Starring My Town
                                     
goes from

fur to football

in

South Bend,

Indiana

Yesterday…

 

. The land at the bend of the St. Joseph River first belonged to the Miami and Potawatomi of the Algonquin nation and to the fur trappers who set up trading posts along the river’s edge. The “St. Joe” as it came to be known, was the canoe route between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. By 1820 John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company sent their agents Pierre Navarro and Alexis Coquillard into what was called Big St. Joseph Station and soon their families came to take up residence. The town began to grow and, in 1835, it was incorporated as South Bend (they would do it again in 1865).


fur trappers

John Jacob Astor

Navarro's cabin

 

In  late August of 1838, the government decided to remove the remaining 859 Potawatomi (the Potawatomi of the Woods)  from Indiana and Michigan to Kansas 660 miles away and forcibly began to do so on September 4th of that year. Stress, fatigue and typhoid led to over 40 deaths on that journey, mostly children, giving it the name “Trail of Death”. Father Benjamin Pettit, the Jesuit missionary priest who accompanied them also died. Named a martyr of charity by his church, Father Pettit’s remains rest under the Log Chapel at the University of Notre Dame.  

                                                              


Artist's depiction of a Potawatomi village

The Log Chapel, University of Notre Dame

By the 1840s silk, not fur, was the new fashion rage and trapping gave way to industry in South Bend. An industrial center grew up around the two man-made canals (races) along the St. Joseph River. In 1852 Henry Studebaker set up a wagon shop that would become one of the largest  manufacturer of automobiles in America. As America moved west, more than half of them went there in Studebaker wagons. Henry’s five sons took it from there.  Singer, a name that made sewing machines famous, Birdsell Manufacturing and Oliver Chilled Plow Company also settled in South Bend. This industrial boom lasted until 1960 when manufacturing  declined and health care, education, smaller business enterprises and tourism took over.

                                  


The Studebaker Brothers

The Studebaker factory

A Studebaker carriage and..
..a school bus!

The 1908 Stude limosine

The 1927 Studebaker Dictator in white,a wedding car..
in black, think Bonnie and Clyde.

A Studebaker just made for the rough roads in Oz.

1938 truck

A museum piece..The 1935 Commander

The 1935 bus

The 1963 Lark Wagonaire

        

            Note: The last Studebaker to roll off an assembly line in the US was the 1964 Challenger. Then the company picked up its toys and moved to Canada.

 

Today….

 South Bend is the fourth largest city in Indiana and the St. Joseph County seat. The largest employer there is the University of Notre Dame with over 4,758 employees. The “Fighting Irish” are also the focus of the tourism industry and the College Football Hall of Fame moved there in 1995. The goal of South Bend today is to “build a 21st Century city”! But they also resolved to keep intact many of the “footprints” to their past…like these…

                               

The Studebaker mansion built in 1889 with 4 main levels, 40 rooms and 20 fireplaces. Now called Tippecanoe Place (it was built on the old camp grounds of Tippecanoe, chief of the Miami Indians) and filled with beautiful antiques, it is open for dining, tours and special events.  

 

 

these historic homes from other past titans of industry...

 


The Bartlett House built in 1850, the oldest
brick house in South Bend.

The Birdsell House built in 1884

"Copsaholm" a 38 room mansion built of native
Indiana fieldstone by J.D. Oliver in 1895

 

 and the old Palace! It is now the Morris Performing Arts Center, the cultural and social center for the city. The old Palace was built in 1922 as part of the Orpheum Circuit and, in 1940, was the site of a Hollywood premiere of “Knute Rockne – All-American” a tribute to the Notre Dame coach who died tragically in a plane crash. Today the Morris hosts the films of today and yesteryear as well as Broadway musicals and symphony performances.

 

 

South Bend is both a big city… a college town….
The Chase Tower, now a Holiday Inn, is the
highest building in town!

The Studebaker museum

The city-county building

St. Joseph County Courthouse

South Bend Regional Airport

Stanley Covaleski Stadium, home of the
Silverhawks minor league baseball team.

Ivy Tech State College

                                                                                             Indiana University South Bend
            The College Football Hall of Fame

 

 

and home to the “Fighting Irish” of Notre Dame!

 


University of Notre Dame.. Main Building

...at night

The UND Hesburgh Library Mural
lovingly tagged "Touchdown Jesus

UND in silhouette

Two famous movies were made in South Bend and they were both,  you guessed it, about football!

  


"Knute Rockne All-American " 1940
..Pat O'Brien plays the famous Notre Dame coach considered to be "the father of the forward pass".

"Rudy" 1993 with Sean Astin, here with Charles Dutton. The story of a boy who dreamed of playing football for Notre Dame and finally got his dream.

 

Meanwhile, back at the zoo…

there are lions...

and tigers ..

..and..."What are you doing in here?"

 

 Visit again, won’t you?