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STAFF REPORT CONCERNING APPLICATION FOR A CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS Application Number: Property Location: Property Owner: 1999-1117 1142 Lincolnway East Daniel Bernth Landmark or District Designation: Rating: S/11 LHD-LWE Key Number: Survey Number: 141-597-43000 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE/HISTORIC CONTEXT This house was built in 1894 by George M. and Lucinda Brown. Mr. Brown was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1852. He relocated to the South Bend area in 1868 and married Lucinda Folk ten years later. Ms. Folk was born in Ohio in 1853 and moved to South Bend in 1873. Mr. Brown was a cigar maker, he and his wife had four daughters and resided in this house forty-four years. Mr. & Mrs. Brown both died in 1938 at age 85. Upon their deaths the house was inherited by their daughter, Pearl Brown. Ms. Brown had previously been residing with her parents at this address and continued to live there until 1944 when the house was sold to Arthur Leroy and Edith Feller. Mr. Feller, a general insurance salesman, was born in Pennsylvania in 1896 and married Edith Lund in 1925. Arthur resided in this house until his death in 1950 at age 53. His widow, Edith, remained in residence here until 1970 when she sold the property to Michael J. Douthitt. Mr. Douthitt was president/treasurer of the South Bend Office Communications Inc., a distributor and dealer in office equipment. He transferred ownership of the property over to South Bend Office Communications in 1972. They retained the title until 1976 when the house was sold to L.L. Geans & Son, Inc., cement contractors. They used the building as office space until 1978 when the structure was rented out. L.L. Geans Inc., owned the house until 1991 when it was sold to the current owner, Daniel Bernth.