Did they live there?
The houses history begins long before census enumerator Connie M. Renollet knocked on the door on April 12, 1940.
According to property records, the land was first recorded as a 122-acre parcel by David Coles in 1820. It would change hands a few times until Randall bought it June 8, 1853, for $3,000. But the purchase included a mortgage, and in 1860, it was sold at a sheriffs sale for $2,060 to James G. Reed to satisfy a foreclosure judgment.
In 1869, after Reeds death, the farm was bought by the Randalls again – this time by Franklin Randalls wife, Mary Jane Randall, for $2,000.
That would technically make the home, built in 1867 under Reeds ownership, the James G. Reed House, but even in property records shortly after, the land is referred to as Randalls Farm. At some point, the road running up the east edge of the land was named Randallia in their honor; as late as 1937, Randallia was the Fort Wayne city limits.
But according to historical documents and photos at the Allen County Public Library, that may have been the Randall farm, but the Randall home was downtown, at Lafayette and Berry streets. One book says that for half a century, Fort Waynes social scene seemed to revolve around Randall and his house.
Randall was an attorney, a state senator for three terms, the mayor of Fort Wayne for five terms, the designer of the city seal and the author of the city charter when the town was being formed. But it does not appear that he ever lived in the grand old farmhouse on what was then the citys countryside. All of the photographs in the librarys Randall family collection are of the downtown house. City directories from the period all list their residence as Berry Street.
In 1874, property records show, the family started selling off the farm piece by piece, and in 1917, the various parcels were bought and subdivided into 80 lots along what would become Kensington Boulevard. That would make the house an anachronism – built on the brow of a slight rise, it faces south to look across the flood plain toward the Maumee River. The southward orientation makes the red brick Italianate seem as if it is sitting sideways to the street, when in fact, the street was built sideways to the house.
Did the Randalls ever live there? Possibly: The 1920 city directory lists a George Randall living at 11 Randallia Drive – probably one of Franklin Randalls sons living in the house.
In the 1930s, city directories list the owner as Carrie Wiegman. By 1938, however – with America struggling after a decade of the Great Depression and on the precipice of war – the owner is listed as H. Allan McMahan.
The McMahans would live there for the next 48 years.