8373-93 Establishng a Historic landmark 710 North Cushing

Home Browse Search

and four . The second story is accentuated by contrasting wood siding (thinner width) from that on the first floor. The property also contains a one-story frame garage built sometime between 1932 and 1949 . The 1932 Assessor card shows a rectangular, six-car garage ; it seems likely that this structure was a remnant of the 1917 barn-like building. The present garage is 22 'x 20 ' in dimension, has two bays and a pyramidal roof . There are four fixed windows with six lights (two on the rear, one on each side ; the original doors to the bays have been replaced. [2] THE ARCHITECT Walter W. Schneider ( 1868-1957) designed many of South Bend' s significant buildings from the late nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century (see appendix #1) . His important buildings include the Engman Natatorium ( 1921; 1040 W. Washington.) , River Park Theatre (1926 ;. 2931 Mishawaka Avenue) , the Osborn Building ( 1906 ; 1031 W. Washington) and the Knights of Pythias building (1922; 224 West. Jefferson) . He also designed many South Bend residences ; notable among them is the Tudor Revival style Cutter House (1906 ; 916 Riverside Drive). and the "Bungaloid" Kerner House (1913; 211 W. Marion) . Schneider was born in Chattanooga , Tennessee . He attended Vanderbilt University and later moved to Chicago to begin working as an architect . He came to South Bend in the 1880s and formed a partnership with Oscar Dirham. Their most significant local commission was the Beiger House in Mishawaka. Schneider went into business on his own in 1914; many young South Bend architects spent their early years under his tutelage, including Maurice McErlaine, Ernest Young, and N. Roy Shambleau. [3] HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT The original house here was built circa 1896 for Philip H. and Lydia M. Woolman. It was located on Lot #32 of the St . Joseph County Agricultural Society Addition, platted. in 1871 on the site of the old St. Joseph County fairgrounds . The Woolmans. purchased the lot for $725 .00 in March, 1896 and probably built the house soon thereafter. Philip Woolman made his living as a masonry contractor. Nothing else is known about the couple . [4] In 1904 the house was purchased by Margaret M. Gish (1855.-1934) for $3800.00. Gish used the house as a rental until 1910 when she sold it to two brothers , Jacob and Louis Levy. Louis Levy and his spouse, Bessie , hired popular local architect Walter Schneider to redesign the residence; his conception borrowed heavily from the Prairie style that had a brief tenure of popularity in the teens and twenties . Like many of his contemporaries , Schneider simplified the style and provided the owners with a handsome, modernized residence . The house remained in the Levy family until 1942. [5] When they purchased the house,. Louis and Jacob Levy were co-owners of. Levy Brothers , a wholesale grocery business at 223 S . St . Joseph Street . Louis moved into the house with his spouse , Bessie; his brother resided at 722 Van Buren Street . The Levy brothers were Russian in origin and were of the Jewish faith. Louis was born in 1878 and emigrated to the United States in 1896. Bessie Levy was Austrian, born there in 1887 . She and Louis were married in Chicago in 1909; they had one son (South Bend attorney Nathan Levy) and two daughters (names unknown) . It is not known when Jacob Levy was born or if he emigrated with his