Memorial Park Neighborhood is banding together to bring pride, identity, and community back

Sitting in a meeting of the Memorial Park Neighborhood Association, the members laugh and talk as if they’ve known each other their entire lives. Many of them have, but even newcomers are seamlessly folded into the conversation as if they were always there. This is just a glimpse of the close-knit community they are trying to resurrect.

While the neighborhood association was once thriving, participation waned in recent decades due to a combination of deaths, lack of community interest, and decreasing home ownership, explains current association president Shuntel Robinson. The group officially disbanded in 2020 with the death of the previous president. It was only recently reactivated by Robinson in the fall of 2024.

Robinson grew up in Memorial Park and purchased her childhood home after her grandmother passed. Since then, the house has been her home when she's not in Indianapolis.

"This neighborhood is my backbone," Robinson says. "As I visited, I saw the neighborhood just constantly going downhill and facing neglect, and I knew I had to take action."

Shuntel Robinson, President of the Memorial Park Neighborhood AssociationShe reached out to the city for guidance on how to bring back the defunct group.

Bounded by South Anthony Boulevard and Maumee Avenue, the neighborhood is centered around Memorial Park, which was founded as a tribute to World War I heroes, with each tree representing a Fort Wayne citizen who died in service, according to Joshua Schipper's Crossroads of History. 

Since then, the space has gained a collection of monuments, including the Allen County Veterans Memorial, which was presented by the Memorial Park Neighborhood Association in 1994, and was once home to the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. 

Memorial Park is one of many neighborhoods that grew and thrived alongside International Harvester and other factories on the Southeast side of Fort Wayne, according to John Beatty’s The History of Fort Wayne & Allen County. During the 1980s, many of these companies left the city, taking high-paying, consistent jobs from families that had worked there for generations. 

Memorial Park
"It used to be that every house on the block held a family, but those kids grew up and left Fort Wayne because there weren't any good jobs once the factories left,” says Jeanette Hawkens, neighborhood association board member and a Memorial Park resident of over sixty years. “When I was younger, everyone owned their home. Now, the majority of the neighborhood is renters, and there are so many empty homes.”

As they work to reconstruct their neighborhood association, the group is initially focused on building membership, connecting the community to resources, and gaining a voice. Robinson has made it a point to bring local leaders and representatives to speak at association meetings. These presentations are geared toward teaching the group on how to reach out for support and resolve problems within the neighborhood.

Councilman Geoff Paddock of the 5th District has sat in on multiple Memorial Park meetings to hear from his constituents. This relationship-building effort responds directly to what Paddock identifies as a lack of connection between much of the neighborhood and their community leaders.

At the May meeting, the Memorial Park Neighborhood Association had Councilman Geoff Paddock and Chief Deputy Haywood in attendance. "So many people don't know who their councilman is, and that's a real problem because these are the people who are supposed to represent you and fight for you," Paddock says. "How can you expect to get anything done if you don't know who to ask?”

The reestablished group’s first community activity was held in May. The neighborhood took part in the Great American Cleanup, focusing on the area surrounding Memorial Park Middle School. The effort was a success, despite struggles to find a connection between the neighborhood and the school, says Robinson. 

Memorial Park School was converted into a magnet school, focused on "integrating arts, engineering and technology" in 1979, according to the FWCS website. With this, the school's population went from being based on geographic boundaries to a lottery system. As a result, a majority of the students are not from the surrounding neighborhoods.

"This is literally the only school in our boundaries, but it's difficult to partner with them on projects because a lot of their students are bus riders and car riders, not walkers, so they don't have that same investment in the neighborhood,” Robinson explains.

Memorial Park neighbors participating in clean up efforts.This, combined with an increasing population of renters versus homeowners, has made it difficult to establish a unified identity and investment within the neighborhood, says Robinson. 

To help counteract this and encourage community pride, the association has been working with the City of Fort Wayne to establish neighborhood branding.

The Memorial Park Neighborhood Association applied for and was awarded $5,000 from the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Grant this year, which will be used to place the neighborhood’s newly designed logo on 22 street posts throughout the area. Dan Baisden, City of Fort Wayne neighborhoods director, says these medallions are a starting point to strengthening neighborhood pride.

Memorial Park residents vote on their new logo at a recent meeting.“This is the chance for the neighborhood to help establish a sense of pride and identity,” he explains. “And then to also let both residents and visitors know that they're inside of a neighborhood that's active and well cared for and has leadership working hard to establish the association and build up residence.”

The city came up with three possible logo options, all based on the neighborhood’s history. They were voted on by the neighborhood association in their most recent meeting, as the attendees took turns reminiscing.

“So many people don’t even know which neighborhood they’re in because the lines get blurred over time,” Robinson says of the city’s neighborhoods. “So by putting these up all throughout the neighborhood, people can see these logos and know they’re in the Memorial Park Neighborhood and be proud of that.”

Of the 450 neighborhoods in Fort Wayne, only about 250 are considered active, Baisden says. This distinction is based on whether there is a neighborhood association that meets at least once annually and has leadership in place.

The city’s Neighborhoods Department was created last year by Mayor Sharon Tucker to “invest in neighborhoods" through infrastructure and support in “organizing, planning, leadership and development,” Baisden says, adding that they’re always looking for more neighborhoods to support.

“Anything we can do to help a neighborhood succeed is our department’s goal,” says Baisden. “If people are interested, just like Shuntel, in getting their neighborhood association reactivated, they can reach out to us.”

Now, Memorial Park Neighborhood Association is gearing up for its most anticipated event yet, its first annual block party on August 23. The free event will include games, local vendors, food trucks, and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Robinson refers to it as a "party with a purpose", aiming to bring attention to the reestablished group and build community.

"This is our first block party, which means we're just getting started building those collaborations, getting local businesses and residents involved," she says. "We're hoping it will only get bigger and better from there as we grow and find our footing."

The event will be hosted at Memorial Park on August 23, from 1-6 p.m. The group is still seeking volunteers, vendors, and sponsorships from local businesses looking to support the community. For residents of Memorial Park, the association is always seeking new members. Updates and information about upcoming meetings can be found on their Facebook page.