The Landing was a place of firsts. The Randall Hotel, which was Fort Wayne's first hotel in 1823, was managed by Winifred Randall. Before managing the hotel, she was the first woman in the United States to manage a lumber mill. She also helped found Fort Wayne's chapter of the DAR.
Perry and Winifred Randall owned and operated the Randall Hotel in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Read more on The Randall Circle website or Randall Circle 58 page pdf a collection of assorted photos, newspaper articles and memories from various family members.
1828 Jacob Fry tannery location, 1870 Robinson Hotel became the Grand Hotel, 1889 Perry A. Randall bought and renamed the Randall Hotel. Razed in 1963. Read more in Indiana’s Best $2 Hotel by Tom Castaldi published June 27, 2013 in History Center Notes & Queries blog.
A May 15, 1964 closure and auction of the hotel posted May 15, 2019 by The History Centeron Facebook Stated: Hotel accommodations in downtown Fort Wayne abounded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Options ranged from the large and extravagant Hotel Anthony to the small and humble Hedekin House. One of the better known mid-range hotels in the city was the Randall Hotel. The hotel held the names of the Robinson House, Hotel Grand and Hotel Brunswick before being purchased by local attorney, Perry A. Randall in 1889. After becoming a largely residential hotel in the 1930s, the Randall closed and was razed in 1963 with the death of Winifred Randall. One year following the closure of the Randall, an auction of the hotel's contents was held, fifty-five years ago today, on May 15, 1964. Several items were purchased by citizens of Fort Wayne at the auction and subsequently donated to the Historical Society. As the demand for downtown hotels increases, today we share some memories of one of the grand old hotels of Fort Wayne’s past. #sociallyhistory.
As I remember … by Randall, Winifred J., Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1960, an Archive.org. The Foreword states: These are some of the memories of the visitors and guests of the Randall Hotel over the years as Mrs. Winifred J. Randall, owner of the hotel, has recorded them. It became the practice of Mrs. Randall on the arrival of guests who had spent their youth in Fort Wayne, to get out her typewriter and ask them to tell in their own words what they could recall.
Rankin House: Little House, Big History by ARCH Inc., posted August 11, 2020 on YouTube/
ARCH Inc. presents a virtual, video tour of the historic Rankin House. This tour is possible because of the support of the Community Foundation of Greater Foundation and our generous donors to the #GivingTuesdayNow project. Join them in supporting ARCH Inc. and its historic preservation work in the Fort Wayne area by visiting archfw.org. Invest in history for our future.
#3 - ALEXANDER TAYLOR RANKIN HOUSE. YEAR CONSTRUCTED: c. 1841. Located at 818 S. Lafayette St., the structure appears to be fairly non-descript, but was constructed by one of the leading abolitionist personalities of the 19th century. Built in the Greek Revival style, the brick home also may have served as a school at some point in its history. The interior retains most of its original features, including wall and trim finishes as well as a period staircase and railings. Alexander T. Rankin took part in the Underground Railroad that smuggled slaves from the south into the north. The home is the only standing structure in Fort Wayne that is known to be connected to abolition and the Underground Railroad. It is the current home of ARCH. (Photo courtesy of ARCH). Copied from FORT WAYNE FIVE: Oldest city structures on the National Register of Historic Places published January 4, 2018 The News-Sentinel newspaper archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
3400 Coliseum Blvd, Suite 200, (800) 732-9473. In 1929 Victor Rea was named manager of Dudlo Company. In 1933 he formed Rea Magnet Wire read their About Rea Magnet Wire timeline on their web site www.reawire.com. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reamagnetwire/. Rea Magnet Wire Company, Inc. is one of the world's largest manufacturers of magnet and nonferrous wire products. Rea produces copper, aluminum and brass-insulated magnet wire and bare wire used in the manufacture of motors, transformers and coils. Rea also manufactures a number of specialty wire products. Copied from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Rea Magnet Wire, a local employer founded 90 years ago, has been sold to a German company in what is being described as “a perfect match” of operations. Terms of the sale, which closed Friday, were not disclosed. Elektrisola plans to retain the Rea name, the company’s five manufacturing plants, its leased corporate offices in Fort Wayne and all of its employees, officials announced Friday in a news release. Rea Magnet Wire employs about 800, including about 230 in Fort Wayne. Along with Indiana, the company has operations in Connecticut, Virginia and Mexico. ... Victor Rea, who founded the company, sold it to Alcoa in 1960. Vann was among a group that bought it from Alcoa in 1986. Elektrisola employs about 4,000 worldwide at 14 plants in seven countries. The manufacturer, which bills itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of fine copper wire, was founded in 1948 in Germany. Copied from Rea Magnet Wire's North American magnet operations sold; employees to be retained Sherry Slater | Journal Gazette March 31, 2023 .
