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' NPS Form 10.900-a (9-W OMB Approval No. 10240018 . United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 1 Dille/Probst House, St. Joseph County, Indiana Narrative Statement of Significance The Dille/Probst House is an outstanding tribute to a bygone era of local history. Built circa 1888, it was the largest and most extravagant of the houses in its mixed business/residential neighborhood (photos 1 and 2). This was the only brick home on the block, and very few brick homes existed in the entire area. Even more notable, though, was that this was not made of common red brick, but yellow "Notre Dame" brick made from marl taken from pits on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Another unusual feature was that this house contained Eastlake design details that are absent from not only the city of South Bend, but also St. Joseph County. The house was built at 334 North Hill Street in 1888 for local city councilman, Christian Dille. Following Dille's death in 1900, the house was sold to Henry Probst. The house remained in the Probst family for eighty-five years, until the death in 1986 of Henry's son, Colonel Rudolph Otto Probst, famed golf memorabilia collector. The house was then sold to a local hospital whose intent was to level it to make way for a parking lot. Local preservationists were alarmed and rallied to save the house from demolition. The hospital agreed to give the house to whomever had the means to remove it from the property. The challenge was accepted by the local Main Street group, Center City Associates, who moved the house to its current location in 1987. Without this intervention, the Dille/Probst House would have been lost to the wrecking ball. Despite its move, the house retains sufficient integrity to portray its association with the architectural history of South Bend. The Dille/Probst House is highly significant because of the use of local construction materials, and can be evaluated within the context of residences built of Notre Dame brick in South Bend between 1846 and 1899. The yellow bricks used on the home are now commonly referred to as Notre Dame bricks, because they came from marl pits on the University of Notre Dame campus. Father Sorin, founder of the University of Notre Dame, arrived there in the early 1840's, and immediately noticed marl deposits at St. Mary's Lake. The University of Notre Dame's Local Council later stated that, "[The] White marl on border and entire bed of St. Mary's lake [is] found nowhere else in the vicinity of South Bend" (Index to Local Council Minutes [LCM], under "Marl and Lime," p. 386). This marl began to be used in the manufacture of bricks in 1843, and is what gives the bricks their yellow color. By 1846, the brothers had produced enough bricks that, "'Father • Superior [Sorin] informed the Council of a sale of 100,000 bricks at $3 per thousand' --- council of Administration" (LCM, under "Bricks," p. 53)• By 1867, after brick making had