Thoughts on Wabash, Indiana?

[AquaTee]

I recommend checking out Lafayette/W. Laf, Bloomington, and Valparaiso.

[AquaTee]

Originally Posted by Veniceman

OP you might research Aiburn Indiana. It's about 15 minutes north of Fort Wayne located right off I69.

Also, Angola may be another great option.

[JudgeSmayles]

Thank you for the suggestions!

[indy_317]

Glad you were able to make it out. Here are my comments:

Anderson is a flat lined city that died due to the auto manufacturing collapse. It was revived with a casino and some light to mid-sized industry coming back, but without the UAW level wages and benefits, the personal income still took a huge hit and never has regained.

Pendleton and Lapel are the two areas in Madison County that are growing. Pendleton is a very, very nice town with an actual small town feel. It is the area that is growing the fastest. Falls Park is a very cool feature that only some smaller cities and towns can provide. Lots of growth near the State Road 13 and I-69 exit is occurring. This is a big winner for the Pendleton Heights Schools district. Technically most of that interchange is in the Ingalls jurisdiction, which is a very smaller smattering of homes between Pendleton and Fortville.

Fortville is growing significantly. Fortville being in Hancock County is a somewhat cheaper alternative than living in Hamilton Southeastern (Fishers) School district which Fortville limits touch. The far SE corner of Hamilton County is basically done growing as there are just a few farm fields left to develop. Due to this and pricing, the spill over is growing Fortville (North central Hancock County) and the SW corner of Madison County. Lapel is farther north on SR 13, but it is also seeing some spill over from what I'd say is far eastern Noblesville growth. Cheaper, smaller town and schools. Of the three, Fortville and Pendleton actually have downtown areas with a variety of mom and pop shops and eateries. Lapel has a few, but overall not that big.

The issues with Franklin are a concern. I have no idea just what to believe about the water situation there.

Greenfield was mentioned. Greenfield is nice, but I wouldn't say it is "It's just as nice and convenient as Carmel and Fishers." Convenient enough for a reasonable drive to jobs in the metro area, I could see that. Being "as nice," no way. Carmel and Fishers have money, thus they have more places to eat, shop, larger park systems, better roads, etc.. Greenfield isn't bad, it is just more like a Franklin than any of the places in Hamilton County. Greenfield has a nice downtown square and they are basically now big enough to have many of the national eateries, or soon will. The city also has a handful of mom and pop eateries as well. A few friends from my younger years have put down their roots in Greenfield. Danville is nice, but I've only been there a few times. It reminds me a lot of Greenfield. The real downside with Greenfield is that there are no malls nearby. Retail shopping for now is limited. Most of it is national strip mall places located near the interstate. There are no decent malls on the far east side of Indy. Fortville, Lapel, and Pendleton people can be at Hamilton Town Center Mall within 10-15 minutes.

New Palestine is a smaller town corporate limit wise, but very big school district wise. It is SW of Greenfield still in Hancock County. It is one of the last growing suburbs that is very close to Indianapolis/Marion County. New Palestine has always been looked at as the "rich" part of Hancock County, though it isn't as pricey as the Hamilton County areas. New Palestine has a handful of local eateries, a McDonalds, a Subway, but rumor is some more eateries are coming along US 52 east of town. People from this area have to drive to the better malls on the north or south sides of the metro area for more variety of shopping.

You could also consider Shelbyville. Again, it reminds me of Greenfield, Danville. It is off I-74 in Shelby County just SE of Indianapolis.

Lastly, I'd use caution against picking a city with a private college. Most of the smaller private colleges and universities are bleeding money financially. While some might have large endowments, do some research for cost cutting in the past years. Even with the cuts, some of them are not going to make it.

[Kluch]

Originally Posted by JudgeSmayles

Hi All, just an update on our town search. We finally had a chance to fly out to Indy and do some exploring. As you can see from previous posts, we’ve been looking a move from Washington to Indiana with our kids and business. We are looking for a smaller town pace, good schools, some vibrancy or creative energy, and low crime. We are political moderates who would like to avoid extremes on either side.

Although we’d been quite interested in Greencastle initially, by the time we took our trip we’d already sort of ruled it out. Several of you said was rather isolated or sleepy, and although I love the idea of a town with a college, I was disappointed to see Depauw was rated the single worst college in terms of free speech on campus. Anyway, with only a few days to explore, we skipped that direction.

Our first day we headed north all the way to Wabash and Fort Wayne. We’ve never expected to live in Fort Wayne proper, but I was curious to see it anyway in case it was the closest city to whatever smaller town we end up living in.

Our primary goal for the day was Wabash, which although small, seems to have a lot of things going for it—from the Honeywell Center to the partially revitalized downtown, to the nice physical scenery. In the end, Wabash was petty much what we expected. There were some fun shops and restaurants, people were very nice, real estate is really inexpensive, but ultimately we couldn’t quite imagine moving our family from the West Coast all the way to Wabash. We asked a few locals about growth or new people coming to town. While they were very friendly, none seemed to say there were new people moving in. Ultimately it felt a little far away from things.

After Wabash we went to Fort Wayne, briefly. It too was pretty much what we expected based on videos and articles. It was quite nice really—clean and pleasant. I could see going there more often.