Greetings all, and thanks to all who have commented on this thread!
It’s a real treat to hear these different stories and histories related to Rea Magnet Wire.
I’m the youngest of Sam Rea’s sons, and one of Victor Rea’s grandsons. My brother Scott Rea is around here somewhere, as is my sister Polly Rea, and at least one of our cousins (from my uncle David Rea’s side) has posted above.
I didn’t come along until 1970, and so 1) I never got to meet my grandfather, Victor, and 2) I wasn’t around when my family still owned / led the company.
But my father, Sam Rea, who ran the company after Victor’s death until its sale to Alcoa, told me many fond stories from those days. A few that come to mind:
1) Victor Rea needed to go to the factory on a weekend to get something. A security guard, who didn’t know who he was, refused Victor… the company owner… entry because he didn’t have ID. Come Monday… rather than rebuke the guard, Victor thanked and rewarded him
for his diligent service. My dad loved that story.
2) Some company in the Chicago area (can’t remember who) has been left high and dry on wire supply by another company. In desperate need, they phoned Rea. My dad (Sam Rea) and a few others took several spools of wire to the airport, and personally delivered them on the company plane to the company in need. Thereafter that company was a Rea client.
Too many other stories to bother you with here. Suffice it to say that my dad was very proud of his father, and always carried very fond memories of Rea Magnet Wire and all the wonderful people who worked there.
Thanks again to all for sharing your memories and stories!
POSITIVELY FORT WAYNE: It's an antique lover's dream. Billing itself as the "region's destination for the best of the past," you could spend hours inside Reclaimed Fort Wayne Salvage Co. looking through everything it has to offer. Emily Dwire WANE 15 takes you on a tour!
POSITIVELY FORT WAYNE: "Oh wow" seemed to be the most popular reaction for people watching this story 🤣 I know I said it more than once as we walked through this place during the interview lol check out Reclaimed Fort Wayne Salvage Co. and ALL it has to offer!
POSITIVELY FORT WAYNE: "Oh wow" seemed to be the most popular reaction for people watching this story I know I said it more than once as we walked through this place during the interview lol check out Reclaimed Fort Wayne Salvage Co. and ALL it has to offer!
We found some cool newspaper articles/pictures with some early Fort Wayne history! - “One of Fort Wayne’s horse cars,...
We found some cool newspaper articles/pictures with some early Fort Wayne history!
- “One of Fort Wayne’s horse cars, built around 1890, is shown on Creighton Avenue. This was the “Belt Line” joining the two southerly lines and creating the only loop operation.”
- “The Swift Park Line was organized in 1896 and ran between the St. Joseph River and the Feeder Canal to Robinson Park. Above are two of the nine-bench open cars on the line.”
- “Built in 1875 was the Remmel Bros. Building which is standing at the corner of Washington Blvd and Broadway. The firm advertised as the “west-end druggists and general dealers in staple and fancy Yankee notions.”
