October 1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

NPI (" conn la000a OUS Mv+nvef Na 1024-M 18 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet E 14 East Bank Multiple Property Listing Section number Page St. Joseph County, Indiana manufactured here for many years. Small industries also prospered in the East Bank during the industrial years. one -which survived to the present day, was the Lauber & Weiss Galvanized works, later the J. C. Lauber Company. Specializing in tin and other metal items, the company once employed 26 laborers in its facility on E. LaSalle Street.- Commercial treet: Commercial ventures also served the workers and -families that congregated in the East Bank. The neighborhoods which developed created a demand for local goods and services. The corner grocery, which prospered during these pre -mall days, was common in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. The McCormick Building on Colfax, for example, served as a home for various local merchants one of which was George Sommerer's grocery, a fixture at the site for many years. As previously mentioned, toward the end of the nineteenth century, • many of the large industries no longer used water power, preferring to generate electricity with coal-fired steam turbines. The west side industries had their electric power plants, but so did the East Bank. The site which is presently occupied by the Indiana & Michigan Electric Company buildings, between the east race and the river, on the north side of E. Colfax, had first been occupied by the South Bend Electric Company between 1891 and 1893,'according to Sanborn Insurance maps. When the I & M Electric Company built their new plant on the site in 1911, it was considered one of the most modern in the state. Dependence on electrical power had grown to the extent that the company took great pains to assure continued service for its customers (both industrial and residential) during construction. The stately buildings which remain date from the first two decades of this century. Although no longer used for power generation the complex attests to the great importance of reliable electrical power in the East Bank during the early twentieth century. sz Industries which were not located in the East Bank, also had an effect on the area. Most notable of these was the Studebaker enterprises, which was, along with the Oliver Chilled Plow Works, the largest industry in South Bend. The Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company had begun in 1852 with a small blacksmith shop. By the 1870s, they had grown to a nationally known carriage and wagon manufacturer. By 1911 the company was reorganized as the Studebaker Corporation and • 32 Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory forms, 1977/1979/1988; Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1885, 1891, 1893, 1899, 1817, 1917 updated to c. 1945.