photograph of the sign.

7-31-22
 





Polaroid photograph of a single pink flower on the end of a branch on one of the Rose of Sharon bushes that grow in my front yard. I photographed it in the evening, shortly before sunset.

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

8-4-22
 




Polaroid photograph of a red two-seat "Motel Chair" glider swing. This was sitting in front of the white house in the middle of the small trailer park across the street from my house in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Everything looks to be in disarray because they were still cleaning up damage and debris from the bad storm that hit this part of the city on June 13, 2022.

I've always loved these colorful old-style metal chairs. They're commonly called Motel Chairs because in the 1950s, motels had them sitting in front of the rooms for guests to sit on outside. My grandparents had a pair of them that were older than I am. They are usually individual chairs, but these two-seat glider swings were popular too. This one is actually a modern one; they're still being manufactured by several companies.

8-7-22
 





Polaroid photograph of a house on Sandpoint Road, between Kyle Road and Arbor Avenue, in my neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The roof was damaged by the derecho, a storm with hurricane-force winds, that hit this part of Fort Wayne on the night of June 13, 2022.

I also photographed a tree in the front yard of this house that was stripped of its branches by the storm.

8-7-22
 
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