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Williams-Woodland Park began as one man's ground. Jesse Lynch Williams, chief engineer of the Wabash and Erie Canal, moved to Fort Wayne in 1832 and assembled the tract south of Creighton Avenue; in the 1870s the Williams family opened it to the public as a private park, Williams Park or Williams Grove, which hosted a large Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizing event in 1874. The south end was platted as Williams Park Lot A in 1887, and a further plat was made in 1898, but no lots sold until 1903. That October, Henry Williams and the heirs sold the 66 lots to real-estate dealer Louis Curdes, who imposed deed restrictions across the development and sold every lot by lottery in a single day and night at the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, riding the streetcar expansion out Creighton Avenue. The association, the Allen County Public Library's neighborhood collection, and Visit Fort Wayne all bill the result the same way: Fort Wayne's first planned neighborhood. Tree preservation was written into its making, to keep a uniform, park-like canopy.
The Williams-Woodland Park local historic district was established in 1985, and the district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 14, 1991, with 287 contributing buildings built between about 1875 and 1940. Third Presbyterian Church now stands on the Williams homestead site. The association's modern identity runs on Porch Fest in the summer and a Holiday Home Tour whose 2024 program retold the 1903 lottery to a new generation of owners. The district's buildings are treated in the Architecture section.
Sources: National Register nomination, Williams-Woodland Park Historic District (Ref. 91000258); Williams Woodland Park Neighborhood Association, About Us — History; ACPL Community Album, Williams-Woodland Park Neighborhood Collection; ACGSI Williams-Woodland page.