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NPI form 10. 0 ("Q OW AAWV+I NM 1024-001/ United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet; E 12 East Bank Multiple Property Listing Section number Page St. Joseph.County, Indiana southwest part of the city, west of the river, many East Bank operations continued to prosper along the east race. A few, whose structures remain as evidence of the industrial era in the East Bank area, are discussed here. When Leighton Pine, an agent for the East Coast -based Singer Manufacturing Company came to South Bend in 1868, to find a location for a new cabinet works for the company, he selected a site on the east race in the East Bank area. With ready labor, power and local hardwoods at hand, South Bend was perfect for such an operation. After some competition with Mishawaka, local entities attracted the company through free water power and a site purchased by local subscription. In its first year, the plant employed 168 men and produced $10,000 worth of cases and cabinets. Sturdy three story brick structures were built and by 1870 two dry kilns, two boilers and a steam engine were added. The complex at one point contained facilities for all of the activities from storage of lumber to assembly and packing of the finished product. • By 1891 there were 898 employees. In 1900 growth had been so energetic that the company saw it would soon outgrow the East Madison Street site and a new facility was constructed in southwest South Bend. In 1901, just before Singer closed its doors on the East Bank plant, the company employed 1500 workers to produce 5,000 sets of sewing machines per day. 31 Many of the Singer workers lived in the East Bank area, and continued to reside there after the plant moved. A few of these workers can be identified with extant buildings in the East Bank Multiple Property Listing. These include John Sommerer, who lived at 415 S. Parry Street, Charles -A. Buck and Charles McCormick (E. Colfax), Joseph Mossey and Christopher Weidman (E. Washington and N. St. Louis, respectively) and Henry Haslinger, a plant foreman after its relocation, who lived at 230 S. Frances Street. Following the removal of the Singer plant, several local manufacturing entities occupied the site on East Madison Street. Among these, is the South Bend Motor Car Works which once assembled fire vehicles. They manufactured the metal and woodwork, transmission, fenders, pumps and wheels, assembling them with motors shipped from Wisconsin. They survived at the site until 1919 when they were sold to Bendix. Another East Bank company, South Bend Lathe, would become an internationally known industry. It maintained at the East Madison facility from 1908 until 1965 when they relocated elsewhere in South • 30 Various sources quoted in Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory, Survey Form, 8/79; 5/84;8/87.