Allen County’s Jail Flats

by Tom Castaldi

Allen County’s first jail was a two-story hewn log structure that was enclosed by a board fence located on the southwest corner of the courthouse square in downtown Fort Wayne. One witty fellow noted that this jail was but, “an asylum for the felon, exhausted from hot pursuit, until he availed himself of a little repose and then made sure his escape” through a hole in the wall that was easily made by removing a log. Destroyed by fire in 1849, the jail was immediately replaced.

This second jail briefly housed two notorious area horse thieves, Laertes Dean and George Pierce, but the jail was promptly broken into by their compatriots and the two men escaped. In the following year, three more inmates escaped by burrowing through the wall into the adjoining cistern and out. Eventually, after several prisoners escaped, it was determined that a better jail was needed.

Annoyed at such episodes, Allen County built a new, more substantial jail in 1852 across Calhoun Street from the present jail complex, giving the area around North Calhoun Street the name “Jail Flats.”

When Benjamin Madden and George Keefer confessed to the murder of John Dunbar, in April of 1855, both were tried and sentenced to hang. They were brought from the jail, two ropes attached to cross beams overhead, and both paid their debt to society with their lives.

A larger jail was constructed in 1872. In the compound of this jail in 1883 the last public hanging of a condemned prisoner took place when Sam McDonald, who had murdered his friend, Louis Laurent, was hanged before a crowd of two hundred and fifty curious observers.

The present jail was built in 1981 and the new Allen County Criminal Justice Center, continuing the tradition of a county jail in “Jail Flats,” erected on the northwest corner of Superior and Clinton streets was dedicated in 2004. (Editor's note: this building is now the Rousseau Centre.)

Originally published in Fort Wayne Monthly “Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – May 2008 No. 43

Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast at 6:35 a.m., 8:35 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on WLYV-1450 AM and WRRO 89.9 FM. Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com.

Exploring the Renaissance Square Block

by Tom Castaldi, Allen County Historian and History Center board member

The home for Citizens Square, recently the temporary site of both the Allen County Public Library and The Lincoln Museum, today occupies the entire block along East Wayne and East Berry Streets, between Clinton and Barr Streets. The name “Renaissances Square” was give to the area by developers who rehabilitated the former department store of Wolf  Dessauer (which later became L.S. Ayres) and removed the last of the buildings that once stood along East Berry Street.

Originally, this area was part of the eastern-most portion of the first plat of Fort Wayne, which was purchased by land speculators John McCorkle and John Barr in 1832. By the 1830s, the block contained the scattered homes of settlers such as “Squire Robin Hood,” as well as the well-built home of Samuel Hanna, one of the most important of the early town builders. In 1854, Hanna built a new, grand Greek Revival home several blocks to the east. He had come to the village of Fort Wayne soon after the soldiers left in order to establish a trading business with Indians of the area. He became a land speculator, buying much of Fort Wayne east of Barr Street, and was instrumental in various projects for road improvements. He served in the state legislature and became one of the first commissioners for the Wabash and Erie Canal. His most important contribution, however, lay in bringing the first railroads and the great Pennsylvania Railroad Shops to the city, helping make Fort Wayne a railroad center in the Midwest.

In 1845, the First Presbyterian congregation, which had erected the fist church building in town, built its second church in the Greek Revival style at the corner of Clinton and Berry streets (dedication 1852). This building dominated the block until 1882 when a faulty flue in the chimney caught fire and the church was destroyed. While a new Presbyterian Church was built elsewhere, the Jewish congregation of Achduth Vesholom offered its Synagogue at Harrison and Wayne streets for Sunday worship. A large Romanesque U.S. Post Office and Federal government building was built on the site of the old church, and this structure stood on the corner until 1931.

 Side Bar........
In 1957, Wolf & Dessauer announced the construction of yet another lavish retail store. Bucking the national trend of the day, which saw major retail development relocating to the suburbs, Wolf & Dessauer management defied convention and built their flagship store in downtown Fort Wayne. At the time of its construction it was the largest downtown Fort Wayne real estate transaction in the city’s history, and was a visible reminder of Wolf & Dessauer’s faith in the continuing vitality of Fort Wayne’s downtown. In 1959, Wolf & Dessauer moved into its sparkling new facility located on the block bounded by Clinton, Wayne and Barr streets. Sadly, the historic site at Washington and Calhoun streets would be torn down in 1964 to make room for - what else? – a parking garage.

This article was originally published as "Along the Heritage Trail" in Fort Wayne Magazine, Nov/Dec 2003, No. 2, p 61. Our thanks to Fort Wayne Monthly for allowing us to re-publish this story on the History Center's blog.