The moved houses

1980 — and the revolving-fund moves

When the ground is lost, move the house: Fort Wayne's documented house moves are few, and the record names them unevenly. ARCH's own history records the two revolving-fund moves of its early years without naming the houses — the fact of the moves, their reason (demolition threatened at the original sites) and their destination (vacant lots in a healthy historic neighborhood) are documented; the houses' names are not in the organization's published history, and none is invented here.

The named case is the Christian G. Strunz House, an Italianate house of 1886–87 designed by Wing & Mahurin for a German immigrant who had arrived in Fort Wayne in 1860. Placed on the National Register in 1979, the house was moved from its original site in 1980 with the help of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana — the state organization now called Indiana Landmarks — and was under restoration in 1988, when the Indiana German Heritage Society's account described it in the hands of the builder's family: its last owner, Helen Sponhauer, was Strunz's granddaughter. A house saved by being carried away is preservation's most literal form, and Fort Wayne's record holds both kinds — the named move of 1980, and the two the revolving fund made without leaving the houses' names in print.

Sources:

1. Indiana German Heritage Society Newsletter, vol. 4, no. 2 (Spring 1988), "The Fort Wayne Story" — the Strunz House: Wing & Mahurin, built 1886–87, National Register 1979, moved 1980 with the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana's help.
2. ARCH Inc., "Becoming ARCH" (archfw.org) — the two unnamed revolving-fund moves.