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Retaining the entire neighborhood intact heightens the area's educational utility, —specially into the future -as other neighborhoods of this era become interspersed with newer and unsympathetic structures 'and alterations to the buildings in them. If protected, the neighborhood will remain for future generations to study as an example of a specific time and way of life that has almost disappeared. Historical Development The North St. Joseph -Street area was immediately outside.of"the plat of the original.town of South Bend and, remained mostly asempty 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 Rae from the late 1830's to the mid -1850's and was the location of a brick mill an drying yards after 1885.[5] Seth Hammond (1860-1939) and Leslie Whitcomb (1836-1927) were two of South Bend's most important real estate developers in the early, twentieth century. Whitcomb was the developer of hundreds of homes. in the area and platted numerous subdivisions on his own and with others, including (Mayor) Fred W. Keller. He also was involved in financing home sales as Secretary of the Workingmen's Building and Loan Association, an organization responsible for advancing millions of dollars in mortgage monies to local citizens.'[6] Hammond was the son of area pioneers who made a living both as a farmer and a real estate speculator and developer.[7] In -the early 1890's, a few house and businesses were located on Michigan Street just west of what is now the neighborhood. By the turn of the century residences were beginning to be built.on Marion and Navarre Streets east of Michigan; north of St. Joseph street ended at Soens' Brick Yard, located between what are now Navarre and Marion Streets. In 1903, ,Miust previous to the neighborhood's lay -out, Bartlett Street ran from Michigan to the I--iver.but as yet had no houses; Navarre and Marion ended at St. Joseph Street.[8] City directories for 1904 reveal that houses sprang up quickly on Navarre and the east side of St. Joseph streets soon after platting; five houses already appear on the new Hammond Court by this time. By 1906 Marion Boulevard (now Riverside Drive) was being rapidly developed with eightstructures existing that year. By 1912 the neighborhood was nearly half full with thirty-nine houses having been constructed. In 1921 the neighborhood as it stands today was essentially in place.[9] From the beginning the neighborhood was predominantly middle-class. by the teens almost 809 of the residents here that can be identified by occupation were either professionals, business owners or held white-collar positions of various kinds. The neighborhood was located within easy access to the street -car line on Michigan Street, providing transportation to work and shopping before automobiles came into common use.[10] This area continued as a middle-class enclave up to the Second World War, making the neighborhood a worthy representative example of both a time and a -specific class of people. Conclusion #2 Standard criteria for historic districts suggest designating' those groups of structures "that possess integrity of location, design, setting materials, workmanship, feeling, and association."[11] This group of buildings readily fulfill these criteria. The neighborhood consists residential structures of the vernacular Queen Anne and American Four=Square type or variations of these forms constructed of a similar size and materials. =Pe majority are constructed of wood and were built by and for similar market -- the middle-class homeowner and landlord. Despite the many alterations to the structures,,as a group they have retained the "feeling" of an early twentieth-century neighborhood due to their insulation on the -north and east by the park and river.