1890S SCHOOLHOUSE MOVED
PTI Fort Wayne LLC isn’t just developing a 275,000-square-foot shopping center on 32-acres it acquired last year in Fort Wayne. In clearing the site, the retail developer is simultaneously generating several community-conscious projects, despite being the least profitable way to clear it. One such project includes the relocation of an 1890s brick schoolhouse, moving it one-quarter of a mile northeast from Illinois Road to an area along Thomas Road, both sites owned by PTI, as part of what will become Orchard Crossing. In addition, Habitat for Humanity was allowed to salvage building materials from ten other existing buildings, which doubled as community emergency training exercises before being razed. The schoolhouse is the only existing building being retained. PTI Ft. Wayne is a partnership between affiliates of two Chicago-based firms, Pine Tree Commercial Realty and Inland Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:IRC).
“Saving the schoolhouse will be more expensive than razing it,” says Barry Herring, Pine Tree Commercial Realty principal and founder. “But that’s what we’re doing. We felt it was an interesting part of Fort Wayne’s history and wanted to preserve it for the community.” He says Pine Tree also intends to lease it. “It’s been beautifully renovated and will be a very special place for a stand-alone retailer.” Construction on the shopping center began in late 2007, and signed anchors include Target and the market’s first Gordmans store, both opening in October 2008.
SCHOOLHOUSE’S GEM INTERIOR WILL DRAW NEW TENANT
The two-room Italianate-style schoolhouse, built in 1892, was decommissioned in 1923 and has since been a bakery, a private home, a church, a cross-stitch store and an antiques shop/high-end beauty salon. PTI Ft. Wayne bought the schoolhouse last year from the shop/salon owner, David Charles Rulka. A Fort Wayne artist, Rulka renovated the schoolhouse in 1993 for his mother, who ran the antiques shop while he managed the salon. The brick schoolhouse still glows in period detail throughout with refinished wainscoting, copper-colored tin ceilings, Victorian-era wall coverings and light fixtures, hardwood oak floors, and imported Italian moldings. “Even the stucco on the walls was done in a deep Old World texture,” says Rulka. To top it off, a staircase to a new upper story and interior oak trim throughout the structure was handcrafted by local Amish artisans. The inside is Victorian eclectic, but the wiring, air-conditioning, plumbing and fixtures are all modern.” Rulka’s mother, Ruth V., will continue her antique business on consignment in other shops and on the Internet, and the salon employees have already started their own salons or continued careers elsewhere.
MOVING THE SCHOOLHOUSE
The 1,835-square-foot, 340-ton schoolhouse was moved on Wednesday, March 12, with the process beginning about a week earlier. “We began by cutting down the decorative metal fence that surrounded it,” Herring said. “Then four-foot holes were knocked in the foundation and on moving day, hydraulic lifts were used to pull the building up, and tractored over to its new location by remote control.” It took the entire day to make the move. Wolfe House and Building Movers of North Manchester, Indiana, was the contractor hired to move the schoolhouse.
“It’s so wonderful they’re saving that school,” says Deborah Eidson, school historian for Indiana’s Allen County. “Being in historic preservation, it’s nice to see a commercial entity that’s willing to put the time and money into preserving our county’s history.” She says that not all of the county’s remaining 61 schoolhouses see this kind of care. “We have some still sitting in a field deteriorating because no one wants to buy them or renovate them.”
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Eidson wrote a book published in 2007 by the Allen County Historical Society featuring the remaining schoolhouses in the county, and it includes this school. “This one is the most elegant renovation of a schoolhouse in the county,” she says. Additionally, the schoolhouse is only one of a handful in the county that was built as a two-room school, dividing the boys and girls, which was then deemed fitting in the Victorian era. “So, I was keeping my eye on it when I heard that a developer bought the property last year.” She didn’t want it to be razed. But when she looked into the matter, it turned out that PTI Ft. Wayne had already taken the initiative to contact the historical society to ascertain the value of the schoolhouse to the community. The value to the community was indeed there. And the rest, as they say, is history.
OTHER STRUCTURES FOR COMMUNITY USE BEFORE RAZING
The schoolhouse sits on one of 16 total properties that comprise the 32-acre Orchard Crossing site. PTI Ft. Wayne consulted the community on the other existing buildings that could not be kept. These included six homes, an auto supply store, a church, a Sylvan Learning center, and an Islamic center. The Islamic community relocated the latter to another site across the street, Herring says. “Then we invited Habitat for Humanity to come and salvage whatever they could from the other buildings to build new homes for those in need.” PTI Ft. Wayne also invited the local fire department, police department and bomb squad to utilize the buildings for training purposes. “One building was used to conduct tornado drills,” Herring says. “We did our best to give back early to the community while establishing this shopping center. It’s going to be their center, after all. It should feel like theirs from the beginning.”
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