Back when my dad lived up north, we made the Fort Wayne-to-Goshen run on U.S. Route 33 like clockwork every other weekend. We’d roll through little towns like Kimmell without a second though, but what changed the day Dad caught wind of something you don’t see every day: the intersection of Lincoln and Hitler Streets. For a guy wired for history, the intersection was irresistible! Next thing we knew, we followed his curiosity and saw it for ourselves.
Kimmell may not have always gone by that name. Some say it was originally called Sparta1 and founded in 18312, while others purport that the town was formed as a distinct community in 18363. There really was a Sparta -briefly the seat of Noble County- but there was no real town to speak of in a plat map published around 1860. Still, one detail does stand out: fifty aces owned by J. Hitler around where Kimmell family farmed their land4.
Joseph Hitler, born in Pickaway County, Ohio, in 18165, left a lasting mark on Noble County’s landscape. When the railroad finally sparked real growth and Kimmell began to take form, the town organized itself around two of its earliest roads: Clark and Hitler Streets6.
An 1893 plat map of Kimmell doesn’t show much beyond four small blocks southwest of the B. & O Railroad and what’s now County Road 650-West. Hitler, Noe, and Clark Streets are all visible, but the map doesn’t extend far enough south to show Lincoln Street, if it even existed at the time7.
By 1913, though, Lincoln Highway -the ambitious coast-to-coast route dreamed up by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher8– cut through Noble County. It threaded right through the heart of Kimmell! A 1914 map shows that the town had expanded to the south- Lincoln Street appears as plain as day. Mysteriously, though, the Lincoln Highway was labeled Clark Street.
I’d have thought that if any street in Kimmell could claim the “Lincoln” name, it’d be the one that carried the eponymous highway through its limits. That doesn’t seem to be the case, though, so I’m mystified about Lincoln Street’s provenance.
At any rate, US-33 was built by 1936 and bypassed Kimmell to the west9. Today, the bifurcated Lincoln Street peels off as quiet, three-block reminder of when one of America’s earliest highways passed right through town. It’s hard not to wonder if the name stuck because of that connection or if it was simply a coincidence.
Unfortunately, photos of Kimmell’s strange intersection of Lincoln and Hitler Streets are unavailable on Google Street View. At the northwest corner, just behind the sign, though, sits a smart, two-story home that’s a real landmark! Elsewhere, a great old church with an incongruous neon sign and a massive old schoolhouse remain part of the community. I’ll write about them soon.
Sources Cited
1 Shaum, L. (2020, October 14). Kimmell Inn Opens Door To A Bygone Era. inkFreeNews. Web. Retrieved April 29, 2026.
2 Baker, R.L. (1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History. Indiana University Press [Bloomington]. Book.
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Gerber, E.B. (1860). Map of Noble County, Indiana. E.B. Gerber [Ligonier]. Map.
5 Garbacz, S. (2016, January 31). The history of Hitler Street in Kimmell. KPCNews [Web]. Retrieved April 29, 2026.
6 (See footnote 5).
7 Noblesville, Wolf Lake, Swan, Cromwell, Kimmell (1893). Western Publishing Company. Map.
8 Grey, J. (2025, September 5). The Lincoln Highway in Indiana. Web. Retrieved April 29, 2026.
9 Grey J. (2025, October 24). The 1913 Lincoln Highway in Noble County, Indiana. Web. Retrieved April 29, 2026.
