Robert Phillips worked for General Electric in Fort Wayne for 33 years. Retiring in 1979, he organized the Poplar Neighborhood Association in the early 1980's according to his daughter Rita who still lives in the Poplar neighborhood in 2024. Rita explained that her father spoke with a Fort Wayne Police Officer who recommended that an association be organized.
Association meetings were held at the Minor Street community center into the 1990s. Mr. Phillips passed away in 2004 at his home on Fox Avenue.
The Minor Street community center was severly damaged in the great flood of 2005 caused by a stationary low pressure cell that circulated about 8 inches of rain on the Poplar neighborhood. The building sat in 6 feet of water at the low corner of Minor and Walnut Streets. A few hundred feet to the east the historic George Fox mansion sat comfortably dry on what appears to be a constructed hill. The community center did not get city support for rehabiliation so it was condemned to demolition.