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The Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, at 4000 Parnell Avenue on the city's north side, is famous first for what it memorializes: it was proposed in 1944 by the Junior Chamber of Commerce as a living memorial to Allen County's dead of both World Wars, and on November 6, 1946, the county's voters approved the roughly $3 million bond for it by about five to one. Ground was broken in January 1950 on some 60 acres at California Road and Parnell Avenue; the architect was A. M. Strauss. The building was completed in September 1952 and dedicated on September 28, 1952, in a ceremony attended by 24 veterans' organizations and some 10,000 people. Memorial Hall, the hall of honor at the building's heart, remains its focal point — the arena, the exposition center and the conference facilities around it are the working parts of a war memorial.
The Coliseum was the home of the Fort Wayne Pistons until the team left for Detroit in 1957, and its most famous single night came after the Pistons left: on March 10, 1961, the Detroit club played a home game in its old building against the Philadelphia Warriors, and that night Wilt Chamberlain became the first player in NBA history to score 3,000 points in a single season. The game itself belongs to the Sports chapter; the place fact is that the milestone happened in Fort Wayne's memorial arena, in a game staged there by the team the building had lost. The Coliseum seated about 10,000 at its opening and seats roughly 13,000 today; it remains the largest venue in the city and the anchor of the Parnell Avenue sports ground, beside the old Memorial Stadium site where the Wizards once played.
Sources: Allen County War Memorial Coliseum (memorialcoliseum.com), building history — Junior Chamber of Commerce proposal 1944, referendum November 6, 1946, groundbreaking January 1950, dedication September 28, 1952; accounts of the March 10, 1961 Philadelphia–Detroit game for the Chamberlain 3,000-point milestone; the Sports chapter of this history.