Hello Neighbors!
It’s another grand – and hot – day in the ol’ West End Neighborhood.
By far the best way to keep up on the happenings of the WCNA is to attend our monthly membership meetings. They are always the third Monday of the month beginning at 7 pm, held in the basement of Emmanuel Lutheran, who generously donates the space. We try very hard to keep them to just an hour and pack those 60 minutes with useful information. These letters are not meant to be a summary of these meetings; we have the minutes for that purpose. I try to amplify certain items from the meetings and maybe add some board discussions for additional flavor.
Wellspring Interfaith Social Services
Our guest speaker this month was another neighbor: Ermina Mustedanagic, the CEO of Wellspring. Their mission is “People of faith serving the social, physical and educational needs of the community in Allen County.” She presented the various different programs offered including youth after school camps, the food pantry and clothing shoppe. All of these are free services, covered by donations. You may recall that the WCNA monthly gift of $250 was directed to Wellspring in May.
Yesterday’s West Central: Ewing Mansion
As a demonstration of the importance of historic preservation, Shelley Rothgeb provided a brief history of the stunning Ewing Mansion, long lost to the wrecking ball. This magnificent structure, built in 1848 and destroyed in 1962, was located at the corner of West Berry and Ewing Street, which is now a parking lot for what was formerly the Scottish Rite Theater. There were only three homes total on that block, each as beautiful as the next.
One of the most unique and exquisite features of the Ewing Mansion was a spiral staircase that spanned all four levels of the home. A full set of architectural drawings still exists for the property, including the staircase (see below). So if anyone wants to recreate this house you can!
The Ewing family resided in the home from construction through 1915, so more than 60 years in total. It then was sold to a physician and his family who lived there until 1932 when it was converted to commercial space. It’s last occupant for nearly 15 years was the American Red Cross. Prior to demolition, the home’s contents and built-ins were stripped and sold at auction, including marble fireplaces that adorned nearly every room of the house (remember there was no central heat back in 1848!).
It’s obviously far too late to save the Ewing Mansion, but part of the reason we feature “Yesterday’s West Central” at every meeting is to highlight the importance of historic preservation. Once these connections to our past are gone, they’re gone forever. Your WCNA will continue to work very hard to keep what’s left – and that includes helping to enforce the Historic Preservation Council’s rules on renovations and rehabilitations within the Local Historic Districts and anywhere else in our neighborhood.
If you have ideas for the history segments please share! And if you’re willing to do the research and be a presenter raise your hand. We’d love to have you and can point you to resources as needed.
West Central Livability
By now I hope you’ve heard that West Central, in partnership with four other contiguous neighborhoods, was awarded a $1 million “connected neighborhoods” grant. This is a very big deal!! Collectively known as the Northwest Central neighborhood group, our partnership includes Bloomingdale, Hamilton, Nebraska, North Highlands, and West Central neighborhoods.
The Connected Neighborhoods initiative is a passion project of Mayor Sharon Tucker, and is using funds generated from the land sale to Google for the east-side data center. You can find out more about this multi-year program by clicking here. Now the real work starts as we will be meeting with both city officials and the other neighborhood association leaders to develop a detailed plan on how to use the money. You’ll hear and see regular updates on this project at our meetings and on our website.
Because of this major award and endeavor, the WCNA has paused its “neighborhood promotion” pursuit (as detailed in June’s letter and in our minutes) to see how the grant plan unfolds. There is significant overlap in the focus of the approved grant and our own promotion efforts – which I’m using executive privilege to rebrand as “livability”. Given this concurrence, we want to morph our initiative to leverage the investment that will be made through the grant. This just seemed smart on our behalf.
Under this banner is our potential pursuit of painting the 19 Jersey barriers along West Jefferson Blvd at the entrance to West Central. We have not given up on this exploration by any stretch, but based on feedback from our members, are adding to our due diligence list which will add time to the process. This will be a 2026 project if it happens as we work through the many details that need to be addressed. So no funds have been requested, and we’ll keep you all updated as we know more.
Announcements
The Block Party is this Saturday from 11 am – 2 pm! Hope to see you at Moody Park for food, fun and music. This is always a great event and pulls together different parts of the neighborhood that we don’t always see at our other events. Thanks to everyone who signed up as volunteers – we appreciate you! Also a shout out to Jackie Jones for leading the planning of this event.
Home & Garden Tour Update
Ryan Benton, chair of the H&G committee and lead organizer, notified our membership that we have filled all of our tour stops! This is a huge accomplishment and many thanks to our home volunteers and those of you who helped to recruit them. He shared the brochure cover art (below) which is an original piece by our very own Karen Moriarty.
Speaking of other major wins, Ryan noted that we have secured sponsorships in excess of $20,000. This means that even if we didn’t sell a single ticket (not possible since we’ve already sold hundreds in online offerings) the event at worst would be a break-even financial affair. What a huge relief! With this said, we just know that September 6 & 7 will be sunny, warm and delightful.
Ryan also shared a great lineup of musicians and food trucks for Artsfest, along with 30+ artisan vendors who will be lining West Wayne Street. Check out more details about the home tour and ArtsFest on our website. Tickets are now on sale!
July Gift Direction
In light of significant federal spending cuts, the July gift direction of $250 was overwhelmingly voted to PBS TV-39 in Fort Wayne. These directions are made each month by those in attendance at the meeting.
Please Be Careful
As a board we’ve received a lot of complaints about people speeding through the neighborhood, running through stoplights and rolling (or flat out ignoring) stops signs and one-way streets. If you live here in West Central, I implore you to please follow the laws. An irreversible catastrophe is almost inevitable and we don’t want that to happen. It’s very personal for me with two very young grandchildren who live in the neighborhood. Lets set an example for guests and those just passing through.
Stay cool and hope to see you at one of our many official and unofficial West Central events. This is a unique and precious trait of our neighborhood – we actually know one another! Let’s keep that going.
Joel Sauer, President
(260) 433-3672
2025 Board Officers
- Membership: Anita Kuker membership@westcentralneighborhood.org
- President: Joel Sauer president@westcentralneighborhood.org
- Secretary: Bethany Pruitt secretary@westcentralneighborhood.org
- Treasurer: George Taylor treasurer@westcentralneighborhood.org
- Vice President: Kelly Benton VP@westcentralneighborhood.org