02-10-14 Council Agenda & Packet

Home Browse Search

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Forrn 10 -900 OMB No. 10240018 South Bend City Cemetery St. Joseph, Indiana Name of Property County and State R. Weiss, Company C 1St U.S. Calvary, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor against the Apache in the Chirachua (or Chiricahua) Mountains, Arizona Territory was buried in 1869. Architecture (C) The architecture firm of Parker & Austin is responsible for the design of the sexton's cottage in 1900. The founder, Wilson B Parker was born in Massachusetts on July 21, 1867. He was educated at Morristown Academy and Peddle Institute, Hightstown, New Jersey, afterward taking a course in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston. In 1888, he began a three year employment at the office of McKim, Mead & White, the leading architects of New York City. Employed two years with the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company of New York, acquiring practical knowledge in decorative art. Established Parker & Austin in South Bend in 1892. South Bend and the Men Who Have Made It describes Parker as "a thorough master of his artistic profession" and the firm as "a leading position in the community as architects and artists of the highest order ". Commercial commissions included Epsworth Hospital and Training School and the new manufactory of the Singer Manufacturing Company. "In the designs for private residences and interior furnishings and decorations this firm has no superior in the west and they have achieved a justly earned popularity," as documented in South Bend and the Men Who Have Made It. Patrons of the residential commissions were Mr. J.B. Birdsell, Hon. A.L. Brick, and Mr. E. Louis Kuhns. South Bend was once replete with mature growth trees, particularly black walnut, which grew in great quantity near the banks of the St. Joseph River. While much of that natural resource was depleted by the industrial pursuits of the early settlers in the area, the St. Joseph River continued to be a source of the power that built and maintained this once thriving industrial boomtown. As such, there was potential for great fortunes, and there were a number of dynastic and powerful families that shaped the early growth of the city and its economy. Their subsequent monuments meant to demonstrate their stature in the community now make City Cemetery a sculpturally important and pleasing site. South Bend City Cemetery boasts wonderful and intricate stone work realized in monuments, memorial tributes, and mausoleum structures. Visible too, is a veritable roster of popular civic and fraternal organizations that historically flourished in South Bend. The Masons, Odd Fellows, Woodmen of the World, and many other groups and societies are symbolically represented throughout City Cemetery. Visitors also find the more subtle nineteenth century "vocabulary" of death and dying. The imagery of children's graves includes lambs and rumpled blankets, broken columns and draped urns suggest adult lives lost too young, fingers or hands pointing upward are directing the deceased toward heaven, and hands clasped are a symbol of farewell and of hopes to meet again in eternity. Landscape Architecture South Bend, Indiana was founded in 1831, located and named after the "south bend" in the St. Joseph River. Just north of the city was a portage used for the transport of goods and people from the St. Joseph River to the Kankakee River. The area has been the site of some flooding Section 8 page 19