The History of Lafayette Place
The Developers
Lafayette Place is the innovative development of the Wildwood Builders Company, with Lee Ninde as president, and noted landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff. These two names are significant because of their national prominence in building, city planning and real estate, and landscape design and architecture.
As builder, promoter, realtor, magazine editor, and developer, Lee Ninde became a nationally and regionally significant master proponent of city planning. He participated in the broader national movement as a founding Fellow of the American Institute of City Planning, a member of the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges, president of the Indiana Real Estate Association, and other national professional organizations. He also served as the first president of the Fort Wayne Plan Commission.
By 1915, Wildwood had blossomed into eight separate companies that included The Wildwood Magazine, Wildwood Engineering and Construction Company, Wildwood Park Company, North Wildwood Company, and the Lafayette Place Company.
Arthur Shurcliff graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went on to study Landscape Architecture at Harvard University. In 1899, he teamed with Frederick Law Olmstead Jr. to found the country’s first four-year landscape program.
Lafayette Place is one of Shurcliff’s hallmarks of the early 20th Century; a time when improving transportation, coupled with the City Beautiful concepts of beautification in architecture, landscaping, and city planning, were influencing the development of new housing additions in the city. He designed three Fort Wayne subdivisions for Wildwood Builders: Wildwood Park in the curvilinear style in 1914; Lafayette Place with an Esplanade, modified grid and formal pattern in 1915; and Brookview that was designed around the Spy Run Creek in 1917. He was also hired by the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department to complete a master plan for Swinney Park in 1916 and a master plan for Franke Park in 1924.
The Design
In his design for Lafayette Place, Shurcliff suggested that they “take the high strip 216 feet wide and 1,700 feet long in the center of the tract as a park. There is only one other such arrangement in the country and that is in New Orleans. We could call it the Esplanade. Then near the center of the Addition we can lay out the children’s playground so it will easily be reached by every child in the community.”
Shurtleff’s plan was adopted and over $50,000 (in 1915 money) worth of property was dedicated to the beautification of Lafayette Place. At that time, the Esplanade was more than twice as wide a Rudisill Boulevard.
The original recorded plat for Lafayette Place showed 444 lots, streets, and five tracts of land set aside for a Community Center, a playground area and three park areas. The Community Center was to include a Club House with adjoining tennis courts and elaborate playground equipment. The Club House was to contain “a large assembly room with a big log fireplace across one end – a room in which two or three hundred people may assemble. It should be a fine place to meet one’s friends and neighbors in the afternoon or to enjoy an informal neighborly assembly for playlets or games of bridge.” The tennis court was built, but it wasn’t a very good court, and very few residents played as tennis was just beginning to be popular. The tennis court was removed and the City Parks Department built three courts much later in Lafayette Park that are well used and maintained.
After the removal of the tennis court, the area designated for a Community Center became a rose garden with a small pool filled with water lilies at the northern end. The pool was eventually filled-in as residents felt it was too dangerous for children. No Community Center was ever built., and the site was sold as a residential lot. Today, the home at 4431 Marquette Drive occupies the one-and-a-half acre site of the area originally designated for the Community Center.
The Development
Local architects and builders were enthusiastic to be a part of Lafayette Place. One of the original architects, L.W. Larimore was featured in a large article describing the first six homes to be built at the Marquette and Calhoun entrance. The article described the six homes and each builder involved. The first six houses and builders were:
- 4307 Marquette Drive, built by Ernest C. Heckman
- 4311 Marquette Drive, built by John R. Worthman
- 4312 Marquette Drive, built by Arthur Rodenbeck
- 4308 Marquette Drive, built by Frank J. Vevia
- 4321 Calhoun Street, built by Everett Ellerman
- 120 McKinnie Street, built by brothers Ferman and Ernest C. Haase.
The Gunder-Spahr Agency also built several homes in Lafayette Place. By August of 1926, several Fort Wayne builders had moved their own families into Lafayette Place homes, including John Worthman, Everett Ellerman, R.P. Gemmer, William Bowman, Herman Haase, Frank Vivia and Wayne Ferguson.
The article mentioned such innovations in amenities as built-in ironing boards, refrigerators with outside icers, Kosy-Kitch complete cabinets and built-in telephone niches!
Although the development was begun in 1915, construction slowed between 1930 and 1945 as a result of the Depression and WWII. In the building surge following the war, houses were constructed on the undeveloped lots with the last house built c. 1970. As a result the homes in the neighborhood illustrate a broad range of early to mid twentieth century styles.
Calumet is the only street in Lafayette Place that runs diagonally through the neighborhood— a reminder of what once was the inter-urban trolley route. The Fort Wayne and Decatur inter-urban ran on tracks down Calhoun Street, across Calumet, across the Esplanade and out Calumet, across Pettit to Decatur, Indiana. The Fort Wayne and Decatur Traction Company released this right-of-way to the City of Fort Wayne in October of 1928.
Two streets have received name changes since the original abstract for Lafayette Place. Sherwood Terrace was originally named Cottage Grove Avenue and Montrose Avenue was originally named Montclair Avenue.
Historical notes are from the Lafayette Place Magazine, published in 1925, on the occasion of Open House Week, October 24-31. Thousands of visitors came by streetcar and auto to see the modern homes in Fort Wayne’s foremost new Addition.