The armories · Clinton Street to Cook Road

1930 — present

A hall for the soldiers: For its first century as a Guard town Fort Wayne had no armory worthy of the name, and its veterans said so in writing. A petition preserved in the county record — signed by the Union Veteran Legion's Encampment No. 51, the Sion S. Bass and Lawton-Wayne G.A.R. posts and citizens — asked Congress for 200,000 dollars to build an armory on the old fort ground itself, noting that the city "has no armory building and no hall as a meeting place for the soldiers of Fort Wayne and northeastern Indiana," and that Battery B, Indiana National Guard, was keeping 75,000 dollars of federal guns and equipment without an adequate place to house them. The armory the city eventually got stood elsewhere: the National Guard Armory at 330 South Clinton Street, completed in 1930, which served for sixty-seven years as drill hall, and — because it was one of the largest halls in the city — as a concert and public-events venue as well. Guard units sandbagged to protect it in the flood of 1982. It was torn down in 1997 to make way for Headwaters Park, and the Guard's Fort Wayne home moved north to the armory and readiness center at 130 West Cook Road, where the 1-293rd is stationed today and where the Indiana Guard's Fort Wayne Soldier and Family Readiness Center and its Army National Guard recruiting station now operate.

Sources:

1. ACGSI, "N Named Places in Allen County, Indiana" — National Guard Armory: completed 1930 on Clinton Street, concerts and public activities besides Guard use, torn down 1997 for Headwaters Park; ARCH Inc. photograph post, 19 March 2020 — 330 South Clinton Street, demolished 1997, new building constructed on Cook Road.
2. ACGSI, "Anthony Wayne Statue" — the veterans' armory petition text (200,000 dollars; Battery B's 75,000 dollars of equipment).
3. Military Department of Indiana, "Indiana National Guard in Your Community" and Soldier and Family Readiness Center listings (in.gov) — Fort Wayne National Guard Armory, 130 W. Cook Rd., Fort Wayne, IN 46825, with readiness-center and recruiting functions.