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Founded 12 February 1921
Founding: On 12 February 1921 the Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society was founded by 141 community leaders and history enthusiasts. Its assets were few — the DAR relics described above — but it was the city's first permanent collecting institution, and every museum in this record either descends from it or grew up alongside it. The society hired its first principal staff leader in 1923; fourteen principal staff leaders have stewarded it since, among them executive director Todd Maxwell Pelfrey, who joined in 2004 and in November 2022 surpassed the longest tenure of his thirteen predecessors. The society today operates The History Center museum, oversees the adjacent Barr Street Market — the oldest public space in Fort Wayne, dating to 1837 — and stewards the Chief Richardville House.
Sources:
- The History Center, Facebook post of 1 November 2022, via ACGSI, The History Center places page — founding date, 141 founders, fourteen principal staff leaders, the first hired in 1923, Pelfrey's tenure record.
- The History Center, "About" (fwhistorycenter.org) — the society's present-day charges: the museum, Barr Street Market (1837), and the Richardville House.