Woodburn, IN

Woodburn is an Allen County city near Fort Wayne whose name has changed with the town's fortunes. Joseph Edgerton and Joseph Smith platted the place in 1865 as Phelps Station around a depot, timber, fertile ground, and a nearby river. It became Woodburn after the wood burnings used to clear the land, then spent part of the twentieth century as Shirley City before returning to Woodburn in 1956. Early businesses included a grain elevator, train station, bank, stores, blacksmiths, a hotel, and a brick-and-tile mill.

ATTRNyttend / Public domain

School and church life still give Woodburn a local center. East Allen County Schools serves the city through Woodburn Elementary and the Woodlan campus west of town, while Woodburn Lutheran School offers a private preschool-through-eighth-grade option. The city also has an Allen County Public Library branch and the water towers and treatment facilities that keep a small municipality running. Woodburn is close to Fort Wayne without being swallowed by it: the old depot town, the name changes, and the school-and-library pieces still make its own map.