Fort Wayne will be the focus of the annual Landmarks Experience staged by Indiana Landmarks. On August 27, the day-long program of lectures and tours focuses on the city’s historic landscapes, from the early twentieth-century neighborhoods, parks and parkways to the Mid-Century Modern grounds of a seminary.

In 1912, the city of Fort Wayne moved to counter the negative aspects of industrialization and ever-expanding railroad lines by hiring City Beautiful adherent and landscape designer George Kessler to lay out a system of parks and boulevards.

The Maumee, St. Joseph and St. Mary’s rivers offered the perfect palette for Kessler. He capitalized on the waterways in his plan, city, creating curving, tree-lined streets, parks, and neighborhoods with interesting vistas. Landmarks Experience: Historic Landscapes from Kessler to Kiley includes talks and tours of significant parks and boulevards designed by George Kessler and his followers Arthur Shurcliff and Lawrence Sheridan.

Lectures take place at Concordia Theological Seminary, a Mid-Century Modern work by Eero Saarinen with a landscape by Dan Kiley. The seminary’s Luther Hall, 6600 N. Clinton St., serves as base of operations for the day.

Ball State professor Malcolm Cairns will provide an overview of Kessler’s work in Indiana. Don Orban of the Fort Wayne Historic Preservation Commission talks about early suburban development in Fort Wayne, and Mark Dollase of Indiana Landmarks will discuss Mid-Century Modern landscapes.

Following lunch and a campus tour led by Professor Robert Roethemeyer, vice president of strategic planning and mission execution at Concordia, participants will board a motorcoach for a tour led by Alec Johnson, Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation’s Superintendent of Park Planning, Landscape and Horticulture. The tour will travel Kessler’s parkways to historic suburbs created by Shurcliff and Sheridan, with stops at Lakeside’s famous rose garden, Foster Park, and Headwaters Park, the newest park in the Fort Wayne system

Landmarks Experience: Historic Landscapes from Kessler to Kiley is co-sponsored by Indiana Landmarks and Concordia Theological Seminary, with coordination from Indiana Landmarks’ Cultural Landscape Committee chaired by Fort Wayne resident Julie Donnell.

The program costs $85 per person, with a discount for members of Indiana Landmarks and includes the talks, tour and lunch. Participants must register in advance by August 23, online at fortwayneexperience.eventbrite.com or by calling 317-639-4534 or 800-450-4534.

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Media contact: Suzanne Stanis, Indiana Landmarks Director of Heritage Education & Information, 317-639-4534 or 800-450-4534, sstanis@indianalandmarks.org

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Indiana Landmarks revitalizes communities, reconnects us to our heritage, and saves meaningful places. With nine offices located throughout the state, Indiana Landmarks helps people rescue endangered landmarks and restore historic neighborhoods and downtowns. People who join Indiana Landmarks receive its bimonthly magazine, Indiana Preservation. Learn more.