Fun & Free History Lecture Series Begins With A Celebration
ARCH’s 2022 Fun & Free Lecture Series kicks off Feb. 26 by joining the Fort Wayne community’s observance of Black History Month. The 11 a.m. lecture at The History Center will celebrate “Edwin Gibson: A Distinguished Career Begins.”
Gibson was Indiana’s first registered black architect who went on to be the Indiana state architect and found his own firm in Indianapolis before serving as Methodist Hospital’s Facilities Department Head and Director of Long Range Facility Plan. He retired in 2002 and died in 2011. A graduate of Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architectural engineering at the University of Illinois, he spent 17 formative years of his professional career in Fort Wayne as architectural engineer, designer and eventually partner and treasurer of A.M. Strauss & Associates, Inc., a leading architectural firm here. His resume says he specialized in institutional, religious and healthcare design, but he also leaves a legacy of at least three high-styled homes, which will be featured in the lecture, presented by ARCH Executive Director Connie Haas Zuber.
The 2022 lecture series continues with:
March 19: “Our Community Album” presented by Randy Harter, the historian who has been instrumental in collecting, contributing and organizing significant parts of the Community Album of historic images made available to all of us through the Allen County Public Library. Harter will introduce the wealth of images and information contained in the Album and share stories connected with them.
April 16: Tyler Bowers, West Central Neighborhood Association president, will present research he has completed on “The Economics of Historic Preservation and Revitalization in West Central.” With development accelerating at Electric Works, in addition to downtown’s revival and Riverfront development, West Central is a hotspot in the local real estate market. Bowers’s research digs into the data and reveals what is really happening there.
May 21: Karen Richards, a regular on ARCH’s lecture series and one of our most popular speakers, will close out this year’s series with an exploration of “Urban Farmhouses.” Our neighborhoods are sprinkled with homes that were the homes of the farm families who were there before the neighborhoods were platted, and her lecture will tell the stories of several of them and likely inspire you, too, to start noticing these historic treasures in our midst.
All the lectures will begin at 11 a.m. in the Shields Room at The History Center, 302 E.Berry St., Fort Wayne. Free parking is available at the center. In-person attendance will be available for each lecture, unless public health authorities advise otherwise because of COVID-19 pandemic conditions. The History Center and ARCH are requiring masks for all visitors to the lectures, especially when Allen County is in the red category according to the State Department of Health and likely also when we are in orange.
ARCH is offering a live-streaming option for its lectures, and everyone interested in attending the lectures — virtually — is invited to send an email to archfortwayne@gmail.com asking for a link to the lecture you are interested in. Please send your request no later than 9 a.m. the day of the lecture. Zoom information will be sent out one hour before each lecture to the email you used to send in your request.
For more information, please contact the ARCH office, by email to archfortwayne@gmail.com or by phone (260) 426-5117.
ARCH’s community education programming is supported by funding from Arts United and the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.
For more information about the 2022 Fun & Free Lecture Series, contact ARCH at (260) 426-5117 or director@archfw.org.
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