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RECOMMENDATION [41 <br />It is the HPC Staff's opinion that this area warrants designation as a Local Historic District. <br />The rationale for this recommendation is based on the following conclusion: <br />1. The proposed area fulfills the basic criteria relevant to the established of a Local <br />Historic District as mandated by city ordinance and HPC policy; <br />2. The proposed area fulfills the generally accepted criteria for local historic designation <br />used by this and other commissions; <br />3. The proposed area contains a manageable number of structures that could be <br />adequately administered with present staffing. <br />DISCUSSION <br />Conclusion #1 <br />The proposed area readily fulfills the criteria of historic and cultural significance. It is an <br />example of middle - class, late nineteenth - century and early twentieth- century, <br />neighborhood in South Bend that has not been protected by preservation ordinance. As <br />such, it remains as a coherent, compact collection of buildings reflective of a specific era <br />in South Bend development. <br />The majority of the structures in this neighborhood are of similar vintage, built between <br />1892 and 1916. They remain as a cohesive neighborhood that is much the same as <br />when the area was developed. As a group, the structures are suitable for preservation <br />because of their cohesiveness and similarity in age, scale , materials and arrangement on <br />the landscape. <br />Retaining the entire neighborhood intact heightens the area's educational utility, especially <br />into the future as other neighborhoods of this era become interspersed with newer and <br />unsympathetic structures and alterations to the buildings in them. If protected, the <br />neighborhood will remain for future generations to study as an example of a specific time <br />and way of life that has almost disappeared. <br />Historical Develounle= <br />The Cushing Street area was located in bank out lots 107, 108, 109, 112, 113 and <br />114 of the original town of South Bend and remained mostly as empty land until it was <br />platted for house construction in the 1890s by, the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing <br />Company, the St. Joseph Agricultural Society, Albert G. Cushing, Charles T. Lindsey, <br />William Miller and James D. Kent. <br />2 <br />