Fort Wayne’s rich history continues to be preserved, one building at a time, with the help of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.
According to the commission’s planner, Creager Smith, “it's hard to know where you're going if you don't know where you've been.”
With over 32 years in that position, Smith, an Auburn native, credits his parents’ passion for historic preservation for igniting his own at a very young age, and actually worked in the family’s historic marker business from elementary school to college.
Among his many hobbies is analysis of the contents of historic images and providing a likely period of time that image was captured.
WBOI’s Julia Meek discusses the role of the Historic Preservation Commission with Creager and how it impacts the community’s future, as well as his thoughts on the “built environment” we live in.
Learn more about the Historic Preservation Commission services at its website.

Here is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek; Creager Smith, welcome.
Creager Smith: Thank you.
Julia Meek: Now, you have a track record of 32-plus years as the city's Historic Preservation Planner. Just what does that job entail?
Creager Smith: The Historic Preservation Planner is, primarily, I'm staff to the Fort Wayne Historic Preservation Commission. I help property owners with proposals that they have for changes to their properties, mainly their homes, and also work with our certified local government program that works with the National Register of Historic Places, approving those projects.
Julia Meek: Getting them put on there?
Creager Smith: Right, getting things listed, both individual buildings or historic districts and neighborhoods.
Julia Meek: So, in the very most basic terms, why is this such an important part of Fort Wayne's development?
Creager Smith: Well, it's hard to know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. I think that's one reason why The Landing has been such a popular project.
And I think that it works very well with the Promenade Park, because they're adjacent, essentially to each other, and you get both the new and the old.
But historic properties, historic places give you a sense of place, that it gives you the sense that Fort Wayne is a unique city.
Julia Meek: And if you don't preserve it, it's going to disappear?
Creager Smith: Right. Any building needs an economically feasible use in order to survive. If there's not an economically viable use it's, a building is very threatened.
Julia Meek: So, you are a self-proclaimed lifelong observer, student of the man-made landscape and built environment, which adds architectural and automotive historian and preservationist to your skill sets. What has this bundle done for you and for us through these years in the biz?
Creager Smith: It has provided me with a perspective of immediately seeing what's old and what's significant. Actually, I'm good at reading that, whether it's historic or whether it's just old. (all chuckle)
And I think that that lifelong immersion, and since I was a pre-kindergartner, in historic resources, and being around historic places and living in historic homes has been a very good training, even before I started the job here.
Julia Meek: That kind of a headset, the fact that it's food, clothing and shelter that we need, and the buildings are there, but so are the people, and so are the vehicles, and on and on. So is that whole city set and scene. Isn't that obvious?
Creager Smith: It's obvious, but yet I don't think people sometimes see it. It's just utilitarian, and like a car is just to get us from point A to point B. But I see cars as something that some are special and to be preserved, as well.
You know, buildings are the same thing. They're all tools. A building is a tool for shelter and a car is a tool for transportation. Yet some are more than that.
Julia Meek: They all fit together. There's no separating them.
Creager Smith: Yeah, I see them, actually my mother told me that one of my first words were "ars, ucks and unk-ards." I was not good at the first syllable--cars, trucks and junkyards. (all laugh) And the junkyards had the old cars!
Julia Meek: Boy, did they?
Creager Smith: But they were part of the landscape too. They used to be.
Julia Meek: (chuckles) You've proven your point. Thank you for that. Now looking back for a second, how did you fall into or under that spell of historic preservation, way back?
My dad and mom were very involved in preservation projects in DeKalb County, where I grew up, in Auburn, and I remember being in cemeteries, I remember working on projects to salvage a fence and move it.
I remember being at the Cedar Chapel covered bridge when it was moved, and which is now finally restored at Conner Prairie in Fishers. I just grew up in it.
I remember that when I was pre-kindergartner, my dad and some buddies dismantled and moved a log house to our farm, and I remember still, the taste of dust in my mouth.
Julia Meek: (chuckles) But the feeling of that building in your heart, still there, and now with you. What did that make you think?
Creager Smith: I think I'm just, always been connected to old places, and, you know, been told many times, old soul--old places, old soul. But I connect with it. And I think maybe even materials, if they're natural, old building materials and structures made of that, I think there's a connection.
Julia Meek: They just resonate with you. It does sound like you have a calling for it, Creager. And just where would you say that this city does rank regionally and nationally, with other cities our size and having attention for preservation, what is old and historic and preserving it?
Creager Smith: I think the Preservation Commission that I staff, we are a reactive body, because people have to want to preserve a building in order to seek advice on how to do that. But at the same time, we are very proactive in properties that are already local historic districts that come under review of changes to the property by the Commission.
We have been working to notify folks with postcards every year, and particularly my colleague Nate Lefever, has been good at connecting with realtors to notify them when they have a new listing that property is a local historic district, because that is something that falls through the cracks with a lot of property transactions.
So, we've been really working on that, but also, we've got a lot of things coming in the next, in the new year.
Julia Meek: That's very, very exciting. And now, we know that our rich history provides much to be preserved. How easy is that task, though? What has to happen?
Creager Smith: It's education. It's building interest in historic properties. Yet, it's also giving an understanding that historic properties are inherently economical in that they already exist and they can be used for new uses, adaptive uses.
I mean, I think that the Electric Works project has been a huge demonstration of what you can do with historic factory complex. In fact, it was one of the largest historic tax rehabilitation projects in the country as it was being done.
So, it's a matter of getting people, when they're investing, to do it in a way that retains historic integrity of the properties. It's not so much what you're doing to a property, it's how you do it.
Julia Meek: Do you find that once folks do realize that it can be economically feasible, maybe to their advantage as well as historically important, does it become an easy sell?
Creager Smith: It can, and other times not. It varies. One of the things that we work on is to preserve historic windows in residential historic districts.
And that's a hot button everybody, you know, there's a lot of marketing in this country that goes towards selling new windows, and we can't compete with that, but we do our best to educate folks and doing our best also to build some craftsmen in the community that can rehabilitate historic windows.
Because rehabilitation of historic windows is far cheaper than buying new windows. The cost benefits there are tremendous, and they can be made to be nearly as efficient as new windows.
Julia Meek: And it sounds like there's a lot of education along that line that you can and do, do?
Creager Smith: I do a lot of technical service, you know, providing property owners with technical advice on how to do something in a way that's appropriate for the historic property.
Julia Meek: And you also administer the Historic Preservation Commission and the Certified Local Government program. What do these mean for the area, as well as your own workload?
Creager Smith: It increases the workload, but I've got a pretty big list of things to do.
The Certified Local Government program is that Fort Wayne is certified as a professional government entity within being a partner with the State Historic Preservation Office in Indiana, which is the Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology, and then also with the national level, with National Park Service.
National Park Service is the part of the federal government involved with preservation.
Julia Meek: It's a holistic concept for a holistic situation that you are in.
Creager Smith: Yeah, for example, our most recent national register listing in Fort Wayne is the arts United Center, and that's very exciting, because it's just, just over 50 years old, which is the typical criteria for a historic property, that it needs to be 50 years old or older.
In that process, I worked with the consultant, worked with Arts United to do the nomination, to create the nomination, and then reviewed that for the consultant and for Arts United.
And then, because we're a certified local government, we have a local public hearing on National Register nominations before we send it on to the State Historic Preservation Office for their review.
There's layers, but it actually can make the nominations go faster if we're a certified local government.
Julia Meek: That's a good thing. And okay, Creager, a word on our own local preservation organization, ARCH, Inc, how do you interact with this righteous group?
Creager Smith: With ARCH, they are the Fort Wayne more proactive and advocacy group. I, for many years have been on their Preservation Committee, just as a person that has the ability to give technical advice to that group.
Julia Meek: Now, Fort Wayne has a lot to be proud of on the Historic Register, and the annual ARCHie awards are a legit way to help that cause. How do those work? And what should everyone know about them?
Creager Smith: Well, ARCH, the way that they've structured the ARCHie awards is that they seek nominations from the public about projects that have been done within the last one or two years, that have had a preservation ethic to them, that they've maintained the historic character of a property.
And the Preservation Committee reviews those nominations and decides on what type of ARCHie to award a property owner. You know, it's really just a pat on the back, but it is a recognition that that property owner is doing the right thing.
Julia Meek: Does it also help preserve the future for that property?
Creager Smith: If it's a local Historic District. The local Historic Districts are what is protected within the community. The National Register-only listings, they're not protected.
But the local historic districts are reviewed if there's changes made by either preservation staff, me, or the Historic Preservation Commission.
Julia Meek: So, it's a finely tuned system and network to keep everything, we hope, preserved for the future?
Creager Smith: Yeah, communication and education are the key things, because historic preservation is about the future.
Julia Meek: And from your point of view, in that Historic Preservation Planning office, Creager, next year, 2025 you're promising a great, big one. What is new and what is next?
Julia Meek: 2025 is going to be a very busy year for preservation in Fort Wayne. There's a number of things. We are working on a project to study the economic benefits and economic impact of historic preservation and heritage tourism within the community. That's very exciting.
And there's going to be more coming about that. We also have Indiana Landmarks coming to Fort Wayne. The Indiana Landmarks is the largest statewide Historic Preservation group in the United States. So, they'd have regional offices around the state of Indiana.
I think it's exciting that they are seeing the momentum of preservation in Fort Wayne and in northeast Indiana. And they're planning to have their annual mid-century modern home tour in Fort Wayne in early June.
And that'll be a nice compliment to the ARCH home tour of Forest Park Boulevard in late June. And then also later in the year, in October, Fort Wayne will be hosting the Indiana State Historic Preservation conference. So that will be exciting. And there'll be more coming on that in the new year.
Julia Meek: Do keep us posted.
Creager Smith: Will do.
Julia Meek: And meanwhile, full disclosure, Creager, you credit your parents with the passion and their historic plaque business for igniting your own crazy patient. Is there a way you harness that enthusiasm and reach the next and the next and the next generations? Is that going to work for you, going forward?
Creager Smith: Yeah, I think it's important to catch kids and let them see historic places, let them experience things. It is, you know, getting out on the street in places like The Landing and, and enjoying those spaces, so that they can enjoy both the historic buildings that we have as well as new spaces, so they both have a role in our lives.
Julia Meek: Is the pride that goes with the history going to stay with us in this fast-paced 21st century?
Creager Smith: I think that's the challenge for us. I think that that is up to, really parents, to make that choice of whether they want their kids to be rooted in their community or maybe not appreciative of their place, and not have that sense of place and that continuity of tradition.
Julia Meek: Good points, and speaking of the evolution of things, and the kids catching what the parents are either catching or not, How Green is historical preservation.
Creager Smith: Preservation is very green activity. The greenest building is a building that already exists. You're not creating new materials that have to go into a historic building.
Maybe a little bit, but it's already there, and that's very green. And it also is very intensive on labor and talent and skill, rather than simply materials.
Julia Meek: And is that a concept that's hard to sell, if you will?
Creager Smith: I think it's important to reach the economics of that, because the bottom line is pretty much the bottom line for anything, (all chuckle) and that if we can be more green, and we can integrate green technology into old buildings, there's no reason why that's not really the way to go.
Julia Meek: No, it seems a win, win, win of your situation. Now back to your personal historic passions and addictions, if you will. (all chuckle) Your subtitle would have to include pop culture curiosities. Your own living space is actually a bit of local automotive history. What's it like to be literally living your dream?
Creager Smith: Well, my wife and I have adapted a commercial building as our home. It's fort Wayne's first Volkswagen dealership. It opened October 1st of 1955 as Evans Motors, Volkswagen, which has now become Evans Toyota.
And we really enjoy taking that building that was really on the edge of being lost because the roof was bad and turning that into a very unique home. We have cars in our living room, and we like it that way. (laughs) We call the living room our showroom, because it was the Volkswagen showroom.
Julia Meek: And I, well, your relationship has to be a grand one for you to be living that dream in that space. Is it something that you had dreamed of as a kid, or is it just beyond even that degree?
Creager Smith: (laughs) No, it's not something that anyone would dream up. It's something that didn't even come to us immediately.
We were looking for a building to store cars in, and this one was perfect for that. And the more that my wife worked on it, my wife Joan, she worked on it a lot. And we got to a point where we were enjoying our time there so much that we decided, let's just live here. (chuckles)
And we sold our other historic home that we had at the time, and moved into what we call Garage 53. The 53 is a tribute to Herbie the Love Bug, because my wife and I are of that age.
Julia Meek: (chuckles) That is fantastic. Also, the love affair that you have continued to have with each other, and history is something pretty special, Creager. Now, highly unlikely, perhaps, but do you ever get tired of the old and historic?
Creager Smith: Never. Well, I get tired of...well no. (all laugh) Keeping things clean and put away is maybe, you know, objects and old books and that sort of thing can be a problem, but, you know?
Julia Meek: For all of that, new books and new things could be a problem too. So good for you, at least you picked the right age group of things to be addicted to.
Creager Smith: We have a lot of things to frame that we have not framed yet.
Julia Meek: That's a happy problem.
Creager Smith: Yes, it is.
Julia Meek: That is a happy problem. Now I am curious if you could add one more collectible of historic nature to your passions, what would it be?
Creager Smith: Honestly, it would be the time to research and write, I think. Because I do a lot of research and writing on Fort Wayne's historic resources, but I have some potential articles and books in the back of my head, and I hope to have time to do that.
Julia Meek: We hope so too, Creager, certainly keep us posted. And citing your own tagline, "preservation is about the future," here is my last question to you, Creager: in this fast-paced world of the new and improved, what do we need to be very, very aware of right here, right now and involved in, if we're not already?
Creager Smith: Well, that is a difficult question. Historic resources are...there's a reason why they're in the state of Indiana, Department of Natural Resources and in the National Park Service.
Historic resources are something that can be fragile and be lost if they're not understood. One thing that we've done is that, over the years, twice, I have traveled nearly every street in the city of Fort Wayne in our survey of historic resources, inventory of historic resources.
And so, we have to know what's out there in order to even have an idea of what we can plan for historic resources. Or if questions come up, I can say, yeah, that's on Elmer Street! So, it's important to have that inventory.
Julia Meek: Auburn native, Creager Smith is Historic Preservation Planner for the city of Fort Wayne. Creager, thank you for the history you preserve and the stories you tell. Good luck on this journey.
Creager Smith: Thank you.