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r DHPA Grant Cycle 1995 9-28-94 PROPOSAL SUMMARY Project: St. Casimir National Register Historic District - Nomination DHPA Priority Area: Architectural/Historical Project Description: The proposed project will re -survey the area defined as the "St. Casimir Parish Potential Local Historic District" in the 1993 South Bend Summary Report of the Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Survey and perform additional research and documentation as required to meet the requirements of a nomination to the National Register of historic Places. The project will further include the preparation of the necessary forms for submission of the National Register nomination. The area to be included consists of approximately twenty square blocks in the city of South Bend. These blocks typically contain 30-40 lots and the area is essentially build out with a few vacant lots which have resulted from demolitions. It may also be necessary to include some portion of the adjacent historic Oliver Chilled Plow industrial production facilities which comprise one edge of the district. Comments: This late nineteenth century Polish working-class district was identified in the IHSS Survey presumably on the basis of the integrity of the community fabric in this neighborhood which is easily geographically recognized by its definitive boundaries. Although the aggregate building stock is surprisingly intact, the physical integrity of individual structures has been typically modified by minor alterations, especially synthetic sidings. The basis of the proposed National Register nomination is not architectural but focuses on Criteria "A" by the association of the neighborhood with the "Bloody Sunday, St. Casimir riot" which was an important event in the schism of the Polish Catholic Church from the Roman Catholic Church in America and on the ethnic heritage component of this criteria for evaluation. David B. Duvall, Director - Historic Preservation Commission page 4