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Kekionga Ball Grounds

Defunct baseball venues in the United StatesDefunct sports venues in IndianaSports in Fort Wayne, IndianaUse mdy dates from February 2020

The Kekiongas have a splendid ground for playing upon this year. They have six acres enclosed with a high, tight board fence, measuring 1,900 feet lineal, and seats for the convenience of spectators, with canopy overhead. The Kekionga Ball Grounds was a baseball field in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Built in 1870, it was located on the site of the former Camp Allen, a Union Army base during the civil war, north of what is now Camp Allen Park, and named for Kekionga, the former capital of the Miami tribe which was located at the site of modern Fort Wayne. The precise size and orientation of the Kekionga Ball Grounds is lost, but it was in area on the left bank of the St. Marys River now bounded by Mechanics Street, Elm Street, Cherry Street, Camp Allen Drive, and Fair Street.The first National Association game was played at the Kekionga Ball Grounds on May 4, 1871. This was the first professional baseball league game, the first professional league game in any sport in America, and possibly the first game of Major League Baseball (if one credits the National Association as a major league, which some people do and some don't). The Fort Wayne Kekiongas defeated Cleveland by a score of 2–0. Bobby Mathews pitched the shutout for the Kekiongas; the umpire was John Boake.A monument to this first game was placed in 2017.At the time of the 1871 game, a covered grandstand called the "Grand Dutchess" provided spectator accommodations. The Grand Dutchess was open only to women and men accompanying them. (Some sources give "Grand Duchess" as the name of the ballfield itself, but contemporary records contradict this.) The Grand Duchess burned to the ground on November 5, 1871.The Kekiongas folded before the end of the 1871 season, so the Kekionga Ball Grounds only hosted eight other major league games.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Kekionga Ball Grounds (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Kekionga Ball Grounds
Huron Street, Fort Wayne

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N 41.076861111111 ° E -85.157911111111 °
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Huron Street 1218
46808 Fort Wayne
Indiana, United States
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Trinity Episcopal Church (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
Trinity Episcopal Church (Fort Wayne, Indiana)

Trinity Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal congregation and church, designed by Toledo, Ohio architect Charles Crosby Miller and constructed ca. 1865 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The congregation was organized in 1839 as Christ Church and the name changed in 1844 to Trinity Church. The first church was built on the southeast corner of Berry and Harrison Streets in 1848. It is an example of Gothic Revival architecture.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.HISTORY The Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, Bishop of the Northwest, visited Fort Wayne for the first time in 1837 in an effort to organize a church. Two years later, he set the Rev. Benjamin Hutchins, formerly of Philadelphia, to organize a church, and Christ Episcopal Church was formally established on May 26, 1839. The congregation languished when Hutchins departed soon after, and in 1844, Peter P. Bailey, a businessman from New York City, began offering lay readings from the Book of Common Prayer. Bishop Kemper sent another missionary, the Rev. Benjamin Halsted, and on May 25, 1844, Trinity Episcopal Church was formally organized. After meeting initially in the Allen County Courthouse, the church raised funds for a wood framed chapel at the southeast corner of Berry and Harrison. (The present historical marker is inaccurate about its location). In 1863, the vestry called the Rev. Joseph S. Large to lead an effort to build a new Gothic Revival Church under a design by Charles Crosby Miller of Toledo, Ohio. After many delays and financial shortfalls, the building was completed in the fall of 1866 and consecrated two years later by the Rt. Rev. Joseph C. Talbot, Bishop Coadjutor of Indiana. Trinity Church has had the following rectors: Rev. Benjamin Halsted, 1844-1846 Rev. Joseph S. Large, 1848-1854 Rev. Caleb Alexander Bruce, 1854-1855 Rev. Eugene Charles Pattison, 1856-1858 Rev. Stephen Henry Battin, 1858-1863 Rev. Joseph S. Large, 1863-1872 Rev. Colin Campbell Tate, 1872-1879 Rev. William Naylor Webbe, 1879-1888 Rev. Alexander Washington Seabrease, 1888-1904 Rev. Edward Wilson Averill, 1904-1923 Rev. Louis Niccola Rocca, 1923-1930 Rev. Charles Noyes Tyndell, 1931-1932 Rev. James McNeal Wheatley, 1932-1947 Rev. George Bartlett Wood, 1947-1971 Rev. Chandler Corydon Randall, 1971-1988 Rev. Frank Hazlett Moss III, 1990-1999 Rev. Rebecca Ferrell Nickel, 2001-2004 Rev. Thomas Parker Hansen, 2006-2016 Rev. T. J. Freeman, 2017- In 1955-1956, a large classroom building was added to the church to serve the needs of the growing parish. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is 18 miles (29 km) west of the Ohio border and 50 miles (80 km) south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in Indiana after Indianapolis, and the 83rd-most populous city in the United States. It is the principal city of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area, consisting of Allen and Whitley counties which had an estimated population of 423,038 as of 2021. Fort Wayne is the cultural and economic center of northeastern Indiana. In addition to the two core counties, the combined statistical area (CSA) includes Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, Noble, Steuben, and Wells counties, with an estimated population of 649,105 in 2021.Fort Wayne was built in 1794 by the United States Army under the direction of American Revolutionary War general Anthony Wayne, the last in a series of forts built near the Miami village of Kekionga. Named in Wayne's honor, the European-American settlement developed at the confluence of the St. Joseph, St. Marys, and Maumee rivers, known originally as Fort Miami, a trading post constructed by Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes around 1706. The modern city was platted in 1823 following its revitalization after the War of 1812 and its siege. It underwent tremendous growth after completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal and advent of the railroad. Once a booming manufacturing town located in what became known as the Rust Belt, Fort Wayne's economy in the 21st century is based upon distribution, transportation and logistics; healthcare, professional and business services; leisure and hospitality, and financial services. The city is a center for the defense industry which employs 1-2% of the population.Fort Wayne was an All-America City Award recipient in 1983, 1998, 2009, and 2021. The city also received an Outstanding Achievement City Livability Award by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1999.