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• • N" Form 16400a W" United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet E 13 Section number Page 0W AAWYSI Ha 1024m1/ East Bank Multiple Property Listing St. Joseph.County, Indiana Bend. Established in 1906 as the South Bend Machine and Tool Company by enterprizing twin brothers, Miles and John J. O'Brien, the factory produced high quality lathes in a variety of sizes, automatic gear cutting machinery and other apparatus. A handbook produced in 1907 by the Company, "How to Run a Lathe", appeared in vocational, trade and engineering schools in 137 countries. These respected East Bank. industries are recalled by buildings dating from 1870 to 1947 in the Singer Mfg./South Bend Lathe Co. Historic District, much of which has been sensitively adapted for modern use. The A. C. Staley Manufacturing Company had been located on the east race in the East Bank area since the latter part of the nineteenth century. A successful woolen mill which spun yarn and manufactured men's underwear, it occupied a site between the east race and the river in 1891, using power from a flume between the two watercourses. Several other industries shared the site, including a porcelain company and the Indiana Paper Company. Purchased by the Stephenson Brothers in 1907, the Staley Company became known as the Stephenson Underwear Mills. The company expanded in 1916, taking over the entire site south of E. Colfax Avenue by 1917. During World War I it prospered, fulfilling contracts for war garments, but by the 1920s it had converted much of its activities to jobbing and wholesaling. Later, the company experienced heavy debt, especially after the crash of 1929 and it did not survive the depression which followed. Today, a well -constructed concrete and brick building remains from the complex on Colfax Avenue. It is individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places. One of the homes in the East Washington Street Historic District (at 919 E. Washington) can be associated with this company, its owner,George Hewitt, was a former superintendent for the mill. Many other industrial activities had concentrated on the East Bank, particularly in the large area between the east race and the river. Most have long since vanished, with little historic fabric to mark their passing. Among these were the South Bend Woolen Company, (which once had an operation in the community), the Winkler Brothers Wagon and Carriage works and the South Bend Toy Manufacturing Company. Across from the Singer Manufacturing Company, was a paper mill, originally operated by Beach & Keedy, then E. S. Reynolds, and by 1907, the LaSalle Paper Company. According to a contemporary historian, the first paper manufactured in South Bend was produced at their factory on the east race. " Today, the building still survives, but it has been considerably changed. Paper has not been 3 1 Howard, p. 408.