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NYt Form 104004 ("16) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OW Afpvvrl *% 1024-M1) 10 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet E 18 East Bank Multiple Property Listing Section number Page St. Joseph County, . Indiana particular from the 1880s until the dawn of the depression. This, in turn, provided opportunities for local architects and builders. For a town its size, South Bend has long enjoyed a tradition of excellence in architecture. Perhaps this was engendered through the influence of Notre Dame, where an association with architecture and the building arts dates to its earliest years. The work of many of the better known practitioners in South Bend can be found in the East Bank area and two of them are known to have resided within its boundaries. Charles A. Brehmer was one of the earliest professional architects to practice in South Bend and his home was once located in the uplands at the corner of South Bend and North Notre Dame Avenues. He is known for his designs of Victorian houses, such as the Maurice Egan house and for fire houses, being the designer of both of the fire houses located in the East Bank. He was born in Glencoe, Illinois and raised in Michigan. After graduation from the University of Notre Dame where he studied architecture and engineering, he worked as a draftsman for a time in Michigan, returning to South Bend to establish his own • practice in 1884. He died in 1909. Walter W. Schneider and Oscar Dirham were the designers of a distinctive home on East Jefferson Street in the Howard Park Historic District, as well as other important residences in South Bend and Mishawaka. Dirham was first an architect with a local lumber company, but -little is known of his education and training, He died in 1913. Schneider also designed a home at 1017 E. Jefferson, as well as churches in South Bend and elsewhere, in addition to the River Park Theatre and other buildings. He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and attended Vanderbilt University. Following graduation he worked under Richard Schmidt in Chicago, moving to South Bend in 1896 where he formed a partnership with Oscar Dirham. After 1914, he operated. his own firm where a number of other South Bend architects trained as young men. He died in 1957. The firm of Freyermuth & Maurer designed many institutional buildings in South Bend, including City Hall and the North Pumping Station. George Freyermuth was born in Philadelphia, but moved to South Bend as a small child. He learned architecture from his father who was a building contractor. In the late 1890s, he joined R. Vernon Maurer in partnership. Maurer was a native of South Bend who attended high school in the local community and art at the Chicago Art Institute, after which he worked as a draftsman in Chicago until 1895. His partnership with Freyermuth continued until 1934, when the latter was elected mayor of South Bend. Maurer's son joined him following his • partner's election and the firm continued as Maurer & Maurer. George Freyermuth served as mayor from 1935 to 1938, later relocating to