Today, we are visiting the intersection of Calhoun Street and Wayne Street in downtown Fort Wayne,Indiana. On the northeastern corner of this intersection, you may remember G.C. Murphy Co., also known as Murphy's Department Store.
Murphy's was founded by entrepreneur George Clinton Murphy in 1906 and quickly grew to a 500-store chain across the United States. The Fort Wayne location opened on October 25th, 1950, and it was a very popular downtown department store along with Wolf & Dessauer and Patterson-Fletcher. This location was also one of the chain's largest volume stores!
Murphy's sold quite literally everything from sheet music to hamsters. Its special features included small listening rooms to listen to records, along with a mini restaurant and candy counter. The store sold freshly made donuts which you could see from the windows outside. These donuts can still be enjoyed at Cindy's Diner as they purchased the original donut machine.
Outside, during the holiday season, an arch with a tree on top spanned the intersection of Wayne and Calhoun for many years. The raising of this arch became a highly anticipated tradition among locals, much like Night of Lights today.
Sadly for many, Murphy's closed at the beginning of 1992 as "The Last Downtown Department Store", and modern holiday decorations replaced the arch as a new building was built a few years later.
Today, Indiana Office Center (known locally as the Wells Fargo Building) sits across from One Summit Square, a popular spot for holiday photos with the giant vintage "Merry Christmas" wreath. Indiana Office Center has housed many tenants over the years, and the land site has lots of good Fort Wayne history.
Murphy's was a great part of downtown Fort Wayne's retail scene, but now it's time to bring a new vision to the site. You could do just that by leasing space at Indiana Office Center, to learn more about the current building click the link below:
Historic image courtesy of Allen County Public Library.
We would like to give a special shout-out to Kendall Stevens and Amy Schuldt of Sturges Property Group for the photography and copy in this article. If you enjoyed reading this article check back every month to see what new historical property Sturges Property Group has to share.
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