April 2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

ADDITIONAL NATIONAL REGISTER DISTRICTS COLONIAL GARDENS This small commercial district in the River Park neighborhood is notable for its intact streetscape of yellow brick and terra cotta storefronts lining the in� and 3000 blocks of Mishawaka Avenue. Designed by South Bend ^ect W.W. Schneider, they have served as meeting places and retail SUa es for this community within a community since 1925. EAST WASHINGTON STREET The East Washington Street District includes many examples of Neo- Classical and Colonial Revival architecture, and vernacular buildings including: Sunnyside Presbyterian Church and school and residences dat- ing to between the 1880s and 1920s. The district is located along East Washington between Eddy and Hill Streets. HOWARD PARK The Howard Park District includes Howard Park an adjacent residential and commercial district, the Zion Evangelical Church and School, the recently reconstructed City - Beautiful Jefferson Street Bridge, and a Neo- Classical river walk balustrade. The WPA constructed the Parks Administration building in the 1930s- A modem parks budding, an ice nnk and the Vietnam War Memorial are also located in the district. In 1878, for- ward thinking city leaders envisioned this once swampy area on the Saint Joseph River as a perfect location for South Bend's earliest park. First known as City Park, the development of the site occurred over several decades. It was named Howard Park after City Councilman Timothy Howard, drafter of the ordinance for the park's creation LEEPER PARK First established as a pumping station for the South Bend Water Works, the area along a bend in the Saint Joseph River became Leeper Park in 1900. The early development of the park into a City - Beautiful location occurred ' I °en 1897 and the 1920s The park became an attraction for prome- and picnics with visits to its zoo, duck pond, and gardens. In 1911 to 912, George Kessler, a noted landscape architect, created a plan for Leeper Park to become the jewel of South Bend's park system. He organized the park's areas for various types of recreation and gardens and laid out improved circulation routes. Kessler's plan guided development of the park into the 1920s. Remnants of the late 1930s Works Progress Administration's impact upon Leeper Park can also be found in the Leeper Island stone retaining wall. SAINT CASIMIR PARISH Significant as a Polish working class enclave near South Bend's industrial behemoths, the Saint Casimir Parish district developed around close ties to the neighborhood Catholic churches of Saint Casimir and Saint Mary's Polish National Church. In 1914, a dispute over Church politics and the St. Casimir Parish pastor ended in a riot and the founding of Sault Mary's Polish National Church in 1915. In addition to the churches and small tav- erns, the neighborhood is filled with vernacular workers' cottages that date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. SINGER BROTHERS MANUFACTURING COMPANY With its proximity to inexpensive energy sources and highly prized walnut forests, South Bend's east race was chosen as the site of the Singer Cabinet Works factory in 1868. The brick factory buildings, once a bustling site of many industrious activities and an example of a post -Civil War factory site, are now pan of the Madison Center. SOUTH MICHIGAN STREET Part of the southern spur of downtown South Bend's commercial district, soup of two -story brick and terra cotta store fronts lines the 400 and docks of South Michigan Street, once the Michigan Road and the Dixie Highway. These storefronts were also near the streetcar lines and are within walking distance of Monroe Park and Edgewater Place.