April 17, 2023 Historic Preservation Commission Meeting - Minutes

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION Staff Recommendation: It is recommended that the Historic Preservation Commission concur with staff that the property meets the criteria for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A and C. Staff requests that the Commission direct staff to submit the appropriate report of the public hearing, includinq public comments, to Mayor James Mueller for his concurrence, in compliance with Indiana's Certified Local Government regulations. The Certified Local Government Report on the Nomination of the St. Adalbert Church Complex to the National Register of Historic Places will then be forwarded to the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology for further review, followed by consideration of the nomination by the Indiana Historic Preservation Review Board. The following from the public spoke in_favor of the nomination: Gavin Moulton, 1542 Marigold Way, South Bend, IN: "Good evening. My name is Gavin Moulton and I'm a doctoral student in history at the University of Notre Dame researching religion, labor, and culture in the industrial Midwest. It is a tremendous honor to present the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Saint Adalbert Church Complex to the Historic Preservation Commission on behalf of Saint Adalbert Parish tonight. When I decided to pursue a PhD two years ago, South Bend's rich history of migration and unionization, and the city's extraordinary variety of religious art and architecture drew me as much as did the expertise of professors at Notre Dame. Before I visited campus's Golden Dome, I made sure to stop by the west side to see the equally impressive twin spires of Saint Adalbert Church. As I hope you will have a chance to experience, St. Adalbert's soaring towers and Gothic vaults leave a lasting impression on any visitor, but I was awestruck by John Mallin's 1941 Labor mural in the church's north transept. After two years of research, unpacking the mural, symbolism, and historic context, I remain enthralled. Each time I return to St Adalbert, time pauses, and I join with the coal miners, iron workers, and garment makers, Polish men and women workers alike, looking upward from a smoke belching factory in the foreground to a sorrowful message emblazoned on the sky. By the sweat of your brow, you shall eat bread reads the message, a Polish biblical verse resting on a burst of golden rays. The verse in the mural, Genesis 3:19, summarizes the Polish story in America. Like Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden, the Pols of South Bend worked by the sweat of their brow as they fled imperialist violence in their homeland. Clustered densely in cottages around their churches, Pols braved horrific working conditions in unregulated capitalist industry. They lived frugally, sowing gardens in their front yards and sending all family members out to work to support, but giving generously Pols raised the first building of Saint Adalbert, a Renaissance revival brick structure that provided religious, educational, and social functions for the community and that preserved Polish culture in a hostile society. As America closed its doors to southern and eastern European migrants in 1924, the Pols of St Adalbert proudly and boldly dedicated a church of grand proportions as a marker of their continuing presence and contribution to South Bend in 1926. The communal strength of the west side's Polish community, as evidenced by the new church, shocked South Bend and Indiana elites included the local Catholic Bishop who held prejudiced views about Eastern European migrants. St. Adalbert is a national cultural resource. It enriches the perspective of Notre Dame undergraduate students who visit to learn about immigrant Catholicism. Page 12