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National Transportation Improvement Grants (?) for the historic area and at least for the streetscape — renewal historic transportation zone. 400s S. Michigan Street Closer to downtown and in downtown, several other great buildings that have significant historic ratings are located along the main gateway into the city. These buildings were also built in the same boom years at the beginning of the Roaring 1920s as those on the 500s block and employ similar materials (dark red brick and terra cotta) to create a distinguished neo-classical look. At the northwest corner of Monroe and Michigan stands Whitmer-McNease Music and Michiana News Stand at 439 S. Michigan. This 1922 building is in excellent condition for its age and in comparison to the others mentioned previously. Whitmer-McNease seems to have a strong business in the music instruments area. Parking along Monroe Street and Michigan Street as well as behind the building on Monroe provides this store with its customers. Retro signage is eye catching and appealing from a driver's or a stroller's perspective. Next to this successful store, another vacant building faces S. Michigan Street as it curves to the right and becomes St. Joseph Street and zips past the Century Center, the rest of downtown and out of South Bend. 425-429 S Michigan Street suffers from a lack of visibility, access and parking. A large tree lawn and sidewalk area make this a prime store front for a great restaurant with outdoor eating in the summer; yet the parking next door is not accessible to this storefront (even though its generally empty at night) and the curve of South Michigan Street away from the building deters customers from stopping and parking. The thick tree cover though lovely in summer buries the building in shade during the late afternoon, actually is perfect for an evening summer meal. Some small-scale lighting, even Christmas lights, would brighten the area. Again, the road way is a problem for who wants to eat or live or work next to a roaring traffic artery with only a view of the post office. 425-429 S. Michigan was built in 1923 for Eva Nicely, the owner of La Salle Paper, after she took out a mortgage for $175,000 in order to erect this structure; however, her trust in the building only lasted until 1926. It has a more subdued exterior, termed 20� century Functional, than found on the other buildings from the period. What it does not have in terra cotta detail, it gains in size as a three-story brick structure. The builder did enhance the exterior with decorative corbelling in a checker pattern and stone detailing at the cornice line. Broken into three bays, each has two pairings of 1/1 double hung windows to catch the afternoon sun on the second and third stories. These rooms could be used as office space or as apartments. New, dark brown aluminum siding with a vertical pattern has been added to the first story. The exterior looks as if repair work had been completed and the interior seems rather new and well kept. 423 S. Michigan also stands attached to this three-story building and is cloaked in metal siding that matches 425- 429. Both were occupied by Inwoods in the 1980s. Sears, Roebuck, & Co signed a twenty-year lease in 1928 from Wilber Warner to be located on S. Michigan Street. The Strand Theatre: 309 S. Michigan Street The Strand retains the charms of a prior era when speakeasies, talkies, and movies were just hitting the scene and starting a new rage among people of all ages. Movie houses offered new forms of entertainment for the American public and new places to go to in the city. They also brought the country together culturally with fictive pieces, newsworthy documentaries, and the glamour of the Hollywood movie stars. The Strand is perhaps one of four original 1920s theatre/movie house/entertainment spaces left in South Bend, the