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557 EDGEWATER <br />HISTORICAL CONTEXT <br />Leslie Whitcomb and Fred Keller built this house in 1919 as part of their project to <br />development the Edgewater Place neighborhood. Mr. Whitcomb and his wife, Aletha, <br />purchased the house from the Whitcomb & Keller Corporation in 1919. Leslie <br />Whitcomb was a partner in real estate and insurance with Fred Keller since 1892. <br />Together they developed a large portion of South Bend, including Edgewater Place and <br />East Wayne Street. Mr. Whitcomb was elected Justice of the Peace and General <br />Secretary of the YMCA in 1894. He was also known for teaming up with Mr. Hammond <br />in real estate development and owned his own hardware and farm implement transfer <br />service. The Whitcomb's owned the house until 1943 when Aletha sold it to Rose <br />Zarembka. <br />Rose Szczdrowski was born in LaPorte in 1884 and married Casimir Zarembka in 1906. <br />Mr. Zarembka was a Polish immigrant who worked for the New York Central Rail Road <br />Pumping Station in Lydick. He died in 1941 at age 58, leaving Rose with two sons and <br />five daughters to rear. Mrs. Zarembka resided at this address until 1950 when she sold <br />the property to Roger and Mary Peters. Mr. Peters was a professor at Notre Dame, he <br />and his wife lived in this house for 22 years, selling it in 1972 to Louis and Ruby <br />Anderson. Louis was a lawyer; he and his wife owned this property until 1976 when it <br />was sold to Dale and Elaine Luebke. The Luebke's only owned the house for two years, <br />selling it to George Efta III and Carol Ann Mooney in 1978. Mr. Efta and Ms. Mooney <br />retained ownership of the property until 1989 when it was sold to Candace Flora, a <br />teacher for the South Bend Public School Corporation. Ms. Flora resided here for seven <br />years selling the house to the current owner, Fotina "Tina" Assimos. Ms. Assimos <br />originated the landmarking of this house. <br />ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION <br />The property at 557 Edgewater is located on the west side of Edgewater between Monroe <br />and Arch Streets in South Bend, Indiana. It is described as lot 17 and the northerly half <br />of lot 16 and 15x19 YZ feet easterly end of lot 45 Edgewater Place Addition to South <br />Bend, Indiana. <br />This is a two story Prairie style house with a square plan and red brick exterior chimney <br />with corbelled cap and projecting the flue. The foundation is concrete covered in stucco <br />and the walls are wood framed with stucco coating and engaged corner piers. The house <br />has a hipped roof with intersecting hips and broad flat soffitted overhangs with stucco <br />soffit. The front porch is closed in with screening, supported by stucco piers and has a <br />simple concrete entry stoop. The front door is single leaf glazed wood panel while the <br />windows are 1/1 wood; double-hung units with divided upper lights, simple jamb casings <br />and molded entablature. The house also has a car portico straddling the driveway with <br />4 <br />