author
Otto H. (Otto Henry) Adams
1893–1981
A Fort Wayne civic historian with an insider’s view of one of Indiana’s landmark public projects, he wrote about how memory, architecture, and community life came together in the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. His work has the feel of local history told by someone who helped shape it.
1 Audiobook
The Allen County War Memorial Coliseum
by Otto H. (Otto Henry) Adams, Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
About the author
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1893, Otto H. Adams is remembered chiefly for The Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, a mid-century account of the planning and construction of the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. The book grew out of an address he delivered to Fort Wayne’s Quest Club on November 6, 1953, and it reflects a close, practical knowledge of the project.
Contemporary records connected with the book describe him as recently elected president of the Coliseum Board of Trustees at the time of that talk. That role helps explain the book’s perspective: rather than standing at a distance, Adams wrote as someone deeply involved in the civic effort behind a major memorial and public gathering place.
For listeners interested in regional history, Adams offers something especially appealing: a plainspoken, firsthand look at how a community imagined, funded, and built a lasting monument in the years after World War II. He died in Fort Wayne in 1981 at the age of 87.