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CWAW%Wft United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 1. St. Casimir Parish Historic District St. Joseph County IN NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION The St. Casimir Parish Historic District. surrounded by railroads and present and former factories, lies in the heart of South Bend's traditionally industrial southwest side. A working-class residential area from its beginnings in the 1870s, the neighborhood has only a few distinctive buildings other than its two churches, but as a whole the area is remarkably intact and visually and architecturally cohesive. Most of the streets east of Harris (formerly Wilson within the district; the name changed in the early twentieth century) are still paved with brick (photo 1); there are none such west of Harris. Most of the western part of the district, originally more low-lying and swampy in spots, was platted later than the eastern part, the bulk in two large segments: the Gorsuch Addition around Pulaski and Kosciuszko in 1890, and in 1901 the Taylor Addition adjacent to the west around Jackson and Brookfield. Smaller additions were platted in the next few years. The area east of Harris --or more correctly, east of the alley west of Harris --had been completely subdivided by, 1896, about two-thirds of it in the 1870s. Some of the buildings constructed around the turn of the century and later in this part of the district replaced older dwellings from the 1870s and 80s. such as the tavern built in 1905 at 1201 Dunham (photo 2) that replaced an earlier house. The district is named for its parish church, St. Casimir. at the southwest corner of Webster and Dunham (photo 3). The present church was constructed in 1924-25 to replace the first (photo 4). still extant, completed in 1899 as a combination church and school on the northwest corner of Fisher and Webster. Altered somewhat (its towers were lopped off and false gables added), the Romanesque Revival building presently houses a Head Start program and space for community activities. Immediately to the north, the present St. Casimir's Church was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Wortherman and Steinbach. The imposing structure (photo 3) displays considerable Romanesque Revival influence but features a soaring Italian Renaissance dome -topped campanile at its northeast corner. bedecked with four large statues of angels. The church boasts a large rose window surrounded with glazed tile above its round -arched entrance portal roofed with curved tile. The rectory, built in 1901-1902. lies to the west at 1316 West Dunham (see photo 5). Of brick and relatively unadorned despite some obvious Queen Anne influence, the substantial dwelling has a steeply pitched hipped roof and a • 11