I've lived in Fort Wayne my entire life and have moved from neighborhood to neighborhood since I was a kid. I enjoyed my childhood near Foster Park, spent most of my school years near Covington and Homestead, and ended up at Dupont for the first half of my twenties. I then migrated downtown eventually settling into my home in the West Central Neighborhood. I can truly say that West Central is home not only physically but also mentally and emotionally for me. It's this neighborhood that represents my values, offers random acts of kindness, and gives me the greatest sense of community that I have ever experienced in Fort Wayne.
My fiancé and I recently sat down to talk about our future. Do we buy a home? Do we keep renting? We made lists of pros and cons. The one thing that we both were able to decide on without doubt was that we wanted to stay in West Central. The closet space might be small and the yards may not be large, but nothing compares to what we get in return from the people that surround us block after block.
During the last snow storm, a neighbor from four houses down that I had never met saw me struggling to dig my car out from a mountain of snow. He grabbed a shovel and helped me for 30 minutes until I could get my vehicle out. When we moved into the neighborhood, we were immediately invited to wine parties and outdoor cookouts. We ended up spending Thanksgiving that year with one of our neighbors that became part of our extended family. We cut each others lawns, we smile at strangers on the sidewalk, and every year, we take great pride in the annual West Central Home and Garden Tour.
I love jogging through the streets of Jefferson, Washington, and Wayne during the summer and taking in the unique look of each house. The streets are lined with single family homes, new construction, apartments, triplexes, and every kind of demographic. Everyone looks out for the people around them and compared to other areas of Fort Wayne that I have lived in, I know all of my neighbors by name and we stop and talk when we see each other. Aside from that, the Embassy, Parkview Field, and a long list of restaurants are all within walking distance. If you are looking for a unique neighborhood that will give you a sense of community and embrace you immediately as part of the extended downtown family, look no further than West Central.
