Career
When he first took office he consolidated city departments and lowered city tax rates. He launched construction of Fort Wayne’s massive underground sewage system and built the city sewage treatment plant, still being used today. During World World War II, Mayor Baals directed war materials drives, upgraded city equipment and services, and broke ground for Baer Field, now Fort Wayne International Airport.
This opened up the north side of Fort Wayne for development.
Harry West. Baals died in 1954 of a kidney infection, while serving his fourth term as mayor. He is buried at Lindenwood Cemetery in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Harry Baals Drive was named in honor of the late mayor, extending east from Parnell Avenue, north and west of the Saint Joseph River in Johnny Appleseed Park. In recent years, the double entendre arising from Baals"s name has led Fort Wayne officials to shy away from naming streets and buildings after him.
The aforementioned street has been renamed to "H. West. Baals Drive" as the old street sign was constantly being stolen.
Harry Baals Government Center
In early 2011 Fort Wayne city officials invited people to suggest names for a new government building. But city officials almost immediately backed away from the name (many Americans, including those in the Fort Wayne area, pronounce Harry identically to hairy See the Mary–marry–merry merger) The city"s deputy mayor Beth Malloy said, "We realize that while Harry Baals was a respected mayor, not everyone outside of Fort Wayne will know that. We wanted to pick something that would reflect our pride in our community beyond the boundaries of Fort Wayne." Subsequently it was announced that the building would be named "Citizens Square."
Harry Baals"s descendants have since taken to pronouncing their name so that it became a homophone of "Bales.".
