The Lost Downtown — the Oliver Hotel, the Opera House, the Colfax

1885 – 2012

The Oliver Hotel: The grandest building South Bend has lost stood downtown for 68 years. The Oliver family built the Oliver Hotel in 1899, and it opened on 20 December of that year to billing as the nicest hotel in Indiana: six stories, steel-framed with hollow tile arches, at a cost of $600,000. The Albert Pick company took over its management in 1938 and bought the property outright in 1942, commissioning new lobby murals for it. The Park Service's documentation of the Oliver family's building campaign states the end plainly: the hotel was demolished in 1967. The family's other downtown monument went the same way a decade later — the Oliver Opera House of 1885, demolished in 1978. Between them they mark the scale of the renewal-era downtown losses that the Government section of this history counts in families and blocks; this section counts them in buildings.

The delisted: The National Register keeps the names of what the city has lost even after the loss, in its removals. The Colfax Theater at 213 West Colfax was listed with the downtown batch on 5 June 1985, was demolished in November 1991, and was removed from the Register on 7 July 1993. The Morningside Club Residence at 413 West Colfax, listed the same day, was destroyed by fire on 18 December 1988 and removed on 24 January 1989. The Northern Indiana Gas and Electric Company Building at 221 North Michigan, listed in 1985, was removed on 9 October 2012. They stand in this record at the size of their evidence — a listing, a date, an end — because a history of the built city that printed only the survivals would be lying about the city.

Sources:

1. National Park Service additional documentation, Joseph D. Oliver House — the Oliver Opera House of 1885 demolished in 1978 and the first-class hotel of 1899 demolished in 1967, in the family's building record.
2. The Clio, "Oliver Hotel" — the opening of December 1899 and the $600,000 cost; Louis Grell studio record — the Albert Pick management of 1938 and purchase of 1942.
3. National Register of Historic Places listings in St. Joseph County, former listings — the Colfax Theater (demolished November 1991, removed 7 July 1993), the Morningside Club Residence (fire of 18 December 1988, removed 24 January 1989) and the Northern Indiana Gas and Electric Company Building (removed 9 October 2012).