The palimpsest: what the street names remember

1834–2025 · RENAMINGS AND SURVIVALS

Read the street signs in order and they give the whole file back: Michigan Street is the Michigan Road, named for the road it is. Lincolnway is the Lincoln Highway, named for the trail it carried. Howard's history preserves one renaming whole: "Water Street is now LaSalle Avenue." The renewal era subtracted as well as renamed: Pearl Avenue, the Vistula Road's downtown link, was removed in 1974, and Vistula Street — the Vistula Road in the city — was cut back to Monroe Street by 1978.

On the near west side, two streets carry the industrial city's record: Sample Street, the southern edge of the Oliver Chilled Plow Works' thirty-two acres between Chapin Street and Sample, crossed by the Sample Street bridge whose 1963 taking of the armory and naval training center ground is recorded in this build's Military file — the street's naming record was not reached, and Samuel C. Sample, the early South Bend lawyer and judge who fills pages of Howard's bench-and-bar chapter, is printed here as the standing candidate the record suggests but does not confirm. Chapin Street carries the name of the Chapin ground it runs from: Horatio Chapin, the banker who bought his forty-acre estate north of Navarre Street from his own bank in 1855 and built the Chapin House in 1857, whose divided estate became the Chapin Park Historic District — the district's National Register nomination is the naming record reached for the street.

The street's corridor history is the near-west side's: the Hungarian and Polish hall corridor, and then the Chapin Street Urban Renewal Project of 1968, which demolished the dense commercial corner at Chapin and Western and displaced 116 families, 104 of them families of color — the count kept in this build's Government, Communities and Black History sections and cross-referenced here. The street's latest names are the city's honors, and they moved: in December 2005 the city dedicated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive on the former Chapin Street, from Washington Street to Lincoln Way West — "Street fit for a King," the Tribune headlined it, with council members Karen White and Charlotte Pfeifer and Jeff Gibney of the South Bend Heritage Foundation in the dedication photograph. In January 2017 Mayor Pete Buttigieg named a new Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on a different course — the former St. Joseph Street from Western Avenue to LaSalle Avenue and a former portion of Michigan Street from LaSalle to Marion, part of the old northbound route of State Road 933 — and on 13 February 2017 the Common Council adopted Resolution 17-06, presented by Councilmember Karen White, supporting the renaming of the former boulevard to Charles Martin Sr. Boulevard, for the civil-rights leader whose Martin Luther King Jr. Center stands on it; the dedication gathering followed on 17 February 2017 at Lincolnway West, with the mayor. The King boulevard's present course is now the city's front door: the new City Hall opened at 215 South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on 13 October 2025, as this build's Government section records.

Sources:

1. Timothy Edward Howard, History of St. Joseph County (1907) — "Water Street is now LaSalle Avenue," from the bridge account; Samuel C. Sample in the bench-and-bar record.
2. This build's Trains section — the Grand Trunk's main line down Division Street, "later Western Avenue"; Indiana Transportation History (2019) for the October 1924 "Division street extended" designation.
3. National Register of Historic Places, Chapin Park Historic District nomination (1982) — Horatio Chapin, the 1855 forty-acre purchase, the 1857 Chapin House, and the estate's division by Edward and Mary Chapin.
4. This build's Businesses, Military, Government, Communities and Black History sections — the Oliver works' ground between Chapin and Sample, the Sample Street bridge record, the 1968 Chapin Street Urban Renewal Project and its 116 displaced families, 104 of them families of color.
5. South Bend Tribune — "Street fit for a King; City opens stretch named for civil rights leader" (December 2005), the dedication of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive on former Chapin Street; Landa Bagley, "Mayor Names New MLK Jr. Boulevard in South Bend" (16 January 2017), for the St. Joseph Street course.
6. South Bend Common Council minutes, 13 February 2017 — Resolution 17-06 supporting the renaming of the former Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd to Charles Martin Sr. Blvd, presented by Councilmember Karen White, adopted by acclamation with nine ayes; the 17 February 2017 dedication gathering at Lincolnway West with Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
7. The street record for the King names — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive on former Chapin Street, Washington Street to Lincoln Way West, 2005–2017; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard since 2017 on former St. Joseph Street (Western Avenue to LaSalle Avenue) and former Michigan Street (LaSalle to Marion), part of the former northbound route of State Road 933.