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Staff Recommendation It is the staff's opinion that this area warrants designation as a Local Historic District. It is recommended that the HPC send a favorable recommendation with respect to this proposal to the South Bend Common Council. The rationale for this recommendation is based on the following conclusions: 1. The proposed area fulfills the basic criteria relevant to the establishment of a Local Historic District as mandated by city ordinance and previous HPC procedure; 2. The proposed area fulfills the generally accepted criteria for local historic designation used by this and other commissions; 3. The proposed area contains a manageable number of structures that could be adequately administered with present staffing; 4. The residents of this neighborhood have demonstrated adequate support for this proposal. Discussion Conclusion #1: The proposed area readily fulfills the criteria of historical and cultural significance. It is one of the last significant examples of middle-class, early twentieth-century, river -side neighborhoods in South Bend that has not been protected by preservation ordinance. As such, it remains as a coherent, compact collection of buildings reflective of a specific era in South Bend development, fulfilling the fourth criteria mentioned above. The majority of these structures are of the same vintage, built between 1903 and 1920, and remain as a cohesive neighborhood -- much the same as when the area was developed. They are suitable for preservation as a group because of this cohesiveness and their similarity in age, scale, materials and arrangement on the landscape. Retaining the entire neighborhood intact heightens the area's educational utility, especially into the future as other neighborhoods of this era become interspersed with newer and unsympathetic structures and alterations to the older buildings in them. If protected, the neighborhood will remain for future generations to use as an example of a specific time and way of life that has almost disappeared. Historical Development This area was immediately outside of the plat of the original town of South Bend and remained mostly as empty land until it was platted for house construction in 1903 by developers Leslie Whitcomb and Seth Hammond. Before that time it was the site of the final connecting point of the Kankakee Mill Race from the late 1830's to the mid -1850's and was the location of a brick mill and drying yards after 1885.[5] 4