The Keenan: the manager builds his own tower, 1923–1974

1923 — 1974

Three blocks from his own lobby: The Keenans were a hotel family — Hugh Keenan and his sons managed houses in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Iowa besides Fort Wayne — and James F. Keenan, a Notre Dame graduate, had run the Anthony since 1909. In 1922 he decided to build a competing hotel of his own, three blocks away, at the southwest corner of Harrison and Washington, 1006–1016 South Harrison Street. Weatherhogg, who had designed the Anthony fifteen years earlier, designed this one too. The Hotel Keenan was formally dedicated on November 24, 1923, and proclaimed itself "Fort Wayne's Largest and Finest Hotel." Most accounts call it thirteen stories; the genealogical society's narrative says it "rose twelve stories above ground with an additional two stories below," and both forms stand in the record. Among its boasts was a local one: guests were provided soft water from a softener manufactured by the Wayne Tank & Pump Company. As early as 1925 the Bureau of Navigation's list of amateur radio stations recorded a station inside the hotel, call sign 9IL, at 120 watts.

Presidents and the end: The Keenan's documented guests are the grandest in the city's lodging record: Presidents Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, and Amelia Earhart. About $2 million had been spent to refurbish the hotel only a year or so before the end — Leininger's 1982 account gives the figure — yet under James Keenan's daughter, Helen Keenan Centlivre, the hotel closed in May 1974. On October 20, 1974 (one video history's caption says October 18; the press and society accounts give the 20th), 330 pounds of high-velocity gelatin dynamite in 11 blasts reduced it to rubble. Part of the Grand Wayne Convention Center now stands on the Keenan's site.

Sources:

1. ACGSI, "Hotel Keenan" — the November 24, 1923 dedication, the "Largest and Finest" billing, the Keenan family's hotel history, James Keenan's path from the Anthony, the twelve-plus-two stories account, the May 1974 closing, and the October 20, 1974 demolition with 330 pounds of dynamite.
2. Corey McMaken, "1974: Explosive demolitions of Van Orman, Keenan hotels," Journal Gazette, July 25, 2019 (via ACGSI) — Truman and Kennedy among the guests; Kevin Leininger, Cityscapes, January 23, 1982 — the roughly $2 million refurbishment.
3. Allen County HamNews, September 2020 — the Keenan's amateur station 9IL in the Bureau of Navigation's June 30, 1925 list, and Earhart, Truman, and Kennedy as guests.