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STAFF REPORT CONCERNING APPLICATION FOR A CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS Date: Application Number: Property Location: June 11, 2003 11 I1.1• 1344 East Wayne Street South, South Bend, IN Property Owner: Rita & Kevin Wilson Landmark or District Designation: East Wayne Street Local Historic District Rating: C-9 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE/HISTORIC CONTEXT This is a highly interesting house, built in a vernacular cross -gable style with Colonial Revival elements and a strong influence of the Picturesque and Romantic Movement. It is one of the few houses in the East Wayne Street district for which the architect is unknown (at least to us). Built in 1925, it was vacant for a year before Ruth and Anton Peterson bought it is 1927. Ruth was a 1918 graduate of the Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. She was a director of the County Nurses' Register, active in the Red Cross, affiliates with the Order of the Eastern Star, and the Order of Amaranth. Anton Peterson, born February 20, 1882, was president of Peterson Battery and Ignition Co., Inc., with offices at 321- 325 Lafayette. He was a member of St. Joe Lodge 45, F. & A.M., Avalon grotto 48, M.O.V.P.E.R., the Crusader Lodge 14, Knights of Pythias, and the Modern Woodmen of America. In 1942, Ruth Peterson, then a widow, sold the house to Viviane and Morton Keeger Jr. Seven years later the Keegers sold it to the Maud and Fred Brennan, who, in turn, sold two years later to Caroline and Albert Fehgenfeld, who sold the following year to Janet and Guy McMichael Jr. It was during this period of rapid transfer and re -transfer of the house from one owner to the next that the screened back porch with the shed roof was tacked onto the back, and the aluminum siding and attenuated ornamental (?) shutters were added. The McMichaels lived there fifteen years. Janet McMichael, born Janet Budd in 1938, was active in the community and neighborhood for many years. Guy McMichael was a partner of the law firm of Voor, Jackson, Grant, & McMichael, served as a deputy prosecutor from 1938 to 1942, and was a Notre Dame Law Professor for 40 years. In 1966 Kathleen and Sterling K. Stenerson purchased this house from the McMichaels, and sold it three years later to Judith and Jerome Kearns. Mr. Kearns was then vice president of the St. Joseph Bank and Trust Co. Ten years later, in 1976, Judith and Robert M. Johnstone purchased the house. We know little about them except that Mr. Johnstone was a salesman for White Farm Equipment. They lived here 16 years, until 1992, when they sold to Karon and Ernst Iseli, who sold three years later to the present owners, Rita and Kevin Wilson. APPLICATION ITEMS: 1. Build 8 -foot deep by 11 -foot wide addition to the back of the house, where the present 4 -foot by eight -foot back entry now is, for expanding the kitchen. Two alternative plans for this have been provided, one of which retains and continues the existing roofline, and one of which flattens out the slope of the roof above the proposed addition. 2. Remove existing aluminum siding and replace with vinyl siding on entire house.