Pennsylvania Produce Terminal Historic District – Fort Wayne NPS Form 10-900, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. 420, 433, 435, 438, 440, 450 East Brackenridge Street which is east of the current downtown US Post Office.
An old, faded photo for "Throwback Thursday". After a visit to the Hofer and Davis, Inc. Wall of Fame from Jerry Hofer a couple of weeks ago from Terrell, Texas, we dug out this photo from 1975! This is the Hofer brothers, Jerry on left and Hans on right, checking out the Historical Marker sign for the PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD SHOPS. They were part of the crew surveying for the United States Post Office which was built between Clinton and Lafayette Streets, South of Brackenridge…
Shared again September 15, 2023This is one of the first jobs I worked on for my dad and his partner after graduating from high school in 1975, and September 15, 2025, In 2021 someone shared a picture of this sign in front of the Post Office and here is a picture of the same sign when me and my brother were doing field work for our fathers land surveying company in 1975, just 3 months after I graduated from high school..
A sign is still there at the downtown US Post Office shown on Street View from Google Maps.
It appears that in the latter part of January, 1852, a locomotive arrived in Fort Wayne by canal boat. This engine was used in the construction of the line eastward. It was known as the "Lima" and was built in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a 4-wheel connected engine with 4 1/2 ft. drivers, 10" x 16" cylin-
Page 2: ders and weighed about 10 tons. At this time the terminal point of the road was on the canal near what is now known as the Comparet Mill. ‘The Depot grounds extended from Barr Street to Lafayette Street and from Columbia Street to the canal. The line extended south on Lafayette Street to a point which is now Holman Street where it diverged eastward to a point about where the Wabash Crossing is now.
At that time the only shop the Company had was an old frame building which had been used as a store located on the banks of the canal immediately north of the Comparet Mill; the end of the building having been removed to enable them to use it for the purpose of housing the locomotive. ‘This building remained standing until about three years ago when it was torn down to make room for an addition to the flouring mill. No men were employed at this engine house, all the necessary work being done by Walter Challenger the engineer and Anthony Kelker, the fireman; no tools were to be had except those usually belonging to a locomotive equipment. This was the only shop connected with the road in Fort Wayne until after the consolidation of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Ry., the Ohio & Indiana Ry. and the Fort Wayne & Chicago Ry., which was entered into on the 6th day of May, 1856.
As the memories of the old employees do not agree as to when the road was completed eastward, it may be interesting to note the statement of the Fort Wayne Sentinel issued November 4, 1854, that the line was completed and the first train arrived from the east on Tuesday, October 31, 1854 at 5:00 P.M. The opening of the Railroad to traffic was celebrated by the people of Fort Wayne on Wednesday, November 15th, following. It appears from the arrangements adopted by the Committee incharge of the Celebration that the train bearing excursionists started from [ Calhoun Street – The Gathering Place on OpenStreets Fort Wayne City of Fort Wayne]
Page 3: Crestline at 7:00 A.M. and arrived in Fort Wayne in the evening. Among the excursionists it is stated that the train contained several hundred prominent railroad men and invited guests from Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and other points along the line and its connections. They were received with loud acclamations and a salute was fired by the Guards, the band meanwhile playing inspiring music. It was dark when the train reached Fort Wayne. The City, however, was brilliantly illuminated in honor of the occasion and presented a splendid and glowing appearance. Columbia Street, says the newspaper reporter, was one blaze of light and Calhoun Street generally was the same, and several private residences and manufacturing establishments in other parts of the City were illuminated. It was a brilliant and magnificent spectacle worthy of the occasion. A banquet was served after which addresses were made by Governor Johnson of Pennsylvania, General Robinson, President of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Ry., Solomon W. Roberts, Chief Engineer of same and Hon. R. C. Schenk of Dayton, Ohio. It is learned also from the Sentinel that the population of Fort Wayne at that time was estimated to be about 7, 000.
These facts are mentioned not because they have any particular bearing on thehistory of the shop, but rather as points of interest that do not seem to be generally understood. One of the recent histories speaking of the railroad development of the County states that the road was completed to Fort Wayne in the fall of 1855 which is certainly an error in view of the statements just quoted as taken from the files of the Fort Wayne Sentinel.
Here the PA and Wabash RR tracks were being elevated during 1911-13. 🚂🚂 Looking North on Calhoun the Cathedral is in the distance at right. #fortwayne #fortwaynehistory #dtfw #fortwaynefoodtours #railroad
We were at the downtown post office this afternoon and reminded of this blog post by Tom Castaldi: http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-pennsy-shops.html
TWO NEW PASSENGER STATIONS WHICH FORT WAYNE IS TO GET THIS YEAR
New Wabash Railroad Passenger Station for Fort Wayne.
New Passenger Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Fort Wayne.
Wthin the present year two handsome new railroad passenger stations in Fort Wayne will replace the archaic depots of the Wabash and the Pennsylvania companies which have been eyesores for many years and which have served to give the casual traveler who might be passing through the city on either line a distinctly unfavorable and wholly unfair impression of the city.
Work has already been started by the Pennsylvania company on its structure, and within the week the Wabash company has let the contract for the construction of its new station, shown in the upper of the two engravings, of which have been made from drawings of the accepted plans.