- “This is C.L. Centlivre’s residence and beer garden on the St. Joseph River in 1876. These engravings are from an old atlas on Indiana owned by Fred Heck…”
- Postcards: Wayne Street Arch at the Barr Street Market, Lakeside bridge was mailed in 1911, The Barr Street Market in 1910
- “Three horses pull the steaming engine across Berry St.” / “The steamer, Vigilant, was photographed in the 1860s with member of the Vigilant Engine and Hose Company…” / “The Aveline House burned in the early morning of May, 3 1908, killing 12 people. Here hoses cover the street and bags of coal lie behind the Nott engine. The Preston aerial ladder stands in Calhoun St., no longer needed”
In the world of groceries, the modern supermarket reigns supreme. However at the turn of the 20th century, it was the local neighborhood market that was the center of the grocery shopping scene. One local store, Redding’s Market, 1102 Rivermet Avenue, began serving the Lakeside Neighborhood in 1911. Elzie Redding ran the grocery with his wife, Della, and their two sons Dale and Forest. In the 1920s, the Redding’s purchased a farm which became a valuable source to the store and provided Lakeside with the freshest produce and dairy. In 1960, Elzie Redding passed ownership of the grocery store to his son Forest and grandson Steven. This multigenerational business served the community for almost a century, before closing in 2003. Visit the History Center to see artifacts from Redding’s Market.
1130 Wells Street • Fort Wayne, IN • 260.424.4012. For nearly 80 years, Richard’s has baked and fried Fort Wayne’s best donuts. From their 2011 About pageon the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
1) interior of the original Al Riegel Cigar Store before the 1919 remodel that doubled the size of the store. Frank A. Bougher at the right.
2) Frank A. Bougher at the helm c.1961 after he gained full ownership when partner died George Kuntz.
3) walking home on a now non existent stretch of Columbia Street 1967 approximately were the Garage for the present day Rousseau Center, AKA. the City County Building parking garage stands. Land cleared were Riegel's stood for 92 years. Present store is in the background here also.
215 East Berry Street between Clinton and Barr Streets, now the Standard Building originally called the Electron Building, was erected in 1869, lasted 20 years, then became the Academy of Music. The rink attracted good skaters by Kevin Leininger published February 2, 1982 in the Cityscapes archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.
Ringling Brothers Circus
Circus Day in Our Town by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films Publication date 1949 Usage Public Domain Mark 1.0 YouTube
This film has amazing footage of a circus coming into a town, the townspeople helping with construction of the circus tents, the clowns preparing for their performance and the variety of circus acts and the crowds viewing them.
Rivergreenway around downtown. Enjoy your Rivergreenway!
Robee's House of Beef
1967–1968: RoBee's and Marriott In 1967 the Azar's Big Boy restaurant franchise started RoBee's House of Beef restaurants in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The Marriott Corp., which had acquired Bob's Big Boy and the Big Boy trademark in 1967, acquired RoBee's in February 1968 with plans to expand nationwide. RoBee's franchises would first be offered to Big Boy franchisees to coincide with their existing Big Boy territory. At the time there were 13 RoBee's restaurants in six states. Copied from Roy Rogers Restaurants at Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
History of Roy Rogers Restaurants Nov 23, 2022 e chang on YouTube.
Roy Rogers Franchise Company, LLC is a chain of fast food restaurants primarily located in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. The chain originated as the rebranding of the RoBee's House of Beef chain of Fort Wayne, Indiana, acquired by the Marriott Corporation in February 1968. However, Marriott first used the Roy Rogers Roast Beef name on conversions of the company's Junior Hot Shoppes in the Washington, D.C. area in April 1968, then the existing RoBee's stores. An aggressive nationwide franchising campaign was launched. At its peak, the chain included over 600 locations. As of September 2022, the chain had 41 locations.
We're very excited to have the Rockhill House, known to neighbors as "Wingspread," on this year's Home & Garden Tour. This massive 5,000 square foot home was recently converted from an apartment complex back into a single-family home, and still maintains tons of original character.
Join us September 9 & 10 to see it for yourself! Buy your tickets now and save $2 per ticket.
