John A. Shoaff and the Shoaff Building

1864 — 1921

The studio that became a building: John A. Shoaff was born in 1836 in Juniata, Perry County, Pennsylvania, and came to Fort Wayne at the age of twelve or fourteen to join his brother Samuel. He graduated from the Methodist College and opened Shoaff's Art Gallery at the northwest corner of Calhoun and Main, appearing first in the city directory of 1864–65. By 1866–67 he had moved to the Keystone Block on the southwest corner of Calhoun and Columbia — an address that became the Shoaff Building at 7 West Columbia, a building he built and owned, and where he remained until his retirement. In 1872 he bought from Joseph Dille and Elisha Poston their patent in "improvements in solar-cameras," buying out the two experimenters whose work is taken up in the next entry. Shoaff was one of the most prolific photographers in nineteenth-century Fort Wayne. His obituary, in the Journal-Gazette of 31 October 1921, calls him the city's "first" photographer; the directory record corrects it — Keith, Hubbell, and a dozen others precede his 1864 opening by two decades. Shoaff died at his home on Spy Run Avenue on 30 October 1921 and was buried in Lindenwood Cemetery.

Sources:

1. John D. Beatty, Directory of Fort Wayne Photographers 1843–1930 — entry for John A. Shoaff, citing Charles E. Slocum, History of the Maumee River Basin, 3: 179, the Journal-Gazette, 31 October 1921, Fort Wayne city directories, 1864–1894, and American Photographic Patents, 1840–1880.