My Wolf and Dessauer Ornament

Wolf and Dessauer is as synonymous with Christmas in Fort Wayne as Marshall Fields is with Chicago.

The upscale department store was the place to shop in downtown Fort Wayne for decades and many people have fond memories of it. Most of those memories revolve around Christmastime when Wolf and Dessauer would transform into a scene straight out of A Christmas Story with magical animatronic displays in their windows and a gigantic lighted Santa and a midcentury modern Merry Christmas Wreath on the sides of their building.

The Santa display has quite a history in our town and people still come from far and wide to see it. It's not Christmas in Fort Wayne until Santa is lit! A few weeks before Thanksgiving he starts to go up and you can feel the magic in the air that Christmas is near!

W&D, as they are known, first displayed their massive five ton lighted Santa in 1940 and he appeared at Christmastime for almost twenty years. Somehow, when W&D moved, Santa got lost in the hustle and bustle, and it wasn't until 1979 that he was found in bad shape in an abandoned warehouse! Can you imagine?

By the Christmas of 1980, Santa was restored and put on the side of one of Fort Wayne's tallest buildings, where he has remained ever since! The W&D wreath went on another building, and I may actually like the wreath better than Santa, because you know how I like wreaths. But, Santa brings me much more fond childhood memories of driving by him on our way to school. Plus, you know, it's SANTA!

About ten years ago, Santa's 25,000 lightbulbs went from the old incandescent kind to LED and someone had the great idea to turn the old bulbs into ornaments! 

I first discovered that these ornaments were on the loose in Fort Wayne a few years ago and I knew I had to get my hands on one! I love Fort Wayne history, and to own such an iconic piece of it was just too much! I really had no idea how or where to find one of the ornaments and I have been scouring the internet for one of Santa's bulbs for years to no avail.

Finally, one day last week I happened to read in the Journal-Gazette that the Fort Wayne Museum of Art was selling them in their gift shop! I could not wait to get out of work and hightail it over there. I had only seen the red ornaments before so I assumed that they would be red. When I got there I was informed that they only had white and orange bulbs left. 

Now, I'll admit, I was a little disappointed. I wanted red! I love anything red and it's just such a perfect Christmasy color! I thought about it and decided that a white bulb would really pop on my green Christmas tree, even more so than a red one. Plus, a white lightbulb could have come from Santa's beard or even one of the reindeer! So I got white. And I love it!

I am so happy that I finally have one of these ornaments! It's truly become one of my cherished items already. Now a piece of Fort Wayne history will live on forever on my Christmas tree!

Here's the old Wolf and Dessauer Santa being put up with a crane on Main St. in downtown Fort Wayne a few weeks before Thanksgiving this year.

Santa in all his glory! His whip and sleigh blink and "move," that's why in this shot it looks burned out.

Off to deliver presents to all the good children in Fort Wayne!

This is the W&D wreath, which now hangs on Wayne Street. I'd love to have this at my house!

My long-awaited ornament!

Here is a picture from the ornament box of Santa hanging on the Wolf and Dessauer building.

Now hanging proudly on my Christmas tree!

Can you find it?!?

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

The Johnny Appleseed Festival

According to the calendar, Autumn officially arrived on September 22nd. But in reality, the Fall season began in the Fort Wayne area the weekend before, with the 43rd annual Johnny Appleseed Festival. Held every year on the third full weekend in September, The Festival is the official kick off of Fall around here!

Full of delicious food, unique crafts, antiques, and even part farmers market, The Johnny Appleseed Festival honors the legendary John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed), who is actually buried here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In case you're not familiar with him, "Johnny" went around planting apple trees all around the eastern part of U.S. in the early days of America. A little known fact about Johnny's apples is that they were used mostly for making hard cider instead of for eating! 

The Johnny Appleseed Festival is probably my most favorite time of the year. Not only do I love a good festival, and Fall in general, but this festival holds a special place in my heart. When I was in grade school, my church and school had a booth at Johnny Appleseed that I worked for several years! Dressing like a pioneer is a requirement to work The Festival and it was always so much fun to steal away in your pioneer woman dress and bonnet and go play in the creek with your friends.

This year, we had an extra special visitor to The Johnny Appleseed Festival! Mo Rocca from CBS Sunday Morning (and My Grandmother's Ravioli) came to Fort Wayne to film a segment for Sunday Morning and partake in all things apple! Centered around his grave in Johnny Appleseed Park, The Festival offers plenty of food made from apples, from Apple Dumplings to Apple Pancake Roll-Ups. They even have the world's best Ham and Bean Soup (and cornbread!) It's not been released yet when the episode will air, but I am keeping my ears open! My mom and I ran into them filming all over the festival, so who knows, we may be in a few shots!

