Fort Wayne Schools and Colleges: From Early Childhood to University

The first school — Isaac McCoy at the fort

1820 – c. 1822

Founded: May 29, 1820, by the Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist missionary, who opened a school inside the decommissioned Fort Wayne at the urging of the Miami chief Jean Baptiste de Richardville. It is the first school in the record of the place.

What it was: A mission school for the children of the post and the town growing around it. Its recorded roster mixes the whole settlement: 10 English, 8 Native American, 6 French and 1 African-American pupil, and enrollment peaked at about 50 students.

Fate: The school ran about two years. Hugh B. McKeen opened another school in the old fort about 1823.

Sources:

1. The History Center, via ACGSI, early schools of Allen County.
2. Griswold, history of Fort Wayne, via ACGSI.

Rudisill School

1906 – 1981

Founded: 1906, when an existing Washington Township school at Spy Run Avenue and Ruth Street was converted to city use; a new twelve-room building followed — begun in 1912, opened in 1914 — named for Henry Rudisill, one of the founders of St. Paul's Lutheran congregation. Local accounts differ on whether the school should be dated from the 1906 conversion or the 1914 building; it operated as an elementary school from 1906.

Course and fate: Rudisill served as an elementary school until 1968, then became the district's Special Education Center. It closed for good in 1981 and the building was sold in 1982. A 22-page history of the school, compiled for its 1968 closing as an elementary school, is held by the Allen County Genealogical Society.

Sources:

1. ACGSI, Rudisill School page.
2. Allen County Lines, Dec. 2024 — the Rudisill School booklet (1906–1968).

Canterbury School

1977 – present

Founded: 1977, by the Rev. Dr. C. Corydon Randall, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, with leaders of the church. It opened as an independent school for kindergarten through grade 6, taught in Trinity's own classrooms, and moved to quarters of its own in 1980.

Course and fate: Canterbury grew by rungs into an independent pre-kindergarten through grade 12 college-preparatory school at 3210 Smith Rd. Operating.

Sources:

1. Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana Archives (via USC Scalar) — the 1977 founding by Randall; Trinity classrooms; the 1980 move; citing Beatty, Beyond These Stones (1994).

Fort Wayne Christian School — the thin record

by 1980 – closed, dates unverified

What the record shows: A Fort Wayne Christian School fielded teams called the Crusaders and was graduating students in the early 1980s — an alumnus's record shows attendance from 1980 to 1985. The school is defunct. Its founding year, its sponsoring church or association, and its closing year do not appear in the sources consulted for this section, and no fuller entry is claimed; the entry stands so the school is not lost from the record, and so the gap is on the record.

Sources:

1. MascotDB — Fort Wayne Christian Crusaders, Fort Wayne, Indiana: defunct.
2. Alumni record (Alumnius) — Fort Wayne Christian School attendance, 1980–85.

Jamia Arabia Noor Ul-Huda — Fort Wayne Myanmar Islamic Educational Academy

2018 – present

Founded: September 2018, by Burmese refugee and immigrant families — the first school opened for Burmese Muslims in the Fort Wayne area, in a city that became one of the largest Burmese refugee communities in the United States.

What it is: A nonprofit academy at 5125 Werling Dr teaching Quran memorization (the Hafiz track) and the Mulawe course of Islamic study, with about 130 students aged 9 to 18, meeting Monday through Saturday. Its first five Hafiz students completed the Quran in 2020, and its graduations have continued since.

Sources:

1. Fort Wayne Myanmar Islamic Educational Academy (fwmiea.com) — established September 2018; the Hafiz and Mulawe tracks; enrollment and ages.

Horizon Christian Academy

closed 2024

What the record shows: A kindergarten through grade 12 Christian academy in Fort Wayne, serving 148 students in its final directory listings, recorded as closed in 2024. Its founding year is not established in the sources consulted.

Sources:

1. Private School Review — Horizon Christian Academy, Fort Wayne (closed 2024).

Huntington University in Fort Wayne

present day (start year not pinned in the sources consulted)

Presence: Huntington University, of Huntington, Indiana, teaches its Doctor of Occupational Therapy in Fort Wayne — one of the first fully accredited entry-level doctoral occupational therapy programs in the country — first at Parkview Hospital's Randallia campus and now at 1819 Carew St. It also keeps an accelerated-BSN site at 1600 E. Washington Blvd.

Sources:

1. Huntington University — Doctor of Occupational Therapy program (Fort Wayne location, 1819 Carew St; Randallia origin; ABSN location).
2. Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education, program directory — Huntington University, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The proprietary colleges that closed

2016 – 2017

What the record shows: The state's defunct-institutions list records a cluster of Fort Wayne closures in the for-profit shakeout of the 2010s: American National University's Fort Wayne campus (6131 N. Clinton St), closed June 3, 2016; ITT Technical Institute's Fort Wayne campus (2810 Dupont Commerce Ct), closed September 3, 2016 in ITT's nationwide shutdown; Medtech College (7230 Engle Rd), closed September 23, 2016; and Brown Mackie College (3000 E. Coliseum Blvd) — formerly Michiana Business College — closed December 22, 2017. None left a campus behind; their students' transcripts are held by the state and the successor repositories named in the list.

Sources:

1. Indiana Commission for Higher Education / Board for Proprietary Education, defunct institutions list (in.gov) — all four closures and dates.