918 Van Buren Street, just north of Washington Boulevard, is a brick building built in 1840 when Abraham Lincoln was a young man. It is the oldest house within the West Central neighborhood and one of the oldest in Downtown. See Mary Rockhill-Tyler House photos and information on ARCH ( Architecture and Community Heritage) who has restored the majority of this house, including the entire first floor.
For "Throwback Thursday" we are going to combine two other favorites! An edition of "From the Scrapbook" and "By the Way"! This is from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in the fall of 2008 when ARCH bought the property. In 2007 the Mary Rockhill- Tyler house (top picture) was split from the Kuhne house (bottom picture) on Lot 142 of ROCKHILL'S AMENDED ADDITION. And by the way .... Hofer and Davis, Inc. provided the surveying services for ARCH.
Preservation and restoration of historic buildings is a key goal for ARCH Inc., and the 2021 completion of the project to bring the c. 1840 Mary Rockhill-Tyler House in West Central back to life as a home for the first time in more than a century was the culmination of significant effort and investment for us. The last time the hall-and-parlor-style house was lived in, before being turned into a garage for a more modern home nearby, it needed no plumbing, water or electricity, and it was heated by a Franklin stove. Now it has all the 21st century facilities and conveniences, and it is leased to a resident with the rental income providing support for ARCH’s programs and operations. Learn more about this lovely old house and ARCH’s work to restore it to life at archfw.org, where you can also join the others who support ARCH as members and donors, without whom accomplishing this goal would have been impossible.
Roller Dome North is at 444 W. Coliseum Blvd, orginally out in the country at the corner of Lima and California Roads. Roller Dome South 4540 Bluffton Road opened in 1972 and closed August 9, 2015. See Roller Dome North discussion in Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne photo. Roller Dome North has a Facebook page. South-side skating rink to close 43-year run on Bluffton Road to end Aug. 9 by Jeff Wiehe was published July 22, 2015 in The Journal Gazette newspaper. See Marg Wall in our People section who started Roller Dome with her husband Jim Wall.
We are now at The Rink Vintage Goods and More in the old South Side Roller Dome. Booth #711 - we have lots of fun roller skating magazine ads and art, earrings, etc. in addition to our usual treasures.
The concrete pillars that stand at the intersection of Columbia and Harrison Streets are from the Wayne Hotel.
— thinking about old memories.
Harrison and Columbia streets. Built as the Wayne, sold and renamed Jones, then Rosemarie Hotel. Designed by local architect Frank B. Kendrick, and built in 1887 on the site of Dana Columbia’s original 1831 twenty-room Columbia House hotel (for whom Columbia Street is named).
On this day in 1975, the Rosemarie Hotel, located downtown on Columbia Ave, burned. Arson was named as the cause for the fire, the second in a series of three fires that ripped through several other buildings on the landing including Protective Electrical Supply, Old Fort Draperies and Third Presbyterian Church on Harrison. The Diehm Memorial Museum of National History at Franke Park was also destroyed by arson less that 2 weeks later. Read more about the fire in our Genealogy Center archives (https://goo.gl/RRIRR8) and more about the hotel from the The History Center (https://goo.gl/an87Mz).
For "Throwback Thursday" we share this staff photo by John Sorensen from the Fort Wayne Journal - Gazette on February 5, 1975 showing the lobby of the Rosemarie Hotel on The Landing after a fire on February 3rd. BTW...Hofer and Davis did many surveys On The Landing in 103 years!
For "Throwback Thursday" we revisit the fire on February 3, 1975 of the Rosemarie Hotel on The Landing. This is a photo by Journal - Gazette photographer John Sorensen and article by Al Brakoniecki.
Throwback Thursday: February 1975, fires on The Landing published with photos August 30, 2018 on The Journal Gazette newspaper. A story about fires in the 141-year-old Rosemarie Hotel and the five-story Old Fort Draperies office building, at Columbia and Harrison streets on The Landing on February 3, 1975 and then a second fire in the Old Fort Draperies and a separate blaze about the same time at Third Presbyterian Church on Harrison the next day February 4, 1975. Arson was suspected in both office building fires and the hotel blaze. Both buildings were eventually razed. The Old Fort Draperies site is now a parking lot, and the Rosemarie Hotel site was later replaced by an ivy covered structure that has recently been torn down as part of a project to revitalize the one-block stretch of Columbia Street between Harrison and Calhoun streets.
1904 - Zeigler Began With Hoaglands - McClure's for April Has Special Interest to Fort Wayne People The Fort Wayne News, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Friday, March 25, 1904, Page 6. Subheadline and first line: McCure's for April contains an intensely interesting article from Lincoln Steffers entitled "Enemies of the Republic" and dealing with the system of graft which he argues is kept alive by the respectable business interests of the country.
15-page document mentions Royal Baking Company, William Ziegler, Joseph Hoagland and many others: The Archive of American Journalism, Lincoln Steffens Collection, McClure’s Magazine, April, 1904, Enemies of the Republic, The Political Leaders Who are Selling Out the State of Missouri, and the Leading, Businessmen Who are Buying It, Business as Treason --- Corruption as Revolution
Fort Wayne has been home to numerous industries over the years, including the manufacture of soap. Established in 1880, The Soap Works began production and by 1883 it was expanded under new management. Gustav Berghoff acquired the struggling company 1892 and helped it grow into a prosperous enterprise. He changed the name to the Rub-No-More Company in 1906. In the mid 1880s the company introduced “Globe Soap.” In subsequent years other brands were introduced, “Rub-No-More” (1895) and naptha floating soaps (1920). In the last years of operation Rub-No-More was making Naptha Soap, Yellow Naptha Soap, Soap Flakes, Washing Powder and Spotless Cleanser. Less profit and more competition from large companies led Gustav to sell the company to Procter & Gamble in 1926. #sociallyhistory
Summit City Soap Works was First established in the late 1877, the company struggled almost immediately. When new ownership finally arrived, Summit City Soap Works became a very profitable business, especially with the introduction of their latest and greatest product, Rub-No-More Washing Powder. After several years, the company changed their name from Summit City Soap Works to The Rub-No-More Co. Business skyrocketed and sales were through the roof! In the mid 1920's, the once then local soap manufacturer decided to sell all rights to Proctor and Gamble and was manufactured and sold under their label for several more years. Copied from Summit City Soap Works About page. The Fort Wayne Beer page about the Berghoff brothers states: Gustav's soap company had been renamed, "Rub-No-More" in 1912 and was extremely successful, eventually selling trademarks and formulas to Proctor and Gamble for the sum of $325,0000 in December of 1926, but retaining ownership of the building and grounds. With no actual operating business in the Rub-No-More facility the Berghoffs incorporated as the Berghoff Properties Inc. In 1928 Gustav purchased the Wayne Home Equipment Co. and formed Wayne Oil Burner Co. in 1932 which would be located in part of the Rub No More facility. In Jan 1933 with the end of prohibition approaching Gustav along with his sons: John , Walter, and Edward raised capital and incorporated The Berghoff Brothers Brewery Inc, to be located in the soap works buildings on Glasgow Ave. In the 1920s the Board of Health was seeking a permanent injuction against the soap manufacturer operations because of the offensive odors given off from page 302 in the book Soap Gazette and Perfumer. A 1925 ad says since 1883, sells five-cent Water Softener, Floating R-N-M White Naptha Soap and Spotless Cleanser in extra-large ten cent can is satisfying millions in the middle western states. Originally posted February 26, 2013 but no longer found on the original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook. Gustav Berghoff sold Rub—No—More Soap Company in 1927 from Berghoff Brewery — German page at 200 @ 200 2016 Bicentennial items at The History Center. Business letterhead photos were posted April 4, 2019 by the Indiana Archives and Records Administration at IN.gov on Facebook. “Washed Up:” A Discovered Artifact and the Rub-No-More Soap Company by Justin Clark published June 29, 2021 at the Indiana History Blog by the Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library.
I know I said it more than once as we walked through this place during the interview lol check out