Even if it's ninety degrees out (like it was this year!), this festival just gets you in the mood for Fall! Everywhere you look there are pumpkins, apples, and mums! The sound of bagpipes, drums, and cannons fill the air and the smell of campfires permeate everything! I dare you to visit the Johnny Appleseed Festival and NOT want to go home and make caramels, drink cider, and decorate your home for Fall!

Some of the "pioneers" hard at work cooking up a batch of caramel corn!

Here's Mo and the crew filming!

I couldn't resist this bucket of wooden gourds! I had to get one!

Fall abounds everywhere you go at The Johnny Appleseed Festival!

Johnny Appleseed Park is actually a campground the rest of the year. It's a really beautiful area.

Every year we get at least one of these ceramic mushrooms. My goal is to have a whole little forest of them like this!

The farmer's market area is perhaps my most favorite part. It's full of gorgeous flowers like this!

And this! You can purchase bunches of them and make your own bouquet!

I loved these wooden witches!

And the matching ghosts! I wish I would have gotten them now! Next year!

There are just so many cool crafts at the Johnny Appleseed Festival!

Of course, stopping by the grave of the man that started it all is required!

 

West Central Home & Garden Tour

 The historic West Central Neighborhood in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana is one of my all-time favorite neighborhoods. Dating back to the 1830's, it once housed the elite of Fort Wayne society and the houses there are nothing short of amazing. 

I was lucky enough to live in West Central for a few years and I probably still would if I hadn't gotten married! It was a dream of mine to live there ever since I can remember and it was a sad day when I moved out! Many of the houses have been (horribly) split up into apartments and fallen into disrepair over the last century, but West Central is making a major comeback. It makes me so happy to see people restoring these gorgeous, gigantic, old houses! Many of them are truly mansions.

This past weekend I went on the annual West Central Home and Garden Tour and today I am sharing some of my favorite parts of it. I took mostly outdoor pictures because it was difficult to get a good indoor shot. Some of the houses I will be showing you weren't even on the tour, but I love them so much I had to include them anyways! 

Someday soon, I will take another walk downtown and take more pictures, but this will give you a taste of some of the beautiful architecture that Fort Wayne has to offer!

This house was one of two reasons why I had to go on the West Central Tour this year. I drove by this house almost every day for the better part of a decade and always wished that someone would fix it up! And now they have! It had sat vacant for years and was just a mess. There was a giant bush covering the whole front of the home and I was so happy the day they tore it out and I could see the whole house! This house dates back to about 1887!

The home is full of original stained glass that was actually stolen, recovered, and thankfully put back in it's rightful place!

I loved the color of these original hardwood floors! They are so unique.

This was my second reason for going on the tour...my old apartment building! My apartment was the second from the top in the right hand corner!

This is Sheridan Court Apartments, built in 1925 by the famed architect Alvin M. Strauss. Someday I will show you the pictures of my amazing old apartment.

Another gorgeous old home on the tour! The original owner of the home owned the Shields Clothing Co. on Calhoun Street and had this house built for his family around 1910. I just love finding out interesting facts like that about old Fort Wayne!

Although not one of the grander homes in West Central, this cute little cottage home is still full of character. It was estimated to have been built around the middle 1800's!

It's all about the details in old homes!

I am OBSESSED with this wallpaper!!! It's in a house that is a "work in progress" and will most likely be covered up or ripped out in the future. It was pretty damaged and filthy in some areas of the stairwell. I wonder if it is original to the house, which was built in 1899. At least I got this picture of it!

These gorgeous row houses were built for the faculty of the now-defunct Methodist College. Although they appear to be completely connected, in the back there are spaces between them with windows that look right into the next house. You would never be able to escape your co-workers living here!

Emmanuel Lutheran Church was also included on the tour after having undergone extensive renovations. It reminded me of a mix of my old church and the Old North Church in Boston.

I LOVED the shimmery gold stars against the blue on the ceiling of the chancel! Well done!

This was an alley we walked through on the tour, but Fort Wayne still has several brick streets throughout the town!

These next homes were not on the tour, but I had to include them anyways! They are all in West Central and something about each of them spoke to me. Like this one. What a perfect little cottage!

Many of these home I have driven by hundreds of times, but never walked by them. It's an entirely different vibe and I will be doing it more often!

I cannot believe the attention to detail in even the littlest of things.

What a beauty! I wonder what's up in that turret?

Every home on this block has been recently restored and remodeled and they have all done an excellent job!

This has always been one of my favorites and I even tried to get an apartment in there once, but it was too expensive for me!

I loved this second story porch on one of the houses!

I did have the chance to live here once, but I turned it down to live in Sheridan Court. The second story in that turret could have been my living room!

I just love old houses!

Some color combos you can only get away with on an old house!

What an awesome little apartment building. It reminds me of Chicago.

This is my new absolute favorite house in West Central now! They just remodeled it have done an amazing job. It used to be completely white and you just could not see any of the character of it.

Perfection.