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115 South Lafayette <br />Historical Context <br />This property is located on the west side of South Lafayette Street between West <br />Washington and West Jefferson Streets, in South Bend, Indiana. It is described <br />as being lot 393, except 60 feet along west side, Original Plat, of South Bend. <br />Dr. Edwin R. Dean purchased lot 393 from John Ellsworth in 1900 for $6,500.00 <br />Dr. Dean hired the H.G. Christman Company in 1901 to construct a three story <br />office building. The "Dean Building" was completed later that year and housed <br />attorneys, physicians, real estate agents, life insurance agents and proprietary <br />medical companies. By 1903 a two story addition was added to the structure, <br />making the building a total of five stories tall. <br />Dr. Edwin R. Dean was born in Kentucky in 1865. At the age of 13 Edwin was <br />appointed deputy tax collector of Montgomery County, Kentucky, a position he <br />held for eight years. He received a bachelors degree in 1888 from Georgetown <br />College and earned his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in <br />Philadelphia in 1900. Dr. Dean moved to South bend in 1902 where he opened <br />the areas largest medical practice. His first wife, Emma Dunn, passed away in <br />1903, leaving three children. Dr. Dean remarried a few years later to Bessie <br />Stover. He continued to operate his medical practice until his death in 1917 at <br />age 52. Upon his death the Dean Building was inherited by his wife, Bessie, his <br />sons William and Henry and his daughter, Virginia Dean Jordan. <br />William S. Dean was born in 1907 in South Bend and married Eleanor Hatcher in <br />1931. William was the assistant vice president of the Associates Corp, of North <br />America, until his retirement in 1968. The Dean family continued to own and <br />operate the Dean Building until 1937 when they sold it to the Compton <br />Investment Company, which was operated by Lizzie Compton, Francis Compton <br />and Georgia Compton Walker. The Compton's retained ownership of this <br />structure for seven years, selling it in 1944 to Frank, Marie, Clinton and Opal <br />Ketchen. <br />1 <br />