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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 />Section 7 page 7 <br /> <br />557 Edgewater Drive. Whitcomb House, Prairie Style, 1920, Contributing <br />Whitcomb & Keller, builders <br />Second from left side of photo 03 <br />Garage, Contributing <br />Boat House, c. 1950. Non-contributing (east side of Edgewater Drive) <br />The two-story house features a low base and walls covered with stucco. The general massing is <br />square with a wide bay projecting forward on the south part of the facade. The house is covered <br />with a low-pitched hipped roof with wide-overhanging eaves covered with asphalt shingles. The <br />house has Prairie Style wood windows (9/1) with simple crown molding. <br /> <br />The front façade is dominated by two one-story projecting features. A one-story enclosed porch <br />with hipped roof covers the full width of the projecting two-story bay. The porch features wide <br />square corner columns and shaped openings filled with rows of single-lite windows. A porch <br />door is located in the north wall of the porch where a set of concrete steps lead to a wood entry <br />door recessed into the north side of the façade. The entry door features a full window with <br />multiple panes. A narrow port cochere supported by square columns is off the entry steps on the <br />north side of the house. It also features a low-pitched hipped roof. The second story features <br />corner pilasters on the projecting bay. Two pairs of Prairie Style windows are centered between <br />the pilasters. A Prairie Style window is centered in the second story wall recessed from the north <br />side of the bay (above the entry door below). <br /> <br />The house was constructed by Whitcomb & Keller for one of the partners of the firm, Leslie <br />Whitcomb and his family in 1920. Whitcomb and Frederick Keller formed a real estate <br />development and insurance partnership in 1892. They become one of the city’s leading <br />developers during the first half of the 20th century. Leslie Whitcomb spent a brief time in South <br />Dakota where he married Lizzie Fink and established a hardware business. In South Bend, <br />Whitcomb was elected Justice of the Peace in 1894 and general secretary for the local Young <br />Mens Christian Association. Lizzie Whitcomb was also active in the organization, as well as the <br />Westminster Presbyterian Church, and Chamber of Commerce.2 <br /> <br />553 Edgewater Drive. Bender House, Craftsman/Bungalow, 1920, Contributing <br />Whitcomb & Keller, builders <br />Left side of photo 04 <br />Garage, Contributing <br />The one-story, side-gabled house features a wainscot of random-course sandstone ashlars with <br />capstone. The walls are covered with wood shingles and the gables are covered with beaded <br />boards and rows of vertical trim boards. The roof has wide-overhanging eaves supported by <br />stylized carved brackets. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles. A brick chimney is in the <br />north wall of the house and a three-sided bay projects from the east half of the south wall of the <br />house. The bay has a row of three small wood windows and a shed roof. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />2 South Bend HPC Survey Card, 1985, rev. 1987