The Wabash, passenger station, latest of the projected improvements, will be located at Calhoun and Grand streets with its entrances on the latter street, the site of the old Wabash freight house. It will cost approximately $60,000, and the material used will be concrete, pressed brick, steel and Bedford sandstone. The ground floor is to be given over to baggage rooms and offices, while on the second floor, at a level with the elevated tracks, will be the ticket offices, waiting rooms, etc. with entrances to the train sheds. The building will be 200 feet in length, extending from Calhoun street to Harrison street, and the contract for its construction has been awarded to the Continental, Engineering and Construction company, of St. Louis. Officials of the company state that work of razing the old building and preparations for the erection of the new will be started within ten days.
The Pennsylvania station, a considerably more pretentious structure, has already been described, in these columns. It will represent an expenditure of some $200,000 when complete, and a force of workmen has already been engaged for some months in making the excavations and installing the large structure. It is expected that both stations will be completed and in use. be: fore the close of the present year. They are the natural outcome of improvements incidental to the separation of grades by which a number of the most dangerous railroad crossings in Fort Wayne have already been eliminated, and in the matural order of things still others will follow.
It rarely occurs that any city witnesses the erection of two modern passenger stations. within a single year as is the present promise for Fort Wayne. With only the lines of elevated tracks separating them, these two stations will constitute a handsome improvement for the region so long known as the "south depot."
The railroad line that would become the PFtW&C was built in three sections from Pittsburgh west. The main part in Indiana started life as the Fort Wayne & Chicago, incorporated in 1852. The Fort Wayne and Chicago (FtW&C) was to connect the Ohio & Indiana (O&I) Railroad, connecting Fort Wayne to Crestline, Ohio, to Chicago. The Ohio & Indiana, in turn, connected to the Ohio & Pennsylvania (O&P), which connected Crestline to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. (Allegheny City is now known as the north side of Pittsburgh.) By 1856, the FtW&C had managed to build to Columbia City, 19 miles west of Fort Wayne. ... The PFtW&C would also make Fort Wayne a major rail hub city. Major yards and shops were built there, earning the city the nickname of “Altoona of the West,” after the largest railroad facility in Pennsylvania of the PRR. Copied from the longer article Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Richard M. Simpson, III Uncategorized 19 June 2019 at Indiana Transportation History.
Page 486Railway and Locomotive Engineering, Publication date 1902-27, Publisher New York on Archive.org shows an engine built in the Fort Wayne Shops of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway in 1877.
OLD ENGINE WAS ACME OF LOCOMOTIVE CONSTRUCTION IN ITS DAY
Here is a picture of an engine that belonged to a class greatly in favor with the Pennsylvanin men forty or more years ago. It was designed by James M. Boone, who was master mechanic of the Pennsylvania at that time, was built in the Fort Wayne shops and was turned out and put into road service in 1871. Some years later it was taken into the shops and equipped for yard duty and was thus used until the changing conditions required heavier engines on the road and in the yards and this and other engines of its type were either transferred to other divisions or scrapped.
The records at the Pennsylvania shops show that No. 143 was "scrapped" in 1898. This was a coal burning engine and the smoke stack was of the pattern known to railway men as the "diamond" stack. The above picture was taken in the latter '80s and represents the engine and the switch crew at a point just east of the planing mills and lumber yards, between Lafayette and Hanna streets, and the houses seen in the background are on Monroe and Hugh streets. The personnel of the crew is as follows: Conductor G. Purd. Davis, seated on the boiler, still in the yard service; Engineer Jack Metcalf, standing on the ground at side of engine, for number of years employed in the freight house after quitting the road service, but now on the pension list because of age; Fireman Henry Kruse, in the gangway of the cab, later an engineer in the yard service a number of years, decensed; Switchman William H. Hayes, seated on the pilot, now yard conductor. A few days after this picture was taken, one of the cylinder heads blew out with terrific force, going a considerable distance and striking the side of the old round house. In its course this heavy peace passed so near Conductor Davis that the rush of air was plainly felt. It was the closest call Mr. Davis, in his long service, ever experienced, he says.
History of the Pennsylvania Railroad | Vintage Promotional Film Series 1946 film published March 30, 2020 by Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society on YouTube The powerhouse Pennsylvania Railroad was one of the largest railroad networks in the United States and at one time was the largest transportation company and the biggest corporation in the world and dominated the south side of downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana with a massive shop for building and repairing freight cars, passenger cars, and steam locomotives and was the city's largest employer during the Great Depression. Though little evidence of the historic railroad remains in Fort Wayne, it's former Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway route is owned today by CSX and operated by Genesee & Wyoming. The railroad's Baker Street Station survives to this day after an extensive restoration in the early 2000s and at one time hosted 4,000 passengers a day!
The Pennsylvania Railroad: The Age of Limits, 1917–1933, represents an unparalleled look at the history, the personalities, and the technologies of this iconic American company in a period that marked the shift from building an empire to exploring the limits of their power.
Happy to share along with MKM architecture + design and @The City of Fort Wayne that the Pennsylvania Produce Terminal Historic District is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places! Commercial District Listings like these not only protect the properties, but they also allow small businesses to access federal historic tax credits for rehabilitation.
Looking North on Calhoun the Cathedral is in the distance at right.