Somewhere in our travels we stopped in Roanoke. Very small, but a really sweet little town. We also went over to North Manchester, as it came up in our Wabash research as well. We drove past the college, which was nice enough, but it didn’t seem especially integrated into the town, nor did it seem to have much obvious "college town energy."

One side note: Despite the many criticisms I hear of Indiana and its lack of scenery, I thought the drive north was plenty scenic (although it was October). I don’t feel like I’d be bothered by the change if we move.

On the way back we went through Anderson (not our cup of tea at all) and then to Pendleton. Pendleton is one that had been recommended, but we'd also heard some negative things, and coming just after Anderson I don’t think we gave it a fair shot. We sort of scooted right though. But it never really felt like a potential spot for us.

Fortville is another we wanted to visit. It’s a small town, but by the time we got there it felt pretty busy, like we were more or less back in the North Side suburbs. It was so small that I think yo'd just be driving into the busier burbs for everything anyway,

We spent part of the next day visiting family in and around the Indy suburbs on the North Side (Westfield, Fishers, etc.) We can see the attraction, as there are few places with that combination of kid activities, resources, and a seeming lack of crime or concerns. It really is amazing what has been created there. But it also feels a little fast paced and sterile to us, and the schools tend to be a lot bigger than we’d choose for our kids ideally.

The next day we set off south for Franklin. We hadn’t initially investigated Franklin, but several of you had suggested it sounded like a good fit for us. We also had a friend in Indiana tell us she loves it. In truth we were a little discouraged on our drive south as we had started to wonder if any place would feel right or if we’ll stay in limbo forever. But we were almost immediately charmed by Franklin. The tree-lined streets, brick buildings, parks and creeks, the quaint but hip downtown, restaurants galore, the gorgeous Franklin college—we loved it all.

Walking around I tried to look at things with a critical eye, but we couldn’t find anything we didn’t like. Most importantly, everyone we spoke to—from retirees to shop owners to college kids—told us they love it there. That seems quite unusual.

Where we’ve been thinking we’d like property on acreage in Indiana, in Franklin we started to imagine a different path, maybe just living downtown in one of the lovely old homes. It seems plenty safe and how fun would it be to walk to bars and restaurants, college sports, etc.? There has been some seriously good development and revitalization happening in Franklin—and not quaint country stuff, but cool places that rival the city and suburbs. Maybe because it’s only 20 miles from Indy, but Franklin seemed like it has already become what a lot of other small towns in Indiana are aiming for. I will concede that just as soon as you leave downtown you run into one of the highways with ugly strip malls, major shopping, etc. This part of Franklin is far from scenic or cool, but then again there are advantages to having real shopping nearby.

We drove past their high school. Although extremely nice, it was also pretty huge in size (by our standards). But student population wasn’t actually all that big. We spoke with a guidance counselor and she confirmed they are seeing growth, including students from out of state.

Now for the depressing part. After we returned to Washington, somewhere in our endless online research we stumbled upon a story about excess pediatric cancers in Franklin. The more we looked, the more articles and news segments we found. I won’t get into it all here, but there is speculation that some toxic chemicals from an old plant have spread beneath parts of the town and might be the cause of these illnesses. I read and watched it all skeptically, hoping to see that the problem had been resolved or maybe limited to one specific small area that could be avoided, but the truth is I couldn’t quite get to a place where I could justify movingly children there—at least based on the little info I have. I really hope the concerns or problems are coincidental or exaggerated, because it’s a wonderful place with great people.

So now what? We don’t know. We so loved Franklin that we spent most of the rest of our time there before we left. Now we wish we’d made it to Lebanon, Danville and other spots to the north we’d planned to at least drive through. We did manage to see some of Columbus one day, and it seemed pretty cool. Maybe not for us, but we thought it would be a good town to have close.

I think we did at least confirm that we would be happy around the friendly midwest hospitality, and after Franklin I was pretty excited to have a college nearby for sports and such. And we saw so many things for the kids to do along the way.

I am quite sure we’re too hard to please, but any other recommendations are welcomed.

Pediatric cancers in Franklin?! This is the first I've heard of that. We live on the edge of Franklin (closer to the north side, almost in Whiteland). We've lived here since Sept 2020. Franklin is a real gem of a town. It's like your picture perfect small town America, in my opinion.

That said, I just googled the cancer thing and you're not kidding, there are quite a few articles about it. Good to know, seems like a very peculiar issue. We still love Franklin and think it's one of the more scenic areas in/around Indy.

[JudgeSmayles]

Yeah, I really hate to even bring it up because the town is so lovely, but I couldn't ignore it either.

[Always Needmore]

Originally Posted by JudgeSmayles

I am quite sure we’re too hard to please, but any other recommendations are welcomed.

You've not updated this thread, so your decision might have already been made But for all the world it sounds to me as though you want Steuben country. Lakes, Pokagon state park, Trine university...and an hour from Fort Wayne or South Bend (Notre Dame)


You also might consider this area north east of Lafayette ( Purdue)

https://www.google.com/maps/place/La...!4d-86.8752869

Particularly the area between Ash Grove and the Tippecanoe river. It is, exactly as the road passing by is named, a "pretty prairie"

[WildWestDude]

Good link if still interested:

https://www.indianascoolnorth.com/pl...-go/kosciusko/