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STAFF RECOMMENDATION <br />It is the staff's opinion that this proposed area does not <br />warrant designation as a local historic district at this time. It <br />is recommended that the HPC send an unfavorable recommendation <br />with respect to this bill to the Common Council, and instead <br />suggest possible alternative proposals to the petitioning group. <br />The rationale for this recommendation is based on the following <br />conclusions: <br />1. The proposed area does not fulfill the four basic criteria <br />relevant to the establishment of Local Historic Districts as <br />mandated by city ordinance or previous HPC procedure as cited <br />above; <br />2. The proposed area does not fulfill the generally accepted <br />criteria for local historic designation used by this commission <br />and other commissions or for designation to the National Register <br />of Historic Places; <br />3. The proposed area does not retain a sufficient number of <br />contributing structures --in sufficient concentration --to be <br />considered as a local historic district; <br />4. The proposed area is of a size beyond the present capacity of <br />the MPC staff to adequately administer. <br />DISCUSSION <br />Conclusion #1: <br />In assessing the area's cultural and historical significance, it <br />should be stressed that the proposed area is similar to many <br />neighborhoods, both on the northwest side and in other sections <br />of the city. It is primarily a mixture of working and <br />middle-class residences built between the late nineteenth and <br />mid -twentieth-century, interspersed with churches and an <br />occasional business. <br />The proposed area consists of two separate historical entities in <br />relation to its development. The first, the structures <br />surrounding Madison and Taylor Streets, and the row of houses on <br />the north side of Marion Street, are actually the old "northwest <br />neighborhood" of the original town of South Bend. This area was <br />subdivided in 1837 as the "Northwest Addition" (later called <br />Henricks and Grants Add.). This section of the original town <br />contains a number of the South Bend's oldest remaining frame <br />structures along with several fine examples of nineteenth-century <br />working and middle-class houses. <br />Just north of this neighborhood was the Kankakee Hydraulic Canal, <br />begun in 1837 by John Henricks, John Rush and Alexis Coquillard, <br />