Parker Place: the modern campus, the long decline, and the closure

1954 — closed 18 April 2007

A new campus, and then the end of the institution itself: In 1939 the school's service area had already been cut to the northern half of Indiana, its mission widened to people of all ages with developmental disabilities. By the 1950s the East State buildings were dilapidated and badly overcrowded, and in 1954 the state decided to move the institution to Parker Place Farm, one of the farms the school owned, at St. Joe and Stellhorn roads. Eighteen buildings went up on 142 acres, and the move began in 1960; some residents were still living at the old campus twenty years later, and for a time the emptying State Street buildings stood derelict before the administration building was demolished in August 1982 — the site is now Bob Arnold Northside Park, its dedication in 1983 marked by a preserved column and a stone archway the Park Department saved as a memorial to the former residents. At Parker Place the population first grew larger than ever: more than 2,500 within the decade of the move, peaking at 2,700 residents in 1964. In 1965 the institution was renamed the Fort Wayne Hospital and Training Center — the cemetery record preserves the form Fort Wayne State Hospital and Training Center — and in the 1980s it took its final name, the Fort Wayne Developmental Center, styled in many records the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center. In 1986 it became the first facility for people with developmental disabilities in Indiana, public or private, to win accreditation from the Accreditation Council on Services for People with Developmental Disabilities. But the direction of policy had reversed: the census fell year by year as placements in group homes and community services grew. In October 2005, with 210 residents remaining, the state announced the end: Mitch Roob, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, said the center would close by the end of June 2007, most residents moving to homes in the community, a few to the state's remaining psychiatric hospitals, at a projected saving of at least half the cost of the institution. The closing was contested, and the record of the final years carries a documented shame of its own — an attendant pleaded guilty to neglect in the beating death of a thirty-eight-year-old resident. On 18 April 2007 the last resident left, and the Fort Wayne Developmental Center closed, the last state-run institution for people with intellectual disabilities in Indiana. The center's admission registers, kept across the whole life of the school, count 12,162 people admitted between Knightstown in 1879 and that April day. The 142 acres were divided after the closure — forty acres to the university, forty-five to Ivy Tech Community College, other ground to the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center — and the Parker Place buildings were demolished beginning in 2011 to make way for Ivy Tech's north campus.

Sources:

1. Asylum Projects, Fort Wayne Developmental Center — the 1954 decision to transplant the school to Parker Place Farm, the eighteen buildings on 142 acres, the move from 1960, the population of more than 2,500 within the decade, residents remaining at the old school for about twenty years, the 1986 first accreditation, and the demolition of the campus buildings from 2011 for Ivy Tech.
2. Indiana Archives and Records Administration — the 1939 reduction of the service area to northern Indiana, the widened mission, the 12,162 patients admitted before closure, and the admission registers and microfilmed medical records held by the State Archives.
3. The History Center, cornerstone record (2007.16.3) — the 1965 renaming as the Fort Wayne Hospital and Training Center, all services at Parker Place by the late 1970s, and the Developmental Center name in the 1980s.
4. Inclusion Daily Express, 25 October 2005 — Roob's announcement of the June 2007 closure, the 210 residents, most to move to community homes and a few to the state's remaining psychiatric hospitals, the projected saving, and the attendant's guilty plea to neglect in the beating death of a resident.
5. PBS Fort Wayne, The Forgotten (2022), and the institution's records as copied by ACGSI — the 2,700 peak population of 1964, the last resident's departure on 18 April 2007, the August 1982 demolition of the East State administration building, and the 1983 park dedication; the post-closure division of the grounds between the university and Ivy Tech is from the university's published history.