The City of Fort Wayne’s Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services is inviting residents to review draft designs of markers memorializing S.F. Bowser & Co. and its founder, Sylvanus Freelove Bowser.

The draft designs will be available for review at a public meeting set for Wednesday, October 4 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Renaissance Pointe YMCA teen room, 2323 Bowser Ave.

The draft designs are being prepared by Green3, an environmental planning and design company focused on place-making, community building, and the protection and preservation of natural resources and cultural heritage. The markers will be placed in Bowser Park, located at Reed and Fisher streets. In addition to designing the historical markers, Green3 is drafting an “inventory of resources and historic context study” of the oil-pump industry in Fort Wayne. This document will be available to the public within the next few months.

The Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services recently demolished the Bowser Company buildings, located at 1302 E. Creighton Ave., at the request of the buildings’ owner, the McMillen Foundation. Once the restoration of the property is completed, the McMillen Foundation will donate it to the YMCA to use for outdoor recreation activities. This will allow a property that was vacant and obsolete to become an asset for the neighborhood.