Laserfiche WebLink
RE -RATE REPORT FOR <br />227 SOUTH WILLIAM <br />Prominent carpenter, civil servant, John Caldwell, as a rental unit, constructed this house <br />in 1882. John Caldwell was born in Vermont in 1820 and moved to South Bend with his <br />younger brother, Cassius, in 1836. The two became well known for the carpentry skills. <br />John built various rental houses through out the city and was eventually appointed to the <br />mail service by Senator Colfax. Mr. Caldwell was responsible for streamlining the mail <br />service by eliminating unnecessary re-routes. John Caldwell died in 1891 leaving the <br />house to his wife, Vanvela Defrees Caldwell, who sold the rental property in 1895 to <br />Eugene and Nettie Herr. Mr. Herr a printer by trade was proprietor of the South Bend <br />Register until it went under at which time he went to work for Hibbard and Hibbard <br />Printing and the South Bend Tribune. Eugene Herr eventually left to open Herr & Herr <br />Bookstore and Stationary with his son, Harold. Eugene & Nettie Herr rented the house to <br />their son, Harold and his new wife, Bertha, during the early 1900s. Harold Herr was the <br />director of Camp Darden and the Visual Aid Program for St. Joseph County Tuberculosis <br />League. Eugene Herr owned the property until his death in 1911 when it was left to his <br />wife, Nettie Roe Herr daughter of local pioneers, Jermiah and Maleta Roe. Mrs. Herr <br />continued to rent the house out until her death in 1931 when the house was inherited by <br />her son, Harold and daughter, Leslie Morehouse. They retained ownership until 1945 <br />when the house was sold to Clyde and Mabel Shannon. <br />Mr. Shannon, a retired Naval Officer, owned the house until 1965 when he sold it to <br />Franklin Stahl who sold it to Chris Brooks in 1983. Mr. Brooks sold the house in 1999 to <br />Douglas Bognar who sold it in 2000 to Acquisitions & Investments LLC. <br />ARCHITECTURE <br />This is a one story Gable Front Italianate style house with a rectangular plan and a gabled <br />roof with simple eave cornice and frieze. The house has 2/2 double hung wood windows <br />in architrave surrounds. The house also boasts an elaborate bay window with 2/2 double <br />hung wood windows, dentiled cornice and engaged pilasters. The house is sided by wood <br />clapboards that were recently exposed by the removal of insulated brick siding. The <br />structure has a wood and glass entrance door with simple surrounds and a side porch that <br />is covered by a gable roof extension and is supported by arched fan brackets with <br />dropped pendants. The porch also has wood balustrades, wood floor, concrete steps and <br />a plastered brick foundation. <br />