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NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION STAFF REPORT • PROPERTY -- St. Casimir's Parish Historic District South Bend, Indiana OWNER -- Various — 461 resources roughly bounded by the properties on the east side of Arnold Street, Sample Street and the Con—Rail railroad tracks STANDARDS The nomination proposes placement of this district on the National Register of Historic Places based on Criterion A: Event. National Register Bulletin 15 — How to Applv the National Register Criteria for Evaluation provides that "Properties can be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places if they are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of history." It goes on to state "Criterion A recognizes properties associated with ... a pattern of events, repeated activities or historical trends .... The events or trends ... must clearly be important within the associated context...." RECOMMENDATION The Staff of the HPC recommends- in favor of the nomination of the St. Casimir's Parish Historic District roughly bounded by the properties on the east side of Arnold Street, Sample Street and the Con—Rail railroad tracks, • South Bend, Indiana to the National Register of Historic Places. The district meets Criterion A as representative of ethnocentric working—class neighborhoods in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. The historical context of this pattern combines the relationship of the factory workplace to the residential habitation of the worker and the settlement pattern of urban immigrants along with their associated cultural institutions, most notably the Church. As described in the Statement of Significance section of the nomination, this neighborhood began to develop around 1880 following the southwesterly growth of the Oliver Company, Studebaker, Singer and other the major factory employers of that era which clustered about the railway. From its beginnings, the Neighborhood was predominantly Polish Catholic and was first attached to St. Hedwig's Parish; the St. Casimir's Parish being established in 1899 as the second Polish Parish in the City. However, unrest over Church politics led to a riot in which the church was seized and sacked by parishioners in 1914. In parallel, if not related activities, construction commenced in 1915 on St. Mary's Polish National Catholic Church which was completed in 1921. The district is architecturally most significant for its continued integrity and viability having retained a large number of its original buildings with surprisingly little attrition. The neighborhood offers a vignette of turn of the century neighborhood life including the factory edge, corner and mid—block commercial buildings, the two churches noted above, a school building associated with St Casimir's, and several brick paved streets.