Fort Wayne Holiday lights - Santa Claus - Ft. Wayne, IN - Holiday Displays on Waymarking.com

To usher in the holiday season, an animated Santa being pulled by his reindeer and a large wreath are lit annually. This tradition dates back to the days of the Wolf and Dessaur Department Store in 1928.

Renovation:

The Santa and Wreath displays were renovated and continued to be hung in downtown Fort Wayne. But to do this the first thing needed for Fort Wayne's 67 year old Santa to shine is (of course)- POWER! For 35 years, Phil Sterigerwald (the Wolf & Dessauer employee who played Santa) turned on the Christmas display lights. The second location of the Santa and Reindeer display was the north side of the Fort Wayne National Bank building, where a drawing was held to choose the employee who would flip-the-switch. National City Bank, who bought Fort Wayne National in 1997, turned the display lighting into a charitable event as they auction off the lighting-rights and donate the proceeds each year.

Regardless of who turns it on, the 155 foot wide, 5 ton, 24,717 bulb display requires maintenance (we're talking 5,000 to 8,000 bulbs each year!) and love of the Northeast Indiana community who have come to recognize the lighted, animated Santa display as the holiday spirit.

Mr. Rick Blossom, head of Corporate Real Estate Services, has been an employee of National City Bank, now PNC (formerly Fort Wayne National), at the same downtown building, since 1973. Like many others, he remembers going downtown in the 1950’s to see the Wolf & Desshauer display. Blossom, working at various functions within the bank, has been involved with the Santa display since 1988 when he first bought replacement bulbs. We’re not talking about a standard lamp light for Santa! According to Blossom, Santa and his reindeer are composed primarily of 11 watt bulbs. In 2006 however, the display went LED, or at least a reindeer’s leg did. Although the LED bulbs initially cost approximately three times as much, the difference should be made up in about 2 years as LED is more durable, requires less energy to operate, and generates less heat (thereby saving the cost of replacing melted wires).

Physically hanging the Santa display currently involves about 20 people, from facilitators (such as Mr. Blossom) to electricians, iron workers, maintenance men and crane operators. According the the Journal Gazette, a local Ft. Wayne Newspaper, it takes 2 1/2 - 3 days to hang Santa on the wall of the bank. While some volunteer labor is involved, it is costly to maintain, hang and power the Santa display. Blossom declined to state the exact dollar amount but stated the “expense is a worthwhile community project." A full crew of men and a crane is also needed to hang the 3 1/2 ton Christmas Wreath on the outside wall of One Summit Square. Fortunately, the Christmas Wreath, that once belonged to Wolf & Dessauer's department store, is made up of five interlocking pieces. Each piece can be hung individually.

While it may seem very difficult to put the Santa and the Reindeer display up each year, it was even harder to put the Christmas lights on the side of the Wolf & Dessauer building in the 1940's and 50's. Kenneth Gaff, a former employee of the Brinkman Corporation who helped when the display was first built recalled hanging the Santa and his reindeer on the side of the department store without the assistance of a crane took approximately 18 men working for five to six days. The men used blocks and tackle, steel hooks, and long ropes to pull the display up the side of the building and anchor it into place. That kind of makes the efforts today seem much easier.


History of the Display:

The Wolf & Dessauer Department Store was known not only for its wonderful customer service and merchandise; but also for its elaborate window displays and breathtaking Christmas lights. People from all over northeast Indiana, Michigan,and Ohio traveled to Fort Wayne to view the beautiful Christmas window displays and Christmas lights. According to many that have seen the window displays, they were beyond compare. The displays were not only beautiful but were also mechanical. Allen Bixby was in charge of the displays from 1928 - 1956. According to Jim & Kathie Barron, authors of Wolf & Dessauer: An Album of Memories, Bixby would often travel to stores in Chicago to study their displays and get ideas. (p. 28, The Wolf and Dessauer Album of Memories) Many people thought the displays at W&Ds were far better than those in New York or Chicago.

According to many people that visited W&D during the Christmas holidays, the displays got more elaborate year after year. Around 1937, G. Irving Latz, himself, drew the first sketches of the famous Santa and Wreath displays that hung on the sides of the Calhoun Street building (the display hung on the corners of Calhoun and Washington). Brinkman Signs constructed the famous displays. According to the Journal Gazette, a local Ft. Wayne newspaper, Brinkman's artist Isabel Wilkinson Parker designed the Santa and reindeer light display. Her design was modeled after a Christmas scene given to her by G. Irving Latz Sr., the owner of Wolf & Dessauer's. The original sign was made of wood and had forty thousand lights. There is some controversy as to whether the original sign had three or four reindeer.

The giant wreath was first displayed in 1937 on the side of the Calhoun Street Store. It was 25 feet high and contained more than 40,000 lights. It also spent a few years at the Huntington location of Wolf & Dessauer before being retired to a warehouse after the store was sold to L.S. Ayres. Years later, the Fort Wayne Parks Department rescued the wreath for display at Christmas at the Zoo. Although the Santa and the wreath displays hung for many years on the side of the W&D building, for a few years it wasn't lit. According to the above mentioned book by the Barrons, "the reason is that during World War II, we're told the lights were kept out to reduce the chance of enemy planes easily spotting the city at night because Fort Wayne was a manufacturer of materials used to fight the war and was thought to be a target for enemy attack. It was also done to help to conserve energy during the war." (p.36-37,The Wolf and Dessauer Album of Memories )


(This information was compiled from the Wolf and Dessauer Album of Memories, information from the internet, and various materials such as the Fort Wayne Insider blog. Additional information was taken from interviews with long time Fort Wayne residents. Please give credit when quoting)

Holiday: Christmas When is this viewable?: From: 11/21/2013 To: 01/02/2014 Public or Private?: Public

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/26/2013 DnRseekers visited it