The Rescue Mission

1903 — Fort Wayne's rescue mission, founded by Mennonites

Founding: The Fort Wayne Rescue Mission was founded and organized in 1903 by two Mennonites, Witmer and Stuckey, of the Berne Mennonite Church — the Anabaptist encyclopedia records that the Berne congregation largely supported the mission in its early years. It was part of the national city-rescue-mission movement: evangelical, residential, work-and-worship relief for homeless and addicted men, at a moment when Fort Wayne's other relief ran through the county, the churches and the benevolent societies.

Course: In 1964 the mission moved into 301 West Superior Street, where it remained for 56 years. Its foundation, the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission Ministries Foundation, was established in the 1990s. After a capital campaign, the mission opened a new 80,000-square-foot facility at 404 East Washington Boulevard in 2020. Its family of houses runs to four: the Restoration House and the Charis House for women and children, the Treasure House, and the Life House, the last opened for men completing a two-year residential program. The mission's reported workload for a recent fiscal year: 2,054 unique individuals served, 329,739 meals, and 115,888 nights of shelter — figures from its nonprofit listings, carried as the mission's own reporting.

Sources:

1. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (gameo.org), "Fort Wayne Rescue Mission" — organized 1903 by Witmer and Stuckey of the Berne Mennonite Church; the Berne congregation's early support.
2. The Rescue Mission (fwrm.org) — the 1964 move to 301 West Superior, the 2020 facility at 404 East Washington Boulevard, the foundation, the four houses.
3. Benevity / nonprofit profile — the served-meals-nights figures carried as the mission's reporting.