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United States Department of the Interior <br />National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form <br />NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 <br />Edgewater Place Historic District Saint Joseph County, IN <br />Name of Property County and State <br />Sections 9-end page 32 <br />installed in the coming weeks and that twenty houses were to be built in 1919.29 Credit was <br />given <br /> <br />to the developers for protecting existing trees on the site, including altering the course of a <br />proposed road to save a giant sycamore tree “which has stood for perhaps a century past along <br />the river and at one time served as a landmark to navigators plying up and down the beautiful St. <br />Joe River in the early pioneer days of rivercraft.”30 Both Whitcomb and Keller built houses for <br />themselves in the development at 557 Edgewater (middle of photo 03), Whitcomb’s Prairie- <br />influenced home, and Keller’s Tudor Revival home designed by South Bend architect Ernest W. <br />Young at 815 Arch Street (left side of photo 03). A notice of the men receiving these lots for <br />consideration of $1.00 from the firm Whitcomb & Keller appeared in the South Bend Tribune on <br />November 20, 1919.31 The firm designed and built nearly all the houses in Edgewater Place <br />including several homes for employees of the firm. <br /> <br />The development featured ornamental street lighting and an entry arch at Arch Street. Arch <br />Street was named for Alex Arch, a soldier from South Bend who is credited with firing the first <br />shot for the United States in World War I.32 33At first there were discussions for a brick pier with <br />tablet to honor Arch at the entry, however, by October 1919, the developers announced that an <br />ornamental arch at Arch Street was nearing completion atop piers.34 It is assumed that these <br />became one and the same, however, neither of these features are extant. <br /> <br />Whitcomb & Keller placed deed restrictions on land use and development for lots in their <br />subdivision. This included a minimum cost for homes constructed in the district to provide the <br />most desirable residents and for quality construction. This is noted in one of their advertisements <br />in the South Bend Tribune in 1920: “The people now occupying homes in Edgewater Place are <br />just the kinds of folks you’d like to have for neighbors…that take pride in home ownership.”35 <br />The article goes on to list a number of homeowners in the development that included many who <br />worked for the Studebaker Corporation, a mere ten blocks west on Bronson Street. <br /> <br />South Bend’s 1932 property assessment created a category for homes that were built from <br />developers plans, without architectural supervision. The assessor’s office cites homes <br />constructed by Whitcomb & Keller as examples of this category of construction, or type three.36 <br />Only a few houses in the district were designed by trained architects; most in the Whitcomb & <br />Keller Edgewater Place plat are from the developer’s set of designs by their staff architects and <br />were built by Whitcomb & Keller.37 About fifty-six houses in the district are credited to the <br />builders. Newspaper advertisements by the firm during 1919 and 1920 include a number of <br /> <br />29 Ibid <br />30 “Trees and Shrubbery” South Bend Tribune 5 April 1919. Pg. 12, Col. 4 <br />31 Notice of property transfer, South Bend Tribune, 20 Nov 1919 <br />32 South Bend HPC Edgewater Place Local Historic District summary <br />33 “More Honors are Planned for Arch” South Bend Tribune 19 Sept 1919. Pg. 5 Col. 5 <br />34 “Complete Arch Entry to Edgewater Place” South Bend Tribune 17 Oct 1919. <br />35 “Edgewater Purchasers” South Bend Tribune 7 Nov 1920. Pg. 12. Col. 3 <br />36 South Bend HPC survey card for 549 Edgewater Place, 1985, rev. 1988 <br />37 South Bend Tribune Whitcomb & Keller ad, 18 July 1920