48 hours in Fort Wayne, Indiana (and 1.2 million reasons to go)
This unassuming Midwestern tourist destination has an epic genealogy center, a hip art scene, and a creative hub that's 'Disneyland for musicians.'
Mid-sized American cities are changing fast.
Not since the 1990s have these 250,000-to-500,000-person cities seen so much growth. You know the story: The industrial revolution brings people out of the country and into these Made in America manufacturing hubs. Each of these towns became small cities with their own vibrant downtowns that declined thanks to the introduction of suburban shopping malls, big box stores and, later, Amazon.
As manufacturing moved abroad, these towns struggled even more, and people seeking better jobs, higher education, or maybe even vibrant nightlife or coffee shops where they could engage in lively conversation, moved to cities and stayed there.
But now these cities are just too full, too expensive, too chaotic. People (and their employers) are redistributing themselves — along with their ideas, their enthusiasm, and their disposable income — to the Bentonvilles, the Tulsas, the Kansas Citys, which have lower taxes, (more) affordable housing and (slightly) less traffic.
That attracts remote workers, artists and makers who are willing to pay $5 for a cortado and pay a little extra to shop at a local business instead of Walmart. (What an irony in Bentonville.)
This kind of revitalization is hard to miss if you spend any amount of time on the road, and it’s on full display in Fort Wayne, which is tucked in the middle of the triangle of Detroit, Chicago, and Indianapolis.
With 267,000 people, it’s the regional center for the northeast corner of the state and has become an electric mid-sized city full of good food, creative people, and, of course, an epic industrial reuse project. You’ll find breweries, vibrant murals, progressive art, outdoor festivals, and even things like urban kayaking.
I didn’t know any of this before I got an invite from the local and state tourism boards to go on a media trip built around a visit to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, which has more than 1.2 million pieces of family history research materials. (That experience was so grand that I’m publishing a story focused on the family research center in the next couple of days.)
These trips are meant to showcase the best of any particular region, and over just a few days, you experience the highlights of what makes a place worth visiting. I wanted to share those recommendations with you, just in case you have a chance to spend a couple of days there.
You can’t skip a stroll down The Landing, the city’s historic downtown district along Columbia street not far from the river. In the past decade, a public-private partnership led to a total revitalization of these two blocks in the heart of the city. You’ll find a string of top-notch restaurants, including an upscale Thai restaurant called NAWA and an Asian-Mexican fusion restaurant called Mercado, as well as Gnometown Brewing Co., an extension of the popular Happy Gnome brewery nearby. Other spots on Fort Wayne’s best-of lists: Proximo, Chance Bar, Tolon, and Copper Spoon.
Fort Wayne is home to the musician mecca of Sweetwater, an online music store with a sprawling headquarters that includes a 3,500-seat pavilion, a recording studio, a music school, a cafe, and the country’s largest brick-and-mortar music store. If you have a musician in your life, they probably know about Sweetwater, which employs some 3,000 people in the area, but perhaps they didn’t know that you can take a pilgrimage there.
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