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STAFF REPORT
<br />CONCERNING APPLICATION FOR A
<br />CERTIFIATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
<br />January 22, 2003
<br />Application Number: 2003-0124
<br />Property Location: 129 Franklin Place, South Bend.
<br />Property Owner: Bill Fewell
<br />Landmark or District Designation: ' Local Historic Landmark — Stover House
<br />National Registry of Historic Districts — West Washington Street District
<br />Rating: Significant -11 Queen Anne Style, built 1896
<br />HISTORY & SIGNIFICANCE:
<br />William W. Brick and his third wife, Elizabeth Calvert Brick, purchased this lot from
<br />Rudolph Ruppert, in 1867, and built a brick house on it in 1868. Upon the completion of the
<br />house, they retired from farming, and lived there until Mr. Brick's death in 1882. In 1888, their
<br />son-in-law sold it to John C. Stover, a wholesale lumber dealer and lumberyard owner. In 1896,
<br />Mr. and Mrs. Stover demolished the brick house, and built the large Queen Anne style house that
<br />remains largely unaltered today. Mr. Stover died in the mid 1930s, and his son, Burton Stover,
<br />inherited the house. He rented the house out until 1939, when he sold it to First Federal Savings
<br />and Loan, which continued to use the house for rental income. In 1945, it was finally sold to be
<br />homeowner -occupied again. However, the new homeowner, Frank Carpenter, lived there only a
<br />year, before re -selling it to new homeowners, Vera C. and Ford Reaves. The Reaves lived there
<br />from 1945 until Mr Reaves' death. In 1971, or perhaps earlier, Mrs. Reaves remarried, and
<br />transferred the property into her married name, Vera C. Yeager. By this time, she was living in
<br />Ohio, and using the house as a rental. In 1991, Mrs. Yeager transferred ownership of the property
<br />to a trust administered by her daughter, Marilyn Proctor, and it was Mrs. Yeager and Mrs. Proctor
<br />who consented to landmark designation in 1998. Mrs. Yeager is now very frail, and is being cared
<br />for in an Ohio nursing home. The serious neglect of the property under the local property manager
<br />led to fairly intense action by Code Enforcement to compel maintenance and repair of the property
<br />while it could still be saved, and that led Mrs. Yeager and Mrs. Proctor to sell this property and the
<br />two houses on either side, which are also local landmarks, to the new owner, Bill Fewell, of B & B
<br />Better Builders.
<br />These three houses were determined, in 1998, to be worthy of local landmark designation
<br />because of (1) their architectural merit, the (2) integrity of their original construction (still largely.
<br />unaltered except for 127 Franklin Place) and proximity to each other, which makes coordinated
<br />conservation possible, and (3) their association with prominent lumber dealer John C. Stover (129
<br />Franklin Place), and with County Sheriff and pioneer, George V. Glover (127 Franklin Place).
<br />The corner house, 129 Franklin Place, is especially remarkable for architectural merit, with
<br />significant design motifs artistically repeated throughout the whole building. For instance, the
<br />square pattern in the porch shirting duplicates the square pattern in the. decorative molding at the
<br />top of the tower, and in the attic windows, and elsewhere around the building. Further character
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