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August 2002
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HPC Meeting Minutes 2002
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August 2002
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South Bend HPC
HPC Document Type
Minutes
BOLT Control Number
1001402
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THE OLD GERMAN TOWNSHIP SCHOOLHOUSE <br />53117 OLIVE ROAD <br />GERMAN TOWNSHIP, SOUTH BEND INDIANA <br />HISTORIC CONTEXT <br />- The local historic value of this building is immense, as it is one of the oldest public <br />buildings remaining in the County. Not only was it built at a period significant to the formation <br />of the County, it was also built at a place and time when there was still substantial overlap <br />between the new settlers on the county, and the indigenous peoples. The land attached to and <br />immediately surrounding the old schoolhouse are believed by long time residents who are <br />descended from original settlers to be native American burial grounds. <br />The first school building built on this site was built in 1878. A schoolmaster's house was <br />built next door, at 53081 Olive Road, at the same time. Then about twelve years later, in 1890 <br />one or both building were substantially amended, of possibly re -built or replaced. In particular, <br />the foundation of the frame schoolmaster's house, which was probably a rubble foundation <br />originally, and is now rock -faced cast brick, may have been an 1890 modification. <br />When the building ceased to be used as a school, it passed into private hands and an <br />addition was built onto the back. In 1949 and 1950, private owners made several significant <br />changes, including building an addition onto the North side of the old school, which nearly <br />doubled the size of the building. The character of the addition is completely unlike that of the <br />original structure, and in many ways even more highly unusual and even more representative of a <br />unique historic period than the remarkable old schoolhouse itself. <br />A fountain and outdoor pond on the property date to the same period as the 1950 <br />addition, and are likewise distinctively characteristic of the post World War II period. There is <br />also a non - contributing shed, or perhaps two, on the property. <br />The total property is about 62 percent of an acre, with a fence defining the front edge of <br />the property, along Olive Road. This fence is an excellent example of a Civil War era fence. It <br />has a foundation and regularly spaced piers built of brick and cast concrete, with holes in the <br />piers to receive poles running between the piers. Presently, and for at least the last forty years, <br />those poles have been wooden. However, pictures of other such fences from the 1860s through <br />the very early nineteen hundreds typically show large cast iron poles running between the piers. <br />It is known that Saint Joseph County residents donated large amounts of household and farmyard <br />iron to scrap metal drives during World War II, so it is possible that original iron poles were <br />replaced with wood at that time. <br />ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION <br />The original building is a Greek - Revival style one and a half story brick rectangle, facing <br />Olive Road on the East. The original front of the house had a gable front, and a slightly offset <br />double door, and a smaller door or window. In the gable peak are a pair of narrow arched <br />windows. The original doorway opening, topped by hand - carved dentil molding, remains, <br />though it has been converted into a window and its shape much altered. The North and South <br